'Xbox, Now's Your Chance' - Fans Debate Whether Microsoft Should 'Take Advantage' Of Physical Games

They look at the same figures that Sony looked at. The amount of people that buy physical is so low (especially on xbox). I dont think they keep physical as option beyond this generation.

It is also such an easy way to cut a few bucks off the new consoles steep price. If they are concerned about getting the system as cheap as possible the disc drive is such a logical choice to go.

I liked collecting discs but I understood that I was a weirdo compared to how 90% of gamers buy games. We were lucky it lasted this long.

There's a good in depth article over on true achievements about how they will/could implement physical to digital ownership with games going forward and it sounds very good not a headache at all.
By what the article says anyway.

Reports are coming in from various sources that Helix will not have a disc drive.

Of course these are just reports at this time, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Helix is digital only, particularly as it leans into the PC arena.

Brilliant idea, but too little too late at this point. If Xbox had been primarily minting discs with the full game on disc the majority of the time up until right this very moment, then yes this would be a killer PR win. Sadly, Xbox was already faring the worst by far in this regard and they’re unlikely to about-face at this time.

@Balaam_ At least physical Xbox gamers will bring there collection over with them to next gen unlike playstation!
No matter what you are constantly negative about Xbox.

Would it matter if helix had a disc drive if game publishers don't put out a disc version?

@FraserG

That's why I highlighted that such a scenario is only being reported and not confirmed at this stage.

As a predominantly a PC gamer I look at Helix and the probability of it leaning more toward PC than console and think, yes, physical media very likely won't be a thing. At best an add on drive.

It's a bitter pill to swallow, but this is the way its going for consoles.

Funnily enough unlike a lot of PC gamers I still use optical drives so I can burn any new music CDs I buy to my PCs harddrive, but outside of that it has no use.

If they do get rid....I will be playing alot less games next gen....I rent alot of games, I would have to end mg long membership since the 360 days on boomerang rentals

The proportion of people buying physical games on Xbox is probably around the same as on PlayStation.

The proportion of people playing physical games on Xbox is probably far, far lower than on PlayStation.

I mean, this is nothing but wishful thinking (mine included), I think we all expected Xbox to be the first digital-only platform as they’re much better positioned to do so and Sony only beat them to it.

But remember Sony is one of the makers and creator of Blu-Ray discs, if they’re abandoning their own market that means the cost for Xbox to have a drive and keep producing discs next-gen just went up, and seeing how Xbox is currently all about cost-cutting physical games are truly over for both platforms.

I can see them potentially teaming up with someone to offer a proprietary optional disc drive but I’m not even sure why they would do this outside of backward compatibility. They have been pulling away from physical media for the entirety of this generation to the point where some of their own first party games have physical editions for PS5 and not Series. As much as people here might love a massive f*&k you to Sony it makes zero business sense and would just drive up the cost of the console even more than it’s already going to be.

The fact of the matter is if PS6 isn’t physical, then in all likelihood game disks die with it. Publishers aren’t going to waste resources producing them for a console with a much smaller user base, many of which opt for Gamepass over buying games anyway.

Time to change with the times. Just keep an d system

MS would retain me as a customer for the next generation if they backpedaled from the all-digital future and kept physical gaming alive.

Granted, they’ve done almost everything they could to KILL physical gaming this generation, but anyone can turn back from the abyss if they realize in time.

This is a lovely fantasy. PC gaming has been digital for a very long time already, and now Sony is following suit. What game companies are going to spend the money to make physical disc JUST for Xbox, a console that will likely be badly outsole by the PS6? The goodwill of the fans doesn't mean NEARLY as much as people (the fans themselves mostly) think. Everyone is complaining, but at the end of the day, the vast majority of people will just accept it and move on, just like they did with movies and music.

Before I say anything on this topic, let me get two things out of the way first: A. I doubt Microsoft is ever going to return to physical games since they're probably gonna make Project Helix digital-only and B. I personally don't own any physical games, so I don't have as much stock in this whole debate.

All that being said, I think it would be a smart move business-wise to keep physical games on Xbox because, even though no one currently buys physical Xbox games, the idea is that Microsoft could take some of PlayStation's user base away from them by keeping physical media around.

So yes right now, only like 5-9% of games on Xbox are sold physically, but maybe after 2028, 10-15% could be sold physically depending on how many people jump ship.

I went 100% digital as soon as I could, on both PC and Xbox 360. It just doesn't make sense holding on to all that physical media....If I had kept all of those NES, Snes, Genesis, N64, PA and Xbox Games...it would take up an entire room.

But here's the thing, I grew up fast and no longer had the 'need' to surround myself with video games, action figures and all of that childish nonsense. So I sold it and went digital. The serveral times I've moved since then, all I had to do was put a console in a box. Simple. And now I have digital versions of those games and guess what? They take up ZERO space.

On the flip side, I knew some weird guy that still had all of his childish possessions in a room on display like a doll collection. Kicker is, he lost it all in a fire. I also met a guy who kept it all in his basement and lost it all to a flood.

And as far as I'm aware, I still own every single digital purchase I've even made.

@themightyant "With Game Pass Xbox has already moved most users away from physical games"

Intresting, so with Sony only realising one AAA First Party current gen exclusive a year for years now (though they are managing 2 this year) , I think it's safe to also say With PS Premium PlayStation has already moved most users away from physical games.

It's clearly one or the other, either it's subscriptions that have moved people away from both consoles or the younger generation just don't care about boxed games in the digital age.

It makes about as much sense as the backwards compatibility program. An awesome gesture that'll give them some brownie points from the community, but it won't make line go up.

Business wise, if it brought in enough new users, maybe.

@themightyant
"With Game Pass Xbox has already moved most users away from physical games."

While that will be true to a certain extent, it's worth mentioning that a lot of Xbox owners buy digital because it can be so much cheaper (via 3rd party) than physical.

We all know they won’t keep a disc drive.

But right now they can get some free and easy PR by talking about their back compatibility etc. really promote it for next gen - as it’s miles better than Sonys.

I would rather they focus on xbox and 360 bc instead. If they are going to kill access to older libraries physically, then there should be digital access. Newer games will come with decades of digital access. Which is enough for most regular people.

Right now Sony doesn’t seem to be doing anything to make a less painful transition to all digital. If they don’t do anything and Xbox does the disc to digital program, that alone will be a huge win for MS IMO.

I assume that Helix won't have a disc reader, but an external disc drive would solve the problem of the additional cost. I think that the disc to digital feature is more fascinating. If I understood correctly, you need an Xbox One or Series X console to read the disc in order to attach the licence to your Xbox account and, after that, you will be able to play that game on Xbox One, Series X, Series S, Helix and PC (PC supported by Play Anywhere titles only) without the disc and using the same account. If you or someone else tries to run the disc with another profile, the licence transfers to that account. It's much cleverer than what I expected.

Yeah let's axe a bunch of studios in an effort to balance the books only to throw it all away chasing a niche market .... that makes total sense 🙄

@PROPS I'm the same in that I'm not into collectibles and all that but what is with the attitude?! I don't see why you should be dismissing something as 'childish nonsense' just because you feel it is something you grew out of. Horribly sneering and supercilious attitude. Quite childish, ironically.