The video game industry, particularly the fates of PlayStation and Xbox, will never be the same, as we’ll soon be entering into an era of no physical disc releases for PlayStation games. And, without allowing the dust to settle amid the crater that this nuke has created, Xbox is allegedly ditching discs, too, with its next-gen Project Helix console rumored to not contain a disc drive.
It’s a tremendously sad day for physical media, especially following the harrowing news that PlayStation yoinked nearly 600 movies that users had already ‘owned,’ and the degree to which actions such as these will affect the industry and the choices consumers have in the future is unknown. But that’s not all, unfortunately, with Xbox supposedly doubling down on the death of physical media further.
As per The Verge, Xbox is reportedly testing a “disc-to-digital feature” that would allow users to insert a disc and create a digital copy, if true, though it seems much more shady than that: “This will require a Microsoft account on an Xbox console and will grant a digital entitlement for physical games,” Tom Warren explains.
Now, there’s merit in this concept due to users not being left with no way to play their disc-based games, yet it’s disappointing to hear that there may already be plans in place to not only deny future game discs but also eradicate existing physical media, as well, once games are copied digitally and rendered useless thereafter (beyond physical collections players hold onto with sentimental value, at least). Assuming this is a legitimate feature that Xbox users could look forward to, it would seemingly allow users to then transfer their Xbox Series X/S games to Xbox’s Project Helix, which is rumored to lack a disc drive of its own and force users to add their physical games to said digital collections before they can access them on the next-gen hardware.
For the most part, fans on Reddit are responding how you might expect them to. User Wazzit is dubbing this “disc-to-digital feature” as a “Cyberpunk Soulkiller for physical media,” while user TheRealTofuey fears that “the age of affordable used games is going to come to an end as we will never see these games physically printed again.”
Not everyone is against going completely discless, though, with some Xbox users openly welcoming this “disc-to-digital feature.” As user ienjoymen states: “If they’re going to get rid of the disc drive, then something like this would be the next best thing. In fact, I’ve wanted something like this for years now.”
In a perfect scenario, users would be able to create a digital collection of games from their catalog of game discs, all without discs and physical video game media becoming obsolete in the process. But whether fans like it or not, the games landscape is shifting drastically for PlayStation and Xbox.