I got it.
You just deleted the disc drive.
Exactly.
Do it again.
You just pressed delete.
That's it.
Hey, everyone, so Microsoft just announced some really interesting news.
It's launching a brand new Xbox that has no disc drive, the Xbox One S All-Digital.
Whoa, I mean, a post-disc world.
What is that even gonna look like?
Well, here's what we know.
It looks a lot like the current Xbox One S, except for the optical drive.
It's got one terabyte of storage on board, it'll have some games pre-installed, Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, and Forza Horizon 3, and it'll hit stores on May 7th, and'll set you back about 250 bucks here in the US when it launches.
For context, this isn't exactly a shocker or a huge surprise.
But it definitely marks a shift in the gaming industry.
Industry.
Sony actually coonsidered launching the Playstation4 with added [UNKNOWN] but then decided against it after recognizing emerging markets and US military personnel may not have the same kinds of internet connections that most gamers enjoy.
On top of that, the XBOX One was orignally slated to launch with always on A connectivity requirement that was scrapped after a massive outcry from the gaming community.
It's been years though since the PS4 and the Xbox One launched and since then we've seen two things happen.
One, a rise in digital game sales and two, the advent of game streaming services.
One analyst even predicted in a 2018 report that game industry sales revenue would be 100% digital by the year 2022.
That Feels a little bit ambitious as an estimate, but I will admit that physical game media sales have been on the decline ever since we've been able to start buying games digitally.
And I don't think that's a trend that's going to change any time soon.
There's also those monthly game subscription services I mentioned.
Microsoft already offers Xbox Game Pass and Sony has Playstation Now, which are relatively new places for those companies to find profit compared to previous console generations.
Then you have other non native services like Google Stadia trying to muscle in to the space and on top of that you have platforms like Steam and the Epic Games store which are surely looking into their options.
So what does that mean for you person who likes video games?
One, if the sales of this thing go really well, you should probably expect that at least one iteration of hardware in next gen consoles will not have an optical drive.
In an exclusive with Wired, Executive Mark Sterne revealed Sony's next gen PlayStation will have a disk drive.
In backward compatibility with PS4.
But that doesn't mean they won't launch a secondary nonphysical disc hardware, that compliments the classic PS5 if you will.
That is a really nice thing if you want to save a couple of bucks on your console and put that toward the cost of the game.
Or maybe just don't like physical [UNKNOWN].
Both of these things are equally good.
But I definitely think that is going to be a long while before we see a tipping point in these disk list console's becoming the norm and also the standard for video gaming.
So maybe 10 or 15 years to use it started demanding better, more reasonably priced internet from your ISPs.
i 5g is a long way off especially in the way of widespread availability can consistency and connection.
So if we're gonna do this as a gaming community and switch over to disk list console's, we have to To have the infrastructure to support it.
Which means, we've got to start demanding better from our internet service providers.
Three, you should hold on to your game libraries if you feel really strongly about nostalgia, Value or anything else that makes you want to hold on to physical media.
If you feel really strongly about keeping physical copies of your entire Media Library, more power to you, I am not here to change your mind about that and honestly you do you but You should always, always keep in mind that these changes are occurring in the industry and make plans accordingly.
And four get your wallet ready because none of this news means that games are gonna get any cheaper.
AAA games are still really expensive to make, they are still gonna make physical media for the next generation of consoles because as we heard Playstation five or whatever it ends up being called is going to have an optical drive.
And on top of that, we have the potential loss of used games as an avenue to buy games, and then of course, we have subscription services, which keep coming out of your pocket every month.
So sorry to say, Hey, it's not gonna get any cheaper.
In the end this is all super interesting stuff and I'm really curious as to what Sony and Microsoft and maybe even Nintendo are gonna do in this kind of weird in between place, where we're not quite ready as It's a gaming society globally for diskless consoles as the norm or the default.
But there are enough people out there demanding them that they are making something like the Xbox One [UNKNOWN] all digital.
If you got that, just drop them down below.
[UNKNOWN] cnet.com for more details, that's all I got today, peace.
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