One of the biggest things we learned when Microsoft fought the FTC about acquiring Activision Blizzard King last year was that the former at one point was planning to launch a disc-less Xbox Series X in the second half of 2024. Add the fact that Microsoft shut down many studios responsible for brining games to physical retail earlier this year and it was somewhat understandable that many feared the company was going all-digital. Fortunately, there's no need to get worried yet.
Stephen Totilo had the pleasure of talking with Phil Spencer - the head of Microsoft gaming -during the DICE Awards last weekend, and was told Xbox isn't planning to leave physical media behind in the near future. While most purchases are digital these days, Spencer says their strategy "does not hinge on people moving all-digital, and getting rid of physical, that's not a strategic thing for us."
Totilo also took the opportunity to ask about potentially releasing a new discless Xbox Series in the future, and even if Spencer's response was fairly vague, it definitely makes it sound like the new Xbox Series X and/or mid-gen upgrade won't have a disc-drive:
We ship games physically and digitally, and we're really just following what the customers are doing. And I think our job in running Xbox is to deliver on the things that a majority of the customers want. And right now, a majority of our customers are buying games digitally (...) Gaming consoles themselves have kind of become the last consumer electronic device that has a drive, and this is a real issue, just in terms of the number of manufacturers that are actually building drives and the cost associated with those. And when you think about cogs that we're going to go put in a console—and as you have fewer suppliers and fewer buyers—the cost of the drive does have an impact."
Quite reasonable - even if we've seen several examples of why an all-digital future can screw us over the last few years. What would have to change for you to abandon physical media completely?