Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is working hard and doing everything she can to win people back onto the site after a poor run for the platform. There's no doubt more good stuff in the works, and one of Sharma's ongoing projects could be a system that bundles digital copies of games with their physical versions.
Your physical Xbox games may one day be digital
The latest on a potential disk-to-digital future comes from Windows Central. Reportedly codenamed Positron, the first details were shared by sources familiar with Xbox and have been confirmed via the latest Xbox Insider builds. But, as noted in the original report, any suggestion that Xbox is headed for a future where buying a physical game also gets you some kind of digital copy should be taken with a big pinch of salt, for now.
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Right now, this is seemingly just what the Positron appears to be from the outside looking in, and it's probably in its early stages of development if it exists, and so it's still there under a codename that, to the layman, has no connection to what the feature will actually do.
Windows Central's Jez Corden notes that if the project is what it seems, it could mean buying a physical copy of an Xbox game also means you can play that game via the cloud or via Xbox Play Anywhere. A potentially appealing alternative to those who still like to own physical copies of games, as we head towards a world that seems set to leave them behind.
Gaming's mostly digital future is already here
PlayStation's latest financial report revealed that only 15 percent of their recent game sales were physical. At Nintendo, physical copies of their first-party games now cost more than the digital versions. The company's own way of showing that it would prefer its players to buy the digital versions of its games, but it will continue to cater to physical players if they are willing to pay extra.
It seems likely that other studios, notably PlayStation and Xbox, will follow in Nintendo's footsteps. If Positron is real and Xbox has plans for a disc-to-digital program, it could pull the same move as Nintendo and charge extra for the physical versions. If you're going to get a physical version with a digital copy, it would be very easy for Xbox to justify charging more than buying a digital copy all by itself.
It could also be another sign that the current generation of consoles will be the last to come with a disc drive as standard. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X have digital-only editions, while the PS5 Pro doesn't have a version compatible with physical media – you'll need to buy the disc drive separately if you want one. It's looking more and more likely that Project Helix – Xbox's next-gen console – and the PS6 will be digital-only, and a disc-to-digital system will be how Xbox users get their physical games to the new console.
- Stamp
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Microsoft
- Original release date
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November 10, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$499 USD
- Operating system
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Proprietary (Windows based)
- Processor
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Custom AMD 8-core Zen 2 3.8 GHz
- Resolution
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720p – 4K UHD
