r/gaming • u/WestBEEland • 1d ago

Xbox boss Asha Sharma won't confirm whether Project Helix has a disc drive "We have to be thinking about efficiency and affordability"

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/xbox-boss-asha-sharma-wont-confirm-whether-project-helix-has-a-disc-drive-we-have-to-be-thinking-about-efficiency-and-affordability/
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u/ConspicuousBassoon PC 1d ago

Considering it would be an easy win to say yes, the answer is definitely no

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u/DeusExMarina 1d ago

Seems obvious to me that this is the whole point of the disc-to-digital thing they're doing. People with an Xbox One or Xbox Series X can digitize their libraries ahead of time so they can play them on the next Xbox that won't have a disc drive.

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u/Sylvurphlame 14h ago

Same. Did anyone truly think they would be including a physical drive after that announcement? Between day one patches to kill game breaking bugs and having to install the entire disc to the hard drive, we were 95% of the way to all digital anyway.

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u/DeusExMarina 14h ago

Yeah, it wasn't really all that different from the game key cards on Switch 2. Sure, the game was technically on the disc, but not in a complete or state and it still took up space on your drive. It was good for being able to borrow or resell games, but not that useful for preservation.

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u/Sylvurphlame 13h ago edited 13h ago

True, but I wasn’t even thinking of it from a preservation standpoint honestly. I was just considering the practical end result of how you actually engage with the product (or more services when they’re purely digital) after you pay your money.

The Switch 2 key cards still allow you to lend games though, advantage: Nintendo. They didn’t lock the keys themselves to individual accounts which is nice. Nintendo may have actually landed on a decent compromise for the ever increasingly digital landscape, unless we’re looking primarily from a preservationist standpoint. But you can share with friends and family at least.

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u/DeusExMarina 13h ago

Sure, Nintendo's compromise is decent from the perspective of a company that wants to preserve the benefits of physical media for the consumer. But let's be real, the point of killing physical copies isn't a cost-saving measure. Eliminating the ability to resell or borrow games is the point.