Non-Scarlett, disc-less X1 coming in 2019

Rollins

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Sep 11, 2013
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Microsoft’s Building a Disc-Less Xbox One for Release in 2019





In the wake of the news that Sony will not be attending E3 next year, Microsoft’s hardware plans for 2019 will likely be a huge win for the brand and for gamers. The company is planning to release an updated console next year, but this device will not be in the Scarlett family,according to people familiar with the company’s plans.

The Scarlett devices are Microsoft’s next-gen consoles and are not expected until 2020 but in 2019, the company is planning to release a disc-less console. And if this is making you nervous because you have a large collection of physical discs for your current Xbox, Microsoft has you covered.

In addition to the new console, there will be a ‘disc-to-digital’ program that, as the name states, turns your physical games into digital downloads. The idea is that you can take your disc to a participating retailer (like the Microsoft store) and trade in your disc for a digital download.

The goal with the new console is to lower the price point for the hardware. Currently, it costs about $299 to buy into the Xbox One family of devices, Microsoft is looking to lower that price by possibly as much as $100; the new console price point is expected to be $200 or less.

If you like this kind of information, this content was uncovered while writing my upcoming book about Surface called Beneath a Surface (pre-order), which contains this information, along with the story of how Microsoft built its billion-dollar hardware brand.

In addition, the company also has a revised Xbox One S SKU that is targeted for later in the year that focuses solely on cost reduction but does feature a disc-drive for those who still prefer the traditional way to buy your games. Microsoft is moving forward very carefully with this product as it knows that a sizeable portion of its users do prefer to buy physical games and not download them.

As for Scarlett, Microsoft is still trying to decide if that console will include a disc drive but should be making the final decision here shortly.

Under Phil Spencer, Microsoft is investing heavily in its Xbox brand and announced the acquisition of a couple of new gaming studios over the weekend. When you pair this new hardware with the upcoming streaming service the company is developing, the road ahead for Xbox fans is incredibly bright.

With this new Xbox One S ‘slim’, and I don’t know what it’s retail name will be yet, the company is working on finding new ways to lower the cost of entry into the Xbox family without sacrificing the core gaming experience. Don’t be surprised if the company trims up other aspects of the console to help save a few pennies, although I don’t expect storage to be on the chopping block at this time.

As for when the console will become available? I had initially heard in the spring of 2019 was the target as this device is well on its path to production. As for when Microsoft will greenlight the product for retail distribution, that’s still to be determined and even though they could still cancel the device at this time, I do expect it to become available sometime next year.



https://www.thurrott.com/xbox/192184...lease-in-2019#
 
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$199 + GP + Live in some sort of bundle (I’m speculating) and all your current physical games become digital for free?

That could sway a lot of casuals. Maybe.
 
Fine with this. Choice is good just make sure we have it.
 
"Physical games won't go away soon (but trends say they will)."

Bullsh*t.


I'm not interested, but it's a nice option for the all-digital crowd.
 
Retail is already dying. Do people really see Gamestop still around in 5 years?

There will still be a physical option around for awhile yet, since many people don't have access to great internet. There will still be people who need to buy physical copies mail order just because their download speeds are too slow.
 
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Retail is already dying. Do people really see Gamestop still around in 5 years?

There will still be a physical option around for awhile yet, since many people don't have access to great internet. There will still be people who need to buy physical copies mail order just because their download speeds are too slow.

Some people just prefer physical. Also, pricing/cost issues. Physical is cheaper than digital.

I agree about Gamestop being in trouble.
 
Physical is cheaper than digital.

I don't know if that is true anymore. It used to be, but digital sales get better and physical sales got worse. The only physical copies I bought in recent years were from the old Amazon prime deal which is now mostly gone. When it was $47 with release day delivery, that was great. Now you maybe get a $10 credit on something else?

You have to hunt around a little, but I've found most digital games on sale for the same price as the leaked Black Friday doorbusters. I haven't seen one leaked ad that had games at any price that I wouldn't expect to match easily digitally. I can't remember the last time I saw a good physical game sale.

You can also find deals where you can buy Xbox or PS money for a couple bucks off. I just bought $35 in Xbox money for $25.
 
The physical to digital conversion is the most exciting piece to come of this. I go all digital these days for convenience. The physical to digital conversion option might get me to buy physical once in awhile. Would’ve taken the physical option with Divison and Destiny which are still the two riskiest and worst full price purchases I made this gen. Also have a backlog of 360 games that I’d love to convert to get rid of the clutter. Nice thing about buying physical now is the games can be converted to digital if I decide to keep them.

In a weird way, this could bring back some physical for me. I can grab a Black Friday physical game special and trade it for the physical version if I like it.
 
I just like that I will be able to trade my discs for digital! Love that!
 
I find digital sales to be much cheaper too. If I wanted a cheap copy of a game i would have to browse second hand sites etc.

Physical to digital download is a great idea.
 
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I don't know if that is true anymore. It used to be, but digital sales get better and physical sales got worse. The only physical copies I bought in recent years were from the old Amazon prime deal which is now mostly gone. When it was $47 with release day delivery, that was great. Now you maybe get a $10 credit on something else?

You have to hunt around a little, but I've found most digital games on sale for the same price as the leaked Black Friday doorbusters. I haven't seen one leaked ad that had games at any price that I wouldn't expect to match easily digitally. I can't remember the last time I saw a good physical game sale.

You can also find deals where you can buy Xbox or PS money for a couple bucks off. I just bought $35 in Xbox money for $25.

It's been my experience. There are some exceptions, but when I can turn around and sell a $60 game for $40 or $30, that's hard to beat with digital. I'll keep an eye out for specials, though. I admit I don't "hunt" for bargains very often.
 
I find digital sales to be much cheaper too. If I wanted a cheap copy of a game i would have to browse second hand sites etc.

Physical to digital download is a great idea.
Great idea that Microsoft literally had at the start of the Xbox One, but then everyone and their mother's complained about it killing the used games industry so they scrapped it.

Gamers. Not even once.
 
It's been my experience. There are some exceptions, but when I can turn around and sell a $60 game for $40 or $30, that's hard to beat with digital. I'll keep an eye out for specials, though. I admit I don't "hunt" for bargains very often.

That works for the gamer who needs to have every title at launch and will play it for a few weeks and move on. I think gaming itself is sort of moving away from that. Not that SP games are dying, but the traditional 10-20 hour AAA game isn't what it used to be. More games seem to be deeper dive types.

I find by the time I have time for a game, it is cheaper on digital. I haven't touched many of the big fall releases but I'm sure next week I will get BO4 and hopefully even RDR2 for $40 (not sure on RDR).
 
That works for the gamer who needs to have every title at launch and will play it for a few weeks and move on. I think gaming itself is sort of moving away from that. Not that SP games are dying, but the traditional 10-20 hour AAA game isn't what it used to be. More games seem to be deeper dive types.

I find by the time I have time for a game, it is cheaper on digital. I haven't touched many of the big fall releases but I'm sure next week I will get BO4 and hopefully even RDR2 for $40 (not sure on RDR).

There have been a lot of games I'm willing to pay $60 for, at least knowing I can recoup half that if I don't like the game or don't have time for it. I'd probably buy fewer games at release, if I knew I couldn't recoup any of the cost.

Anyhow, physical isn't going away. That's all that matters to me. You like all digital, you go all digital.
 
There have been a lot of games I'm willing to pay $60 for, at least knowing I can recoup half that if I don't like the game or don't have time for it. I'd probably buy fewer games at release, if I knew I couldn't recoup any of the cost.

Anyhow, physical isn't going away. That's all that matters to me. You like all digital, you go all digital.

I'm guessing if you just went off when you actually played games, you'd spend about the same going digital. You do have to hunt around a little. I found a deal on Fifa 19 about a month ago for $35.99 digitally. That's for one of the better selling games out there. Doesn't happen with every game, but I don't think any retail has had the game any cheaper than that. NHL was $40 too. Every year the sales get a little better. Plus, I still browse the Gamestop and Best Buy ads and honestly I can't remember the last time I saw anything even close to a deal. Reading the Best Buy ad used to be a sort of Sunday ritual for me, but now I rarely bother. Gamestop I don't even open anymore.

I only spend $60 on the multiplayer games I'm going to play a ton (like BF V).

What's funny is people want to "own" the game, but the only way to recoup the costs is by selling it back :)

What's also weird is when you buy a disk, you get it home and pop it in and you have to install it and download a usually big day 1 patch. When you go digital, the game is just ready to go. BF V launched Wednesday night at 11pm and I could have been playing right away.
 
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that is not true unless you are talking about used games.


That's what I've found. I'm not really into bargain hunting, so maybe if I did that more, I'd feel differently, but I don't, so I don't.

I figure that, currently, I save myself about $100/yr from buying physical, because of the ability to resell. That's not a huge amount of money, but it's worth saving.

Anyhow, we're ultimately talking a few bucks. Not a big deal either way. But as of right now, physical is working best for me. I do buy things digitally when I see them on sale.
 
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I’ve been all digital since the beginning of the generation. Between bing, game share, and Game Pass, I have four times as many games than on Xbox and 360 combined at a fraction of the cost. It has been amazing. I’m never going back to the wallet gouging physical disc space unless I’m forced kicking and screaming.
 
Its very true.
Preorders are cheaper at some places and come black friday the physical disks will be cheaper in most cases then most digital sales.

I don't know if it is a given, and the good deals are all "while quantities last". Plus you have to get up at zero-dark-30 to get them. :)

The ads I've seen so far have been underwhelming. BO4 at Target is $45 "while supplies last". Xbox digital is $47.99.

For PS4 I just got God of War for $21.99. I'm not even sure of all Xbox sales are up yet.

I'm not trying to argue, just getting people to think about it. Now, obviously hardware bundles and big ticket items are big, but game sales? There's nothing that would get me out of bed on Friday.

For a long time, digital prices were just terrible. They used to sell games for full price that were $30 on sale. Now though? Take a deeper look. Digital is a lot more competitive than in the past.
 
I always buy a physical copy if possible.

I can't sell a digital download on Kijjiji (well, bundled game codes I can and have, actually)

I fully understand why game companies would want to go all digital and kill the second hand market though. But I'll be buying the discs and the console with the disc drive until I can't and at that point I might have to reconsider if I'll play on console anymore or just go strictly PC.
 
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