Xbox One: New Drive less model coming soon?

Is Microsoft about to release a new Xbox One model minus an optical Disk Drive?

Rumours floating around the wacky internet seem to be hinting at this possibility but is it a good idea? On some levels yes, I think it is but what about the potential drawbacks.

Thanks to the outrage Microsoft caused when they first discussed the Xbox One and it now defunct trade and transfer policy Microsoft were forced to pull their idea to actually support the trading program by allowing gamers to trade games directly from their consoles. I can appreciate retail outlets being unhappy with this but us gamers would have benefited as would the developers and publishers who would have been able to regain some of their investments. Instead of that we get the situation where retailers take all that lovely resale money away from the creators. Well done internet!

Back on topic….

Yes so this Drive less Xbox One console should in theory be cheaper to produce, less parts to go wrong and maybe even reduce that considerable footprint. The major downside is the removal of any resale value from games you purchase. I for one have been pretty heavily stung with some games like Destiny where I pretty quickly tired of the game but as I purchased it digitally I have no way to either sell it on or trade it against another game leaving me £25 down going by the trade prices 3 months after Destiny released.

Add this to the big song and dance MS have created by adding Xbox 360 compatibility and you have a mighty big reason not to go the purely digital download route. Unless of course they make all the disk games you own free to download again revisit the digital trade policy of course. Now do I expect them to do either? No. BUT

Digital downloads are clearly the way the industry is going it’s what both the publishers and platform holders want. This way they can eliminate the trade scheme almost overnight it would be a devastating blow for retail stores who see the game trade as a large source of revenue. Publishers would love to see this implemented as the costs to them would be lowered and the profits increased.

I’m not forgetting those of us who still enjoy the physical disks and cases sitting on our shelves especially those special editions that always come out when Halo releases and I’ve got them all. Going into a game store and picking up a game or standing in line for a midnight release is all part of being a gamer and whilst I download 95% of my Xbox One games I still have a couple of special editions sitting there next to the big black box of doom.

So who prefers digital to physical and why?

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