Microsoft is working on cheaper Disc-Less Xbox
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sverek
Any info on specs?
And for this device would be cool to have game cache exportable to USB storage. Something like Steam does.
Not fun to re-download 200GB of games.
Loobyluggs
Is that really disc-less? It just sounds like 'tray-less' rather than no disc...
xrodney
They mean without blue-ray disk.
BD was only reason I did purchased XBOne last time.
Embra
This seems like a big mistake to me.
Almost halving the multi-media value.
XP-200
Interesting, i like the bit about making your retai copies into digital, i would have no issue with that as a feature now, hell i am gettting really lazy now that even changing a disc from 8 feet away is a chore.
But this will no doubt be just another model along with the normal 4k optical drive versions, and hey more choice is always good, and even moreso for us really lazy gamers. lol
Ahmad Bilal
I think it is high time that they replaced the whole DVD/CD/BluRay/etc disk thing with USB Drives. Those AAA games with huge disk requirements, would be faster to install and play. And the USB's in my opinion are long lasting and easier to maintain. For those who really need those disks players should have an option to attach one (so as to enable using old disk already in the possession).
Redemption80
At first i also read it as just not having a disc tray, but if you can convert optical to digital then it must mean removing the BD drive.
It could be an ideal option for many people though. I know alot of people who game, but every one of them stream everything they watch and listen to so have no use for a BD drive, nevermind a UHD one.
I don't have a console at the moment (really want a X1X though) so don't know how plug and play things are these days with retail games, but even on my 350mb line i can see how you could get impatient waiting on games.
Loobyluggs
Just went through the actual article and did some more research: there is no evidence this is something Microsoft will do. Too many 'unnamed sources'.
Am I calling this 'BS', not really, I think there is every indication this will happen "To the xbox one s" as that's the low end/entry model.
I think what might have happened is the people buying the entry model, were just doing it for UHD blueray playback, and not using it for XBOX LIVE subscription $$$. This perhaps, has made them rethink their business model.
Very hard for a company that doesn't manufacture their own products to create a working loss-leader. Just saying it like it is: just because you have one of the cheapest UHD playback devices on the market, does not not necessarily mean people will give you more money on top for any other trinkets you want to dangle on front of their eyes.
Sorry.
rm082e
I never use the BD drive on my PS4. I only buy games digitally, and I would use a stand alone BD player if I were watching BD movies regularly. For me, this is the type of SKU that would be appealing. I would love to see Sony do something similar with the Pro.
Silva
People with low or no internet connection must be in joy.
And even for people with internet connection it means hours of download for a game.
Not to say in some countries ISPs are bringing back download caps again!
This isn't a fun hobby anymore...
mbk1969
Even cheaper would be the model without CPU.
schmidtbag
Well, it's not like the other variations aren't still being sold. Pretty much the point of this "flavor" is for people who never bought discs in the first place (which is a pretty hefty % of current-gen gamers). I could totally see the appeal for some people to have a smaller and cheaper system that lacks a feature some people never use.
But anyway, that's not to diminish your point - even though my connection is fast enough for my needs (25Mbps down) I'd really like it if games would focus more on compressing data. Not lossy compression, obviously. We have plenty of CPU power but even SSDs are still sometimes a bottleneck.
Redemption80
Silva, I don't think this would be a mandatory change to the console, but instead a cheaper and quieter version.
I do agree that game sizes these days are abit crazy, especially on the PC where it's pretty much all digital.
I have been out of gaming for a while, and on a recent visit from my brother he was talking about how he played GTAV on the XO and wondered how it looked on the PC. It's not even that new and i had to delete lots of stuff to get 80gb free. Years ago i remember having my entire Steam library installed all the time.
Even demos are huge, think the Forza 4 one was nearly 30gb. I remember having my entire Steam library installed at one point...
rl66
Yes and no... in here there is zero ( yes 0 ) shop selling physical media, i mean game or movie for around 90000 citizens in where i live.
Even if you buy the drive with the console (PS or XB) most people doesn't use it and download what they need.
In this case it would be a nice idea, but carefull about the price, XBox one S are already below 175 Euro...
Redemption80
Anyone here game on either console?
Curious to how long (on a decent variety of games) it takes from shoving the disc in to actuallty playing the game. Are there always Day1 patches and are these a few gb or are we into double figures with that too?
rl66
I have read that there will be 2 new XBox and PS, the complete one and the light one without optical, both companies seem to work in that way.
TieSKey
The thing is, an optical disk printed (yeah, printed/stamped) from a master copy cost a few cents to produce. A usb drive would be a lot more costly.
But hey, it would still be like $3 out of a $60 game so they could perfectly do it, they probably wont xD
schmidtbag
I don't game on either console, but it's a very common trend for most games to have day 1 (or even day 0, for pre-orderers) patches. To my understanding, the game still has to basically be "installed" to the internal storage, which I personally find stupid because once you wait for all the data to copy and then wait another X amount of hours for all the updates to finish, what's the point of having a disc drive anymore? I think it is exactly this why MS realized "we should just get rid of it".
I miss the days of PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox, where games were actually DONE when you bought them (and didn't have MTs).
sammarbella
Same here.
Xbox One S was a very good deal as...
...the cheapest 4K BD player.(with Atmos, Dolby Vision and HDR support).
As gaming console? Halo, Gears and forza series, that's all. The rest is multiplatform.
Redemption80
I've always considered these release day patches to be more to do with pre release piracy than the game not being done, and it's actually a deliberate decision to go gold and withhold data.
I do agree that if i need to install all or even some of the game to storage and then download an install a patch that it's starting to make the disc drive less relevant. I don't think the pre-owned market is as large as it used be either, at work or among others it's not something i heard mentioned anymore.
I do miss the days of a console being plug and play though, if i had 2 hours to game on a console 15 years ago i would get 2 hours.
If i do go ahead and get an X1X i would probably lose at least 30mins installing and updating everytime i put on a new game, and if i have alot of games i will then have to juggle storage like i do on the PC.
There are also settings to mess about in X1X games that will no doubt eat into gaming time, but i don't consider that a negative.
