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When Sony announced that it would be dropping all support for physical discs from January 2028 onwards, it raised one key question: would its competitors be doing the same?
At this point it seems highly unlikely that the PS6 will ship with a disc drive, but what about Project Helix, the next-gen Xbox? Surely there's an open goal for the Team in Green here.
But reports quickly put an end to that line of thought, with sources telling Windows Central that Project Helix would also skip support for physical software.
However, the truth may not be so clear-cut. According to a different report from The Verge, Microsoft "hasn't fully finalised whether Project Helix will ship with a built-in disc drive". This detail seems to have gone under the radar, so it's a good job our pals at Pure Xbox pointed it out.
The insinuation here is that Microsoft and Xbox are, understandably, a little wary of fully committing to an all-digital console.
These companies aren't stupid; they'll have seen the absolutely massive backlash that Sony's been met with over the last few days, and so it only makes sense to potentially reevaluate their plans.
As alluded, it would be an undeniable win for Xbox if it were to come out and make promises regarding support for physical media.
But it's important to note that just because Project Helix might have a disc drive, that doesn't mean Xbox will continue producing actual discs for its new games. The drive could just be a way to offer backwards compatibility for those with last-gen discs.
Do you think there's any chance of Xbox doing the opposite of PlayStation? Wonder what next-gen even looks like in the comments section below.