The next Xbox may drop the disc drive, but players seem ready for disc‑to‑digital — if it's even real

Photo of physical discs Rye, Witcher 3, Left 4 Dead, Madden 25, and The Walking Dead.

The next Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, is surrounded by questions right now. We have some idea of how the console-PC hybrid will work, but confirmed details are scarce. One question is how the next Xbox will handle physical games.

There's a good chance that the next Xbox will not have a disc drive, though that has not been officially confirmed. If that is the case, Microsoft would need to find a way to make discs from previous consoles playable on the next Xbox.