We have an interesting new rumor about Xbox Series X and S consoles that seemingly just came up in casual conversation.
This happened in this weekend’s episode of the XboxEra podcast. Joining frequent source Shpeshal Nick Baker, Sikamikanico, and Jesse, was special guest Tom Warren, writer for The Verge. You have no doubt heard these names invariably as Tom and Shpeshal Nick are frequent sources for news and rumors, whom we have featured here for many months.
Tom and some other Xbox podcasters guested on each other’s shows to discuss Microsoft’s finalized acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. However, in the course of talking about some other news items on this podcast, this came up:
“Shpeshal Nick: Did you not hear about the disc drive add-on for Xbox?
Tom Warren: No?
Shpeshal Nick: Huh. Cuz I had heard that they were doing a disc drive add-on.
Tom Warren: I mean they should. Cuz if they don’t, there’s going to be backlash there, so…”
This is a clear reference to Microsoft’s mid-cycle plans to upgrade the Xbox Series consoles, as far as we know from documents that accidentally leaked from the company.
As we had reported nearly a month ago, those plans indicated one new SKU of the Xbox Series S, and two new SKUs of the Xbox Series X. None of these new SKUs and models had any optical drives on them.
The language in the document seemed to be overly enthusiastic about getting consumers to embrace an all-digital future. We do know, based on consumer sales data, that gamers have been leaning towards more digital purchases than physical games, but the idea of ditching physical games completely has continued to be incredibly unpopular.
And so, it is also worth pointing out, that Xbox head Phil Spencer released a statement after the leaks, pointing out to the public that many of those plans have changed. Phil declined to talk about what they had specifically changed, stating that they would make real reveals of their plans when they were actually ready to execute them.
As always, we cannot confirm whether Nick’s rumor is true. But it would definitely make sense if Xbox leadership chose to make these upcoming Xbox consoles upgradeable with optical disc drives. That would be a definite answer to Sony making their newer digital PlayStation 5 SKU upgradeable with an optical drive themselves.
Given that many of the other details in the leaked documents could put Microsoft’s refreshes ahead of Sony’s, that could suddenly flip the script to making these consoles more desirable as well. Microsoft would only have to add in something gamers couldn’t resist, like three years Game Pass bundled with a console, so that they could immediately also get Call of Duty when the new consoles release starting next year.
