UPDATE: Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter corroborates Jez Corden’s claims, stating Xbox is having trouble procuring optical disc drives.
The original article follows below.
There may be external circumstances that are compelling PlayStation to give up on game discs… and Xbox may also have to give up on them.
Jez Corden shared this claim in his report about Xbox’s disc-to-digital program:
Microsoft still hasn’t really put its mark on the debate, although sources tell me it’s less about the discs and more about the disc drives themselves; the entire supply chain for the components required to make optical disc drives is collapsing, with assembly lines pivoting away from the tech as users actively opt for digital-only.
Now, we could litigate if this is a chicken-and-egg situation, as publishers pushed consumers away from physical to digital purchases themselves. But we will say Sony specifically doesn’t have to give up on discs.
The 4K standard UHD Blu-Ray format flopped nearly as soon as it was launched. In spite of that, Sony kept making physical copies of their games, and offered Blu-Ray for their publishers.
If Sony wanted to, they could still make another home media format, for home video and video games. We reported on another company trying to introduce their own UHD successor. But for now, it’s unclear what the optical disc’s future will be.
