Will the Xbox Helix Have a Disc Drive?

After PlayStation announced that it will end <a href="https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-disc-production-<a href="https://comicvibe.com/silo-season-3s-twisty-ending-explained/” title=”'Silo' Season 3's twisty ending, explained”>ending-in-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles/?ref=hackernoon.com” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>physical disc production in 2028, many have taken that to mean that the PlayStation 6 will no longer have a disc drive. It’s a good assumption to make, however, it’s still an assumption. We know next to nothing about the PS6. Signs point to it not having a built-in disc, but it’s all just rumors at this point. What’s interesting to me is that Xbox has remained silent about its disc production.

You would think that if Xbox was ending disc production as well, they would’ve said something already. Alternatively, if they weren’t, you would think they would’ve immediately jumped to make that clear and to capitalize on PlayStation’s public fiasco. Yet, Xbox and Xbox CEO Asha Sharma have decided to remain strangely coy about the whole thing.

Sharma was interviewed by the BBC; this is an excerpt from that interview.

But she would not reveal whether Xbox’s next-generation console – currently codenamed Project Helix – will have a disc drive at all.

“This next generation, we have to be thinking about efficiency and affordability alongside performance,” she added.

Within this non-answer, we can find a real one. And that real answer is no, the Xbox Helix seemingly won’t have a built-in disc drive.

I understand that you don’t want to reveal too many secrets about your upcoming console. But when you have the opportunity to gain a ton of goodwill, probably more than the entire history of your company, and to dunk on your main competitor at the same time, you’re going to take it.

So, I think Xbox fans should just be prepared for the inevitable announcement that the company will also be stopping disc production. It seems it’s just a matter of time. However, here’s my absolute pipedream.

The Pipedream

My pipedream is that Xbox saw the amount of backlash that PlayStation was receiving and decided to backtrack on an all-digital future. Of course, I’m just a writer. I have no idea how hard it would be to reverse the decision to stop disc production. I also have no idea how hard it would be to change the console so that it includes a built-in disc drive. That’s why it’s called a pipedream, folks.

I don’t know – maybe I just want to believe that this really isn’t the end of discs. Because if both Xbox and PlayStation are done with physical media, I can see DVDs and Blu-Rays eventually going down the same path.

It’s not all doom-and-gloom yet, though; there is one thing that both Xbox and PlayStation can do to somewhat salvage this.

The Realistic Option

Realistically, what both companies will do is give consumers the option to buy an add-on disc drive. There’s already a rumor circulating the internet that the PS6 will have a detachable disc drive, and it’s important to note that this rumor is a year old – before PlayStation officially announced the end of disc production.

This makes the most sense to me – they want an all-digital future, but they also know that most people still have a physical library (whether that’s a library of games, DVDs, Blu-Rays, or an array of all three). They don’t want people to skip the PS6 because it won’t have a built-in disc drive, so this is their alternative.

I’m going to assume that Xbox will have something similar, even though they’re staying tight-lipped about everything.

I think this option is the best outcome we can hope for. In a perfect world, we would be getting a built-in disc driver on both consoles, and both companies would continue to support and produce physical media. It’s pretty obvious that we don’t live in a perfect world.

The Verdict

I’m going to bet that the Xbox Helix won’t have a built-in disc drive, and it will instead have a detachable add-on disc drive that customers can purchase at an additional cost. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.

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