RUMOR: Microsoft to Release an Entirely Digital Xbox One S

It’s widely believed that at this year’s E3 (or at least, in that time frame, since Sony is again stepping away from the conference), both Microsoft and Sony will be revealing their next-gen consoles, which many believe will be released sometime in 2020. So that means we’re probably a year and a half away from getting our hands on the Xbox Two and the P5 (which is really what they should be calling it). However, that doesn’t mean that Microsoft won’t try to wring as much out of the Xbox One while they can, and a report from Windows Central suggests that very soon, Microsoft will be releasing a brand-new Xbox console, one that omits the disk drive entirely and is completely digital.

Called the Xbox Maverick internally, it’s suggested that the real name will be the “Xbox One S All-Digital” edition, which is definitely a creative, cool name. It will function exactly like an Xbox One S (so that means upgraded graphics and memory), but there will be no disk drive, which means you’ll have to download everything you play online. It’s not a new idea by any stretch of the term, but it’s the first time we’ve seen it in a modern console.

It's likely that it’ll be cheaper than a normal Xbox One S, although how much cheaper it will be is questionable. That said, I very much doubt the goal of this is to actually sell more Xbox One S consoles before the next generation. If I had to guess, I’d say this looks like an attempt by Microsoft to “test the waters,” see how people react to a completely digital console before they announce the next Xbox, which will probably have the same lack of a disk drive. Considering, you know, physical sales of games has never been lower.

But until it’s actually released properly (which is supposed to be this upcoming May), we won’t know for sure.