Xbox Won't Say Whether Its Next Console Has a Disc Drive — But Says It Isn't Done With Physical Games
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has declined to confirm whether the next generation of Xbox consoles will include a disc drive, leaving one of the biggest questions in gaming hardware unanswered.
In an interview with the BBC, published 26 August 2026, Sharma was asked directly about a disc drive in Project Helix — the codename for Xbox's next console line. She would not confirm or deny it. "There are stacks of games on everybody's shelves," she said, framing her focus as giving players choices in how they buy and own their games (GameSpot, 27 August 2026).
The question of whether consoles keep disc drives matters beyond nostalgia. Players who buy physical copies can trade, lend and resell their games; digital purchases stay locked to an account on a single platform's storefront. As more consoles ship without disc drives — Sony's PlayStation 5 Digital Edition among them — the option to buy a game on a disc is narrowing across the industry.
Sharma also confirmed that Project Helix is not Xbox's only hardware plan. She called it "just one of multiple console offerings" the company has in development, though she did not describe what the other devices might be (BBC, 26 August 2026).
On the topic of game ownership, Sharma discussed giving players digital versions of games they already own — a nod to the tension between players' physical libraries and an increasingly digital-first market (BBC, 26 August 2026).
Beyond the disc-drive question, Sharma pointed to broader pressures hitting the entire games hardware business. She said the industry needs to innovate on affordability and efficiency because of what she called a "crisis" in hardware and components — the physical parts that go into making consoles (GameSpot, 27 August 2026). Sharma did not name specific components or detail the nature of the crisis beyond that characterisation.
For players, the headline is simple: Xbox is building its next console, it is not ready to say whether you will need a disc drive, and it says it is not abandoning physical games. What "multiple console offerings" means in practice, and whether any of them include a slot for a disc, remains unconfirmed.
