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Mid-gen Xbox roadmap hardware leak. Series S|X refreshes (digital Series X refresh at $499), controller with haptics and quieter buttons at $69.99.
(www.resetera.com)
Archive link: http://archive.today/B2RBv
Things can change but this is the current planned roadmap for Xbox mid-gen refresh hardware as part of a whoopsie from the FTC documents with files attached.
The update appears to be an all digital design
The all digital design would certainly prevent me from buying an updated model, which is unfortunate since I do appreciate the backwards compatibility.
It's a cynical move to get all game purchases done through their storefront and eliminate game reselling, and it will lock out a lot of price-conscious consumers who need to wait for a good sale, or buy used games.
On top of that, it's a huge blow towards game preservation, since the logical next step would be to stop producing physical games. Even other publishers might think twice before producing a physical game if only a third of the base can even use disks.
Often people bring up that games can ship incomplete and need updates; but even a non-updated game is still more playable than a digital one when the servers aren't maintained, and there's no reason to remove the disk drive. You can still play digital games on a console with a disk drive.
All in all, this is a pretty disappointing update for me.
Do any recent games have their full data on the disc anymore? I figured they had become too big, and that the disc merely serves as a licence to download it online anyway.
My understanding is that most games come with the full game data on the disk, though it's a little more of a gamble if some will be left as a download on the Switch carts since they charge by cart size if I recall correctly.
Having said that, it would still be the unpatched game data; but that's still more playable than a digital copy when the servers are no longer maintained.
It's also worth noting people with bad internet speeds can prefer the disks since copying 50-150GB is a lot faster than downloading it from the internet for them.
That’s a welcome surprise, actually. Perhaps I should be less cynical.