A new ‘‘digital native’’-intended model of the Xbox One won’t play discs, but, writes Keza MacDonald, is cheaper as a result.
Microsoft has announced a new model of its Xbox One console, a digital-only version that will not be able to play discs and costs less than its siblings.
The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition is functionally and visually identical to the existing Xbox One S console, apart from the absence of a disc drive.
It's aimed at "digital natives'', according to Microsoft's Jeff Gattis - primarily teens who grew up without the discs and cartridges that older games relied upon.
It is out in the United States and United Kingdom, and costs $US249 ($NZ373) in the US and £199 in the UK, significantly cheaper than the other Xbox One models.
It will come with Minecraft, Forza Horizon 3 and Sea of Thieves pre-installed on its 1TB hard drive, and a discounted subscription to Xbox Game Pass, which offers a library of more than 100 games for a monthly fee.
The disc-less model is not intended to replace disc-based Xbox Ones, Gattis insists, despite a huge market shift towards subscription services and downloadable games in the past few years.
"We're not looking to push customers towards digital; it's about meeting the needs of customers that are digital natives that prefer digital-based media,'' he says.
"I'm not able to talk about future generations [of Xbox consoles]: for now this is a choice that buyers can make, and the market can take things where it wants to take it.''
The Xbox One S Digital-Only Edition is only the second video game console to rely entirely on game downloads instead of discs or cartridges: the first was Sony's portable PSP Go, released in 2009.
Microsoft has been working on a next-generation Xbox console for some years now, and is widely expected to announce it at next month's E3 video game expo.
Microsoft was unable to confirm a released date or price for the new console in New Zealand other than to say "other regions would follow [the US and UK], probably with a month''.
- Guardian News and Media
