New Xbox's physical disc hopes dealt bitter blow, Project Helix supply chain 'collapses'

Microsoft is teasing fans over the future of physical media, sending more mixed messages than a honeymoon couple.

The future of physical game media hangs in the balance, as Sony confirmed that its next-generation PlayStation (pencilled in for a 2027-28 release) will be an all-digital console, moving away from disc drives.

Despite backlash, threats of blackouts, and pledges of allegiance-swapping to Xbox, Sony doubled down on its digitalisation, joining the Steam Machine.

That left Microsoft and Xbox as the last-chance haven for physical game media fans, hoping that the upcoming Project Helix will come with a disc tray.

Those hopes were boosted this week as Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced a new programme that bolsters backwards compatibility to download any physical games to be played offline, even if you remove the disc - in essence, the Disc-to-Digital programme means you can insert the new Gears of War: E-Day disc to your Xbox Series X, then pick up your ROG Ally a few hours later and continue where you left off.

Promising signs for the future of physical media and a big slap in the face of PlayStation.

Yet that might not translate to Project Helix.

Project Helix may not have a disc tray after all amid supply chain shortages

There's no doubt in anyone's mind that Xbox would love to have a disc tray in its next-gen consoles, if only to capitalise on any market that PlayStation isn't controlling.

Yet with greatly increasing prices for RAM drives resulting in console price hikes, adding a disc tray might actually be too costly.

Especially now, as a report from Windows Central claims that the disc tray supply chain has collapsed.

"Sources tell me it’s less about the discs and more about the disc drives themselves; the entire supply chain for the components required to make optical disc drives is collapsing, with assembly lines pivoting away from the tech as users actively opt for digital-only," the report reads.

It suggests that prices will continue to soar for Project Helix, and, unfortunately, the disc tray will be one of the first cuts to make.

Asha Sharma's sheepish response spoke volumes

Asha Sharma alluded to this yesterday, speaking to the BBC at Gamescom.

"I know players love physical media, and I know there are a lot of benefits in digital media, and I want to make sure people have a choice," she said.

"This next generation, we have to be thinking about efficiency and affordability alongside performance. All of the industry needs to start to innovate on affordability and efficiency. That is something that we have not had to do [previously].

"But with the crisis that's currently happening in hardware and components, it is absolutely something all of us need to be thinking about and innovating on and giving people more choice in terms of how they play their console and how they purchase their console."

Previously, Sharma's predecessor, Phil Spencer, was all-in on physical media.

A previous report suggested that Spencer wanted to ensure all Xbox games were playable on all Xbox consoles.

"Microsoft was actually very much going to continue disc support. Not because they value retail disc sales, but because they wanted to ensure that all your Xbox games were still playable on new Xboxes," the report read.

Hopefully, Sharma will agree with Spencer and steer Xbox to a physical future, and be the pioneering team for game ownership and backwards-compatible games with nostalgia dopamine