UPDATE | Digital Foundry corroborates Windows Central's report about the supply chain for disc based media falling apart. It's “proving problematic” for Microsoft to buy optical drives. Source:

I just want an external drive option. Even if it supports third party blu ray drives to install games or convert them to digital would be fantastic. I don’t need it built in and certainly don’t need it to run my games.

Phil Spencer said this in a 2024 interview, did people forget?

@Logmey92 this is why I believe Xbox wont confirm if Helix will have a drive yet in the event they cant get any or very few

Consoles without disc support are just a waste of money, I see a major gaming crash happening in 2028, people won't pay full price for rental, only fanboys will be left on next gen consoles.

Uhh they're still selling current gen hardware with optical drives? So are PlayStation... They're both currently selling optical media. This seems like bullshit. "We can't source them" - "You ARE sourcing them".

@Logmey92 This has been a known issue for both Sony and MS. There aren’t choices for buying optical drives. They essentially buy from the same place. And as the lone seller of optical drives for the consoles, the company can pretty much charge them whatever they want. And it isn’t cheap.

What about SD cards?

@Logmey92 @JezCorden Just how you can get vinal records produced and auto parts for cars made in the 60’s there are small and medium size factories/machine shops that MS can contract out of o produce discs. Hell contract Verbatim. Keep that operation running. 🤷‍♂️

So wait? Sony going full digital makes them evil, but MS doing the same has an excuse? Interesting lol

Bullshit excuse to go all digital and digital foundry pushimg digital propaganda

But all the Xbots told me that Xbox is the future of physical games

Well then make it unproblematic again. People act like factories and manufacturing chains dont turn in a dime to chase the hot new fad, it wouldn't be difficult to find somebody to make optical drives with a significant enough contract.

There should be a way to update older consoles to use it as a dummy drive.

They better figure it out.