this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2026
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58
Project Helix, the next XBOX console, is not expected to feature a disc drive (news.instant-gaming.com)
submitted 4 hours ago by sanitation@lemmy.today to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] justsomeguy@lemmy.world 6 points 1 hour ago

Nobody would mind at this stage if we had a shred of trust left. We're so deep in enshitification these days that every change is expected to come with deeply negative consequences.

If the new Xbox came with a big joystick I'd expect to have to shove it up my ass for age verification. Whatever they'll cook up it'll somehow fuck us and we'll sure as hell pay a subscription for it.

[–] grahamja@reddthat.com 3 points 1 hour ago

As someome in the military, the console used to be the perfect device to recieve new media while you were deployed somewhere with no internet. Video games, movies, and albums used to all come on dicscs a console could read and play on the spot. The internet has created an environment where companies no longer ship a finished product on the disc, and relying on a world where all consumers have high speed internet. It has also pushed individuals that wont have internet for months at a time towards piracy. This also hurts research scientists / students out in places with poor internet service. I fully support companies that send their finished product out on some sort of physical medium that can operate as intended without a software update over the internet. Anything else is just a license key and should be clearly marked as such.

[–] MushuChupacabra@piefed.world 2 points 1 hour ago

No problem.

The gaming industry doesn't have a monopoly on the concept of entertainment, and I can spend my entertainment dollars elsewhere.

You will sell nothing, and be happy.

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Can we just get a piece of legislation that requires unlimited lifetime access to digital purchases?

[–] PhAzE@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

This. Make licenses unrevevocable and guaranteed to be accessible, and transferable (second hand market options).

[–] usernameunnecessary@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Even we did:

  1. You lose access anyway once your unrepairable console dies especially if the next gen is out
  2. Lifetime = console maker lifetime. What happens when a console maker is bankrupt?
[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 10 points 3 hours ago

Lifetime = console maker lifetime. What happens when a console maker is bankrupt?

In a sane universe, the law would be arranged such that when the rightsholding entity for a piece of media no longer exists and/or is no longer distributing it, copying and redistribution of it for personal and private use (i.e. what the industries have conditioned us to believe is "piracy") would be legal. Anything out of print, so to speak, should be fair game. Notably this is already how it works with things like trademarks. If a company doesn't actually exercise their ownership of them, they lose them.

This is more or less the basis of the abandonware movement, the current legality of the situation be damned.

Corpos: "Hey, you can't copy that. We own it! If you just copy it, we won't be able to profit from it!!!"

Okay, so sell me one.

Also corpos: "No."

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

I'm imagining an actually good piece of legislation that requires companies to provide access beyond the lifetime of their platform. Lifetime in this instance refers to the consumer

[–] thejml@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

What would be the recourse? let's say, magically, Steam goes out of business. Files Chapter 11, restructures, doesn't work out, no one buys their IP, closes up shop. servers go offline.

Sure they could have open sourced the servers, removed DRM (the publisher would be the more important one for that though), etc. But if they didn't, they just went under, ran out of money, and they're gone. Who are you going to sue? How will you get them to do the above? Why would they care? They no longer have money or resources to make it happen anyway. Can't squeeze blood from a turnip.

[–] BorgDrone@feddit.nl 3 points 2 hours ago

This is a solved problem.

A company going out of business and customers losing access to their IP is a very common concern for software businesses. The common way to deal with this is using an escrow service.

A copy of all the IP (e.g. source code) relevant to a license is stored at the escrow service (and regularly updated if necessary). If the supplier goes bankrupt, the escrow service is authorized to release the IP placed under escrow to the customers.

You could do something similar for Steam. Pay a 3rd party to keep a copy of all content that is authorized to release it if the original company goes out of business.

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I'm not a legislator, so I don't know what enforcement mechanisms should be. But what I do know is that anything that eliminates this blatant theft from consumers would be a good thing.

[–] thejml@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Sadly, you likely signed off on the EULA that you only own a temporary license and that you wave rights to that under certain circumstances and everything else that means you don't actually own a copy of the game in perpetuity. which means it's not actually theft.

But this is why I buy DRM free stuff from places like GoG and back it up myself. (and don't often buy AAA games, or games with anti-cheat)

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 hours ago

I don't care what a EULA said, it's still theft. If I signed away my right to be compensated for my labor, it's still slavery.

[–] Olap@lemmy.world 24 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Anti-trust when? Clearly collaboration at this stage

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 16 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Not sure it's really antitrust in this case. Disc drives in general have pretty much fallen completely out of use in most applications. Laptop and desktops haven't included them in years, and music, movie, and tv show physical sales have fallen off a cliff.

[–] Olap@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

And yet, I still won't buy a console without a drive. MS and Sony can fuck off if they think I'll buy a console from them without a disc drive. I'd much sooner buy from Gabe, who is a DRM whore, but at least has open hardware

[–] zewm@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

And also has no discs.

[–] skankhunt42@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

I don't use steam, but I did a quick search and I don't see many articles of them removing a game you've paid for from your library without giving you a refund. Even then you can add games not paid for on steam, into steam so I'm not sure your point. You can add a disk game into steam.

[–] Olap@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Yup, the lesser of three evils though. I probably won't buy any of the next gen at this stage though. Can't see any game on the horizon being worth an upgrade

Mass Effect 5 though...

[–] ozoned@piefed.social 11 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Awesome. At least they're not pretending to be different from Steam anymore. Good for the Steam Machine. Full PC with gaming.

[–] usernameunnecessary@lemmy.zip 12 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (2 children)

The difference is that even the first game I downloaded via Steam (HL2) even before Steam was a store is still available for me to download more than 20 years later. Good luck downloading and running console games from 2 or 3 console generations ago. Console owners have been slowly manipulated to accept whatever console makers have thrown at them.

Zero day 100gb update? Sure. Always online to play offline campaign? No problem. No game disk (= no used market)? Why not. Re-selling you the game you own it every console generation? Makes sense. €600+ console? Worth it. €80, €90 games that almost never drop in price, no secondhand market? Yes.

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Good luck downloading and running console games from 2 or 3 console generations ago.

You can still purchase and download Xbox 360 games. The PS3 store is about to be shut down but already-owned games will still be downloadable. This is already the case for the Wii and the 3DS.

The only console store to ever shut down without the ability to download purchases is the original Xbox, which offered DLC only.

[–] warm@kbin.earth 7 points 3 hours ago

Consoles just do not make sense any more, they are a bad investment. It just sucks that PC components now cost an arm and a leg.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago

We should be able to expect that no one has the right to delete anything off our owned hard drive, or by any action make that data unusable for the purpose it was designed and sold for, without our permission.

That should be our right.

[–] dudeface@lemmy.world 6 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I haven’t had an optical drive in any computer or console or other device for many years at this point

I can understand the reasoning why people think this is a bad thing but it seems this is just where things were going anyway, vote with your wallet I guess

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I was helping my dad declutter. I found a bunch of old Medicare brochures, and the one from 2016 came with a cd. I had the realization that if I wanted to see what’s inside I couldn’t because I don’t have anything with a cd drive. I still have a bunch of old media on cds that I haven’t been able to play because I don’t have a drive. It’s kind of a weird situation to be in since at the moment at least, I can stream everything but what will happen when it won’t be available? It’s a crappy future out there.

[–] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 hours ago

You can still get a usb external drive very cheaply. I would actually still have an optical drive in my PC if there were any decent cases still being made that has space for them.

[–] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 hours ago

Hah, called this immediately on Sony's news. All of the console makers have been waiting for one of them to jump. This is the console equivalent of Apple dropping the headphone jack and everyone else following suit, but much worse.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

I can't wait to see the launch of the next generation of consoles. Valve has been absolutely battered by being the first out the gate in this hardware market, and I'd be surprised if the next gen consoles are not anemic and expensive.