Project Helix Reportedly Goes Disc-Free as PS Preps for Digital-Only

Only a few hours have passed since PlayStation revealed it plans to stop producing physical game discs in January 2028—an announcement that many players see as effectively ending the used-disc ecosystem. The reaction has been swift across social media, with a lot of gamers now scanning for other ways to keep buying and trading games offline. For many, that search has narrowed to two main options: PC and the next Nintendo Switch model, often referred to as Switch 2.

Still, there’s a small group of people clinging to the idea that Xbox might somehow “save” physical media by committing to physical releases and undercutting PlayStation’s shift. The hope is that this would give Xbox a clear advantage over its closest rival, especially with the memory of PlayStation’s notorious game-sharing jab from E3 more than a decade ago still lingering. It’s a tough position to maintain, though—because expecting a major turnaround from Xbox in the current era is likely to end in disappointment.

Xbox Is Also Reportedly Moving Toward an All-Digital Future

With PlayStation stepping away from discs, players may be tempted to look to Xbox as the fallback—but reporting suggests Xbox isn’t preparing a rescue either. Instead, Xbox is reportedly not planning to include a disc drive in its upcoming console, which is currently codenamed Project Helix. A new report claims that sources have already indicated Xbox dropped the disc drive for the device.

There’s also a major knock-on effect for anyone who has invested in PlayStation’s physical-adjacent media ecosystem. If you purchased any of the 500-plus movies from StudioCanal on PlayStation, you’re set to lose access to them once the switch happens, and the change reportedly comes without any compensation.

So if your goal is to keep playing physical games when 2028 arrives, Nintendo Switch 2 is looking like the most straightforward choice. Even if Nintendo’s Game Key Card approach isn’t beloved by everyone, Nintendo has at least ensured that its first-party titles remain fully physical on the cartridge. By comparison, both Xbox and PlayStation are shaping up to be essentially all-digital platforms by that point.

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That said, there’s also a more existential argument for why Xbox might not matter as much in 2028 as people expect. If next week’s rumored wave of layoffs is as severe as insiders are suggesting, Xbox’s future could be more complicated than simply “no discs.” Players could be looking at studio closures, layoffs affecting thousands of workers, and the cancellation of several games that were already in the pipeline. In that kind of scenario, moving away from physical media would likely be the least of Xbox’s worries.