James Ratcliff joined Game Rant in 2022 as a Gaming News Writer. In 2023, James was offered a chance to become an occasional feature writer for different games and then a Senior Author in 2025. He is a third-generation Texan who has written professionally for over a decade at local newspapers, addressing various topics for his readers. Since 2024, James has shifted his complete focus to covering gaming news.
The Xbox Project Helix console may not have a disc drive at all, according to sources familiar with the system’s ongoing development. While some details about the next-gen Xbox console remain elusive as of this writing, the potential exclusion of a disc drive would be a major blow to physical game enthusiasts worldwide.
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With PlayStation announcing that it would stop manufacturing game discs by January 2028, it appears Xbox will soon follow suit. As reported by Windows Central, Xbox’s upcoming Project Helix may not include a disc drive at all once the system launches in the future. Should Xbox follow through with not including a disc drive in its next console, the move would be a telling blow to physical game collecting and ongoing preservation efforts. With Project Helix and possibly Sony’s PS6’s ditching physical formats altogether, such a scenario would leave Nintendo as the sole console manufacturer to ship physical copies of its games. Though Sony stated in its announcement that the trend toward digital media “significantly outpaces physical discs,” Xbox has not officially commented on whether Project Helix will include a disc drive.
