Spencer wouldn’t talk to me last week about that leaked all-digital Series X, but said Microsoft will “follow what the customers are doing.”
“We are supportive of physical media, but we don't have a need to drive that disproportionate to customer demand,” he told me.
“We ship games physically and digitally, and we're really just following what the customers are doing. And I think our job in running Xbox is to deliver on the things that a majority of the customers want. And right now, a majority of our customers are buying games digitally.”
When I pressed if Microsoft would release a console without a disc drive, he pointed out the company had already done that with the Series S. (I walked into that one, folks. Sorry!)
He also hinted at some economic concerns. “Gaming consoles themselves have kind of become the last consumer electronic device that has a drive,” he said. “And this is a real issue, just in terms of the number of manufacturers that are actually building drives and the cost associated with those. And when you think about cogs that we're going to go put in a console—and as you have fewer suppliers and fewer buyers—the cost of the drive does have an impact.
“But I will say our strategy does not hinge on people moving all-digital,” he said. “And getting rid of physical, that's not a strategic thing for us.”
As for the reporting that Microsoft had laid off people on teams involved in making disc versions of games, Spencer said that was more about “alignment of our teams across ZeniMax, Activision and Xbox. So we have teams that are in charge of physical retail, inclusive of selling games in physical outlets. So that's what the team action was. It wasn't about us getting rid of the capability.”
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When you put it that way, I.E. Gaming consoles are among the last electronic devices with a drive, so that increases the price of manufacturing the drives because they're less desired now, it drives up the price of the console, so the only financially logical solution to that would be to release digital only consoles in the future but with an optional disc drive, drive the price down for everyone but keep the drive option for those that want it.
