On the occasion of Gamescom 2026, Xbox CEO Asha Sharmawas interviewed by the BBC and specifically talked about Xbox spiral priceMicrosoft’s next-generation gaming console, andThe Importance of CDs For players.
As for the latter aspect, the issue centers around the released disc-to-digital feature, which allows you to Digitize games to disc So you can get a digital license for any Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S game on disc.
For Sharma, it’s important that users can choose: “I know Gamers love physical media I know digitalization offers a lot of benefits and I want to make sure people have options,” he said.
New need for balancing prices
As we can see, the ability to digitize game licenses on Xbox discs will be Available from August 31st Distribution to all users will arrive at a later date for those who are part of the Insider program.
“Everyone has tons of games on their shelves,” Sharma said, reporting that “we announced that players will be able to obtain digital licenses for 1,000 games on physical discs,” a new feature that will be available soon.
“We have always been at the forefront backward compatibility You’re going to continue to see it for generations to come,” he added, without specifying whether the next generation of consoles, called Project Helix, will feature disc drives.
PS6 and Project Helix cost $1,000, analysts expect sales to drop as much as 38%
“For the next generation of consoles, we have to Consider efficiency and affordability and performance,” Sharma said of the next console. She was apparently referring to the memory crisis that is affecting the entire tech industry, leading to unusually high product prices.
“The industry needs to start innovating around accessibility and efficiency. That’s something we’ve never done in the past,” the Xbox CEO explained. “But as Crisis currently affecting the hardware industry and components, it’s definitely something that we all need to think about and innovate to give people more choices in how they use their consoles and how they buy them. “
The next generation proposed new challengesbecause it is more necessary than other times to create a design that takes into account production costs and keeps retail prices as low as possible, taking into account “hardware efficiency in terms of storage space and memory usage, unit price, components and similar aspects.”
Considering that former Xbox president Sarah Bond has previously regarded the next-generation Xbox as an absolutely “premium” machine that will provide “the biggest technological leap yet”, it seems possible that: Item changed on Xbox Helixat the same time.
The idea of it being a machine capable of connecting with external stores like Steam seems to have been called into question, although Sharma has reported in the past that Helix should enable “Xbox and PC games” to run, but in the meantime, some compromises may need to be made.
