Rumor: Xbox Series Consoles Will Get Disc Drive Add-Ons Of Their Own

gameranx.com:

We have an interesting new rumor about Xbox Series X and S consoles that seemingly just came up in casual conversation.

This happened in this weekend’s episode of the XboxEra podcast. Joining frequent source Shpeshal Nick Baker, Sikamikanico, and Jesse, was special guest Tom Warren, writer for The Verge. You have no doubt heard these names invariably as Tom and Shpeshal  Nick are frequent sources for news and rumors, whom we have featured here for many months.

Tom and some other Xbox podcasters guested on each other’s shows to discuss Microsoft’s finalized acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. However, in the course of talking about some other news items on this podcast, this came up:

“Shpeshal Nick: Did you not hear about the disc drive add-on for Xbox?

Tom Warren: No?

Shpeshal Nick: Huh. Cuz I had heard that they were doing a disc drive add-on.

Tom Warren: I mean they should. Cuz if they don’t, there’s going to be backlash there, so…”

This is a clear reference to Microsoft’s mid-cycle plans to upgrade the Xbox Series consoles, as far as we know from documents that accidentally leaked from the company.

As we had reported nearly a month ago, those plans indicated one new SKU of the Xbox Series S, and two new SKUs of the Xbox Series X. None of these new SKUs and models had any optical drives on them.

The language in the document seemed to be overly enthusiastic about getting consumers to embrace an all-digital future. We do know, based on consumer sales data, that gamers have been leaning towards more digital purchases than physical games, but the idea of ditching physical games completely has continued to be incredibly unpopular.

And so, it is also worth pointing out, that Xbox head Phil Spencer released a statement