Xbox ONE S All-Digital Edition Officially Announced

The leaks have finally been made official! Microsoft officially announced yesterday (according to  The Verge) the Xbox ONE S All-Digital Edition will be available May 7th. The disc-less system will come in with a price-chopping sticker of only $249 - $50 below it’s predecessor.

Although the price drop is good, disc media will no longer be an option on this console for anyone with a vast collection of games. No option to watch your favorite Blu-Ray movie, or listen to your favorite CD. It also leaves the “WTF?” question dead center on Microsoft about how we’re supposed to buy, share, and trade games. However, it begs those gamers to “make the change” by offering an size upgrade with a 1TB hard drive, and will include Forza Horizon 3, Sea of Thieves, and Minecraft in digital download format.

Gamers with the digital edition will only be able to purchase games and other digital media via the Microsoft Store in digital download format. Our source states Microsoft had originally planned a way we would be able to share our games digitally, but the idea was squashed by the red tape of game policies.

This could be the first of many to make the change to digital gaming. For a while now Sony and Microsoft have been threatening to move their designs to a streaming-type of style, removing the need to game disc production, and possibly changing the gaming industry.

Enter another project Microsoft is working on: the Xbox Game Pass. Currently in development, Microsoft offers a subscription to a Netflix-type service where gamers will have access to a “digital library” of games. This service is currently in beta testing, but should be available later this year, starting at only $14.99 a month.

The Xbox ONE S All-Digital Edition will sell side-by-side with it’s twin, the Xbox ONE S (with the optical drive), and the all-powerful Xbox ONE X. It is also available for pre-order now from Microsoft.

_{Sources: The Verge: Microsoft unveils disc-less Xbox ONE S All-Digital Edition for $249}