Get your salt shakers out: It's time for something that might not be true!
Microsoft's rumored disc-less Xbox One S -- or the Xbox One S All-Digital, as it will apparently be called -- could be coming on May 7. That's what Windows Central claims, citing product photos and supporting documents it received from an unnamed source.
The site's coverage uses Photoshop mockups of the product photos in order to protect the source, so you'll have to take their word for it. The digitally recreated console looks like you'd expect it to: an Xbox One S without the opening where a disc would go.
The disc-less Xbox One S would also reportedly pack in a bundle of download codes for three games -- Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 3, and Minecraft -- as well as a 1TB hard drive.
Microsoft is reportedly planning an April reveal, ahead of the global launch on May 7. There's no word on price, but previous reporting (as well as common sense) suggests that the disc-less Xbox is meant to be a cheaper option in the Xbox lineup.
The current Xbox One S sells on Microsoft's website for $300 with a bundled game, though a quick look at Amazon shows older bundles selling at closer to $250 (and in some cases lower than that). A disc-less S would have to sell for no more than $200, though an even lower price isn't out of the question.
That's because Microsoft's big bet these days is on Xbox Game Pass. The subscription service gives all users access to a large library of on-demand games -- more than 170, as of March 2019 -- that they can download whenever they wish.
The Game Pass library includes a number of major games released by publishers other than Microsoft, but perhaps the biggest draw is access to new releases. All subscribers are able to play Xbox One console exclusives the day they come out, from small-studio indies like Below to the future next chapters in the Halo and Gears of War series.
A disc-less Xbox One S would obviously have no problem connecting users with Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft probably wants to make it feel like subscribing to the $9.99/month service is a no-brainer -- which, really, it is for any newcomers to the Xbox ecosystem.
