Pachter: Disc-less Xbox One would be ‘dumb dumb dumb’

Rumours of a possible release for a disc-less Xbox One are unlikely to be true, a US analyst has claimed.

Claims that such a device is in active testing at Microsoft appeared online yesterday. However, Michael Pachter has said he finds it hard to believe such a machine actually exists.

I don’t actually believe the rumour,” he said. If this rumour is true, it is one of the dumbest ideas of all time. It would alienate GameStop and other retailers, and it would demonstrate that Microsoft can afford to release a 1TB Xbox One at $399 with essentially the same production cost as the $499 model with a 500GB HDD and a Blu-ray drive.

That would likely cause gamers to believe that the model with a Blu-ray drive is overpriced, or would cause them to believe that Microsoft is greedy.

I have three words for this idea – dumb, dumb, dumb.”

MCV revealed in March 2012 that Microsoft was considering ditching optical media for its next console, but a year later reports emerged claiming that the idea had been abandoned.

Last month Microsoft admitted that it had at one stage pondered the possibility, although it added that it had dropped the plans following negative consumer feedback.