Xbox One S All Digital: Microsoft’s disc-less console is out now
Microsoft's new console — codenamed Maverick — is ditching the disc
NEWS UPDATE: The Xbox One S All-Digital is out now. The base model costs £200 on Amazon: there are also bundles that include Anthem, Battlefield V, Apex Legends or The Division 2 that range from £212 to £228. You can also add a 6-month Game Pass subscription for extra, although at the time of writing the pass is out of stock on Amazon.
The original article continues below.
Microsoft has officially announced the Xbox One S All Digital. Just as the many, many leaks foretold, the new machine will be the first Xbox console to go completely digital – there is no disc drive, which means you’ll need to download games from the Xbox store to play them.
The All Digital will cost £199 ($249), which makes it pretty well the cheapest current-gen console on the market. Of course, we already knew all of this, but it doesn’t hurt to have it confirmed by an official announcement. Here’s what we know so far about the Xbox One S All-Digital edition.
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Xbox One S All Digital release date: When will it launch?
German tech site WinFuture originally reported that the console would officially hit shelves on 7 May 2019, and it was bang on the money. The Xbox One S All-Digital edition is out now, on Amazon and via the Microsoft store.
We’ve known for a little while now that Microsoft has been experimenting with disc-less technology. Microsoft leaks site Thurrott recently revealed that there are no fewer than five Xbox-related projects on the go at the moment, under the codename “Project Scarlett”. It seems that this new digital-only console was previously known as “Maverick”, which means that it may leverage the xCloud streaming service currently in development.
That’s an awful lot of codenames and secret projects, but don’t fret: we’ve been keeping track of everything related to the next generation of Xbox consoles, as well as Project Scarlett itself.
Xbox One S All Digital price: How much will it cost?
^ Image credit: WinFuture
Last time we wrote about the Xbox One S All Digital, we arrived at the conclusion that it could be Microsoft’s cheapest Xbox One console to date – after all, it is missing some important disc-drive hardware. Since then, German tech site WinFuture has confirmed that the new console will cost €229.99: converted, that’s $260 or £199, which means that we were bang on the money.
The 1TB Xbox One S has an RRP of $349, which was at the time of launch cheaper than the original Xbox One console. You don’t have to be a genius to work out that the Xbox One S All Digital is ludicrously cheap (as consoles go).
Xbox One S All Digital specs: What’s inside?
Not a disc drive, that’s for sure. The All Digital is cosmetically identical to the Xbox One S, apart from the uninterrupted front panel where a drive used to be. We know that it will have a 1TB hard drive, which is just about enough for your average gamer: let’s not forget that modern games weigh in at upwards of 50GB, with titles like Red Dead Redemption 2 reaching 90GB and beyond.
Unfortunately, that’s about all we know. We’re not privy to a full specifications list just yet but if the outside is anything to go by, the inside is likely to be identical to an Xbox One S. That means a 1.75GHz AMD Jaguar processor, 8GB DDR3 RAM, and an AMD Sea Islands-based GPU. In other words: powerful enough to play 4K movies from disc but too weak to play 4K games.
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Xbox One S All Digital games: What can you play on it?
Because there’s no disc drive, the Xbox One S All Digital offers a few alternative solutions to satisfy your gaming needs. Some consoles, for example, will come with a few pre-installed games. WinFuture reports that Minecraft, Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 3 – all games that are also available on the Microsoft store for PC – have been confirmed as preinstalled titles; you’ll also have access to the Xbox Game Pass and its ever-expanding library of games, provided you pay for the subscription.
Then of course there’s the Xbox Store itself, where you can purchase pretty much the same titles you’d be able to buy in a physical store or at other online retailers.