We all know next-generation consoles are in the works. Yes, we're six years into the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, largely due to component shortages and cost spikes from AI demands on the wider tech sector, but Sony has already teased a “future console” in the next few years, and Microsoft confirmed the next Xbox is codenamed Project Helix, likely due in 2028.
Gamers can probably expect all of the standard customary upgrades—faster processors, more powerful GPUs, more storage, all if component supplies and manufacturing capacities allow for them. But there’s one feature both Sony and Microsoft absolutely must keep, whatever the next gen ends up looking like: the not-so-humble 4K Blu-ray disc drive.
Keep It Old School
This might seem an odd argument to make. After all, both companies seem to have been retreating from discs since day one of the current generation. Both the Xbox Series S and the PS5 Digital Edition lack a disc drive, and Sony even dropped the feature from the more powerful PS5 Pro—though both that and the Digital model can be upgraded with the sold-separately disc drive peripheral.
Already, many “on disc” releases contain only an installation pack or bearer token for a digital version of the game, much like the Nintendo Switch 2’s Game Key cards, as file sizes exceed even the 100 GB of data that can be stored on a triple-layer 4K Blu-ray. For collectors or fans of physical media, the direction of travel already looks depressing.
However, there are plenty of reasons why both manufacturers should cling to a disc drive. The most obvious is to support backward compatibility with older games, a hugely attractive feature for console owners. Both businesses recognize this, and both support older disc games as well as digital versions. Xbox takes a more tailored approach to backward compatibility, though, giving players access to select games from every console generation back to the 2001 original. Recently, Jason Ronald, vice president of Next Generation at Xbox, said Microsoft is “committed to keeping games from four generations of Xbox playable for years to come” with Project Helix, which is good news, even if he stopped short of confirming support for disc-based games on the machine.
Meanwhile, the PS5 supports all but a tiny handful of PS4 games. Earlier PlayStation games are locked out—the PS3’s infamously unorthodox “Cell” processor still proves an obstacle to supporting its games on newer hardware, while PS2 and PS1 discs haven’t been playable on any console later than the original “fat” PS3 model. If the PS6 kept a disc drive and cracked that problem, even if by simply having enough raw power to brute force the processing for those tricky PS3-era games, there’s a legion of PlayStation fans who’d be extremely excited.
The biggest argument in favor of keeping the 4K disc drive isn’t to do with games at all, though. Instead, it’s that for many owners, a PS5 or Xbox Series X is the best, most accessible option for owning a disc player of any kind nowadays—and contrary to perceived wisdom, physical media is currently enjoying something of a resurgence.
Retro Revival
It’s easy to presume that all physical media is dead, and there’s no denying the entire sector is struggling. By some metrics, it really does appear to be game over—for film and TV, streaming services still have the lion’s share of eyeballs, video games are overwhelmingly digitally distributed, and the majority of music is consumed digitally, despite the huge resurgence of vinyl record sales.
Yet even as digital media appears to dominate every piece of entertainment we consume, sales of 4K UHD Blu-rays specifically are actually growing. According to research from the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), as noted by FlatPanelsHD, sales of the disc format rose in the US in 2025, climbing 12 percent on 2024’s sales figures and marking the first uptick in years.
The numbers are nuanced. Overall disc sales, which include ‘regular’ 1080p resolution Blu-ray and the now hideously outdated DVD format, are still down. Yet even here, there’s some optimism to be found, as DEG noted that sales dropped “less than 10 percent for full year 2025”—that is, the drop-off the industry has seen over the last several years appears to be slowing and perhaps even leveling out.
There are a few explanations for this slow revival of hard media. For one, consumers are increasingly aware that, for all the convenience offered by instant access and all-you-can-eat streaming platforms, there’s little permanence. Programming hops between providers seemingly at random, and even original content can’t be relied on to stay in place—early Netflix exclusive Hemlock Grove is now streaming on Peacock in the US, as just one example. If you want to rewatch a personal favorite, it’s often easier to own a copy than find where it’s streaming this month. Sometimes, content disappears from streaming entirely, as with Disney+’s 2022 TV series Willow, a sequel to the 1988 fantasy film of the same name—scrubbed from the platform after less than a year, and having never received a physical release, there is now no legal way to watch the show.
Older or niche content is especially vulnerable to the churning algorithms and content flood of streaming platforms, and so fans are also recognizing the benefit of hard copies when they do exist. For instance, cult British sci-fi series Doctor Who is split over multiple streamers in the US, including BritBox, Disney+, and soon AMC+. It’s a nightmare to follow—but almost all of it can be bought on DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K UHDs. Grabbing a disc from your shelf is a far more attractive prospect than playing streaming whack-a-mole.
Market fragmentation is also leading to subscription burnout. Long gone are the days when you could sign up for a couple of streamers and access almost everything. Now, subscribers have to sign up to services on what can feel like a show-by-show basis, and are paying more for each of those subscriptions—but younger viewers are beginning to push back.
Recent research from Kantar, UC Berkley, and IGN found that more than half of Gen Z ‘subscription hops’ between services as they chase shows. The same research found, per Variety, that 70 percent of that demographic don’t buy hard copies of TV or movies—but the corollary is that 30 percent do, which tracks with a growing movement among younger people, rejecting digital services in favor of more material offline pursuits.
Quality is also a factor. Even if you’re paying for a service’s highest tier with 4K video, not all 4K is created equal. You’ll still ostensibly get the same 3840 x 2160-pixel resolution image, but bitrates—the amount of data transmitted per second, affecting overall image quality—are uniformly lower via streaming. Disney+, Apple TV, and Netflix tend to see average bitrates between 15 to 30 Mbps, though they can sometimes peak higher and use a variety of compression techniques to shrink the overall package size. This can lose finer details such as film grain, color depth, or shadow and contrast; all factors that improve the overall viewing experience.
Meanwhile, a 4K UHD disc has a bitrate capacity of well over 100 Mbps, running straight from your player over HDMI without any risk of internet slowdown or buffering. Video compression is also reduced on the physical format, and there's support for lossless audio, meaning the image that reaches your screen and the sound coming out of your speakers is far better.
Between content permanence and AV quality, 4K Blu-ray is quietly reasserting itself as the premium choice for film fans who want the best from their home cinema experience. That’s been met by the growth of boutique labels such as Arrow Video and cineast specialists like The Criterion Collection, helping push the format into true collector’s edition territory. Even some streaming giants are paying attention, with Netflix partnering with Arrow for a complete 4K Blu-ray box set of Stranger Things that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago.
Consoles to the Rescue
However, actually playing those shiny 4K discs is getting harder. Because sales of home media almost completely tanked while streaming services were ascendant, many manufacturers of stand-alone players exited the market. Oppo, an early adopter of the format, was also one of the first to tap out, ceasing production on Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray players in 2018, followed by Samsung in 2019, while LG held on until 2024.
Of the mainstream brands, only Panasonic and Sony still make dedicated players, and neither has refreshed their hardware ranges in years (Sony offered a minor tweak with its UBP-X700K model in 2025, but it only removed Wi-Fi and built-in streaming apps, ironically). Magnetar has emerged as a specialist alternative, but its players come with a premium price to match high-end cinephile performance.
Sony and Microsoft’s consoles now stand as the last major exception to this trend. PS5 and Xbox Series X are both still in production and generally readily available. Even though both have seen price hikes over the last year (again due to AI-induced component shortages), they’re the obvious go-to for anyone wanting to play a disc. Being multimedia devices at heart, these consoles might not offer quite as spectacular a viewing experience as a dedicated player, but they do provide the easiest way to enjoy physical media, especially as those 4K drives are themselves backwards compatible with Blu-ray and DVDs. Both companies should capitalize on this niche they’ve unexpectedly found themselves in, evangelizing their consoles as the best option for all your media needs.
The single greatest reason that disc drives should survive into the next generation is simply that consumers want them. It’s tricky to work out the exact number of 4K disc drive-equipped machines out there, but when given the choice, buyers overwhelmingly opt for consoles with disc playback capabilities than without. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and S are currently believed to have sold a combined 35 million units, with 62 percent of those—around 21.7 million units—being the disc-playing Series X. Sony’s breakdown is a bit harder to track, as its publicly reported sales data groups all PS5 sales together, but with more than 93 million total units sold as of March 2026, plus however many disc-less models that might have been upgraded with the add-on drive, that’s a lot of disc-enabled PS5s out there. Tossing that audience aside would be a foolish choice.
Whatever else the PS6 or Project Helix deliver, keeping a disc drive in place is ultimately going to be beneficial to the greatest number of users. They may be useless for actual next-gen games, which will almost certainly shift further toward digital distribution over discs, but by continuing to support older titles and cementing these future consoles as the best way to access the unrivaled fidelity of 4K Blu-rays, Sony and Microsoft’s next generation will be guaranteed crowd pleasers.
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