Microsoft says it is halting production of its Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition consoles, ahead of Series X launch
The Xbox One S will continue to be manufactured — Microsoft is officially halting production of its Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition consoles.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Xbox One S All-Digital Edition began in 2019 as Microsoft's disc-free experiment — a $249 One S variant with a 1TB HDD and bundled games, first surfaced in internal documents before its official May 2019 launch. Its discontinuation now, alongside the premium One X, clears the deck ahead of the Series X while the standard One S keeps manufacturing running.
The move follows Microsoft's established end-of-life playbook: it did the same with the Xbox 360 in 2016, halting production while selling remaining inventory and supporting existing owners. The difference this time is that the All-Digital Edition's core idea — a cheaper, disc-less console — is not being retired but handed to the next generation, where the $299 disc-less Series S takes over that role.
First-order effects
- Retailers and buyers lose two current-gen options: the One X, the line's premium 4K SKU, exits production entirely, leaving the standard One S as the only last-gen console still being built.
- Existing One X and All-Digital owners keep software support, mirroring the Xbox 360 wind-down, but the used- and new-stock supply of both discontinued models is now fixed.
Second-order effects
- The Series S inherits the All-Digital Edition's disc-less budget position at a lower $299 price point, making the optical drive the differentiator between the two next-gen tiers rather than a default feature.
- Game publishers and disc manufacturers face a shrinking install base for physical media on Xbox as Microsoft's lineup tilts toward download-only hardware at both the entry and premium ends.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, disc-less becomes the structural default for Xbox hardware: by 2024 Microsoft was selling a white disc-less Series X at $449.99 alongside the standard model, extending the All-Digital experiment from a niche variant into a mainstream premium SKU.
- Microsoft's console line consolidates around a tiered, largely digital catalog strategy, with physical media relegated to an opt-in feature rather than the baseline — a shift regulators and retailers of used games will have to absorb.
The trend: Xbox hardware is transitioning from disc-based consoles to a tiered, download-first lineup in which each generation's budget SKU goes disc-less and the disc drive becomes an optional premium feature.