Rumour control: Next Xbox will block used game discs, use Blu-ray

Following up on yesterday’s / last week’s / last month’s news that the next-gen Xbox will have this, that, and the other thing – a new report coming through the tubes via Kotaku’s industry spy network is claiming that the Nextbox 2020 will feature Blu-ray and won’t be able to play used game discs.

The swap to Blu-ray makes sense, as there’s simply no denying that some developers are significantly restricted by the 7.8 GB DVD limit, with increasing numbers of major games shipping out on multiple discs. In contrast, a single Blu-ray disc can hold up to 50 GB of data.

While some people might think the move constitutes a conflict of interests for Microsoft with Konsole Warz™ arch-nemesis Sony, it’s probably worth pointing out that Blu-ray is not, in fact, Sony’s own format, but one developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association – of which, Sony was only one of nine founding companies.

The rumour about some kind of anti-used discs system is somewhat worrying, however.

Kotaku’s “reliable industry source” was unable to provide any real information about it, although I’d suppose it’s possible Microsoft could introduce one-shot codes that lock an entire game to a single user profile, rather than the “extra” features currently associated with similar one-shot code systems.