The next Xbox, currently dubbed the Xbox 720, won't have an optical disk drive, according to sources. It could spell the end of being able to play a game and then flog it to your local games shop.

The news, broken by game industry trade publication MCV, suggests that the new console, also going under the name "Durango", will instead have some "sort of interchangeable solid-state card storage".

The article questions whether that would be a standard SD card or a new proprietary format akin to what Nintendo has used in the past with the SNES or N64.

The news follows what MCV’s source describes as “the strictest NDA” they have ever encountered. Clearly, they weren't strict enough.

The console is expected to launch in 2013, with a possible E3 reveal this year in June 2012.

The move to ditch the DVD drive means that Microsoft could create a games console that's a very different shape and size to what the Xbox 360 currently looks like, and follows a trend started by Apple to remove the need for DVD drives altogether.

Microsoft as a company is also moving away from DVDs, with a strong focus on its cloud storage offering, SkyDrive, and the creation of an App store on Windows 8.

Xbox 360 gamers are already encouraged to download games, movies, music and additional game packs on their consoles. 

In 2010, Pocket-lint predicted that Microsoft would make this move as part of a Future Week looking at what gadgets would look like in 2015