The recent Xbox Games Showcase earned goodwill from fans by showing off third-party titles and not shying away from them releasing on other platforms. It was good to know that Persona 4 Revival was coming out on different systems, rather than speculate on potential exclusivity. That may have come at a cost, as some of these titles won’t be getting discs for Series X consoles.
Wario64 on social media confirmed that games like Gears of War: Reloaded and The Outer Worlds 2 won’t be getting physical disc versions. They will be getting codes in a box, one of the more depressing ways to buy games if you ask us. Gamers knew that Xbox would eventually cave in to digital, but facing that reality was surprising.
Now that Xbox is entering the handheld wars with the ASUS Xbox Ally, it does make some sense to stick with digital. After all, with handheld gaming heading to a boom period, this could outsell the Series X and S fairly quickly. Sticking with digital games also saves them some money, as they won’t have to worry about making physical discs.
Even if it makes sense, it’s still odd seeing Microsoft abandon physical media like this. There are fans who still like getting physical discs on their Series X consoles, so supporting them should still matter. Granted, discs for Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 are essentially those game-key cards on Switch 2, but they still have some value.
It feels like it’s only a matter of time before Xbox finally says that they’re done with physical games and fully embrace digital. The company has been working on Xbox Cloud for a long time, and Game Pass is their most successful service to date. We still think discs for the Xbox Series X crowd are pretty important, but they might be the last of a dying breed.
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