Over the past few weeks, the topic of preservation and games ownership has been at the forefront of the industry, reignited by controversial comments from Ubisoft’s director of subscriptions who claimedgamers need to get used to “not owning [their] games”. Fears over game ownership then worsened followingMicrosoft’srecent layoffs, whichreportedly shut down Xbox’s entire physical game release divisions.
Unfortunately, the bad news doesn’t stop there either. It’s now being reported that certain retailers across Europe are choosing not to listXboxgames anymore, with the system considered a “digital console” by a lot of people. This according to gamesindustry.biz head Christopher Dring (thanks Kotaku), who claims in a recent YouTube video that a “major publisher” recently told him that “several retailers” have stopped stocking Xbox games.
Dring goes on to explain that while he couldn’t corroborate that claim, it was told to him by a substantial senior European publisher, so he doesn’t really doubt its legitimacy all that much. He also doesn’t really think retailers will care all that much or be too impacted by the decision, given that Xbox is beginning to cultivate a reputation for being digital dominant, similar to PC and mobile.
“So, they’ve just stopped stocking Xbox games because Xbox is such a digital console now that the physical performance of Xbox games is really low, and ultimately, when you’re selling a console that most people are just downloading games for, it doesn’t really benefit the retailer very much.
If you’ve been paying close attention to the games industry these past couple of years, none of this should really surprise you. It’s become quite clear that Xbox doesn’t put as much effort into its hardware as PlayStation and Nintendo do, instead choosing to get people integrated into the Xbox ecosystem with Game Pass, regardless of platform. Xbox’s most popular title of 2023,Hi-Fi Rush, was a digital exclusive, as is its next big upcoming title,Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.
Alan Wake 2andBaldur’s Gate 3, two titles that swept The Game Awards last year, are also currently digital-only titles, albeit Baldur’s Gate 3 is gettinga fancy physical copy in its upcoming Deluxe Editions. It’s clear that big publishers and developers aren’t too bothered about the risks of not having a physical presence on the high street, and it seems as though Xbox is doing its best to try and push us all into the all-digital future as soon as possible.
PlayStation and Nintendo obviously still have a reason to keep on going with physical games for now, since that’s how a significant chunk of their audience get their games, but Xbox owners may need to get used to buying digitally from here on out.
