It Looks Like Xbox Could Be Phasing Out Physical Games Entirely

Fans think Xbox may be phasing out physical game discs, in a long-rumored and long-feared move away from hard copies. The video game industry has been leaning more toward digital media for a long time now, despite many gamers speaking out about a need for physical copies, both for preference and game preservation. While Xbox hasn’t officially stated that it’s going digital-only, some fans believe the writing is on the wall.

Signs that Xbox may be moving away from hard game copies have been steadily growing over the past year or two. Earlier this year, fans noticed Xbox was seemingly ending Series X sales in some areas, pushing fans toward its digital ecosystem as the disc-compatible systems became less widely available. The company has not confirmed these rumors, but the push for its digital platforms alongside the 2024 release of a digital-only Series X variant made many fans worry about the brand abandoning game discs.

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Now, Reddit user AngieK22 has pointed out that none of the games announced during the Xbox Games Showcase have a disc version for Xbox consoles on retailer sites. While Xbox game cases for The Outer Worlds 2 and Ninja Gaiden 4 have appeared on some retail listings, the covers say “digital game code,” confirming that even though there may be a box, there’s no actual game inside. This echoes a trend in previous games from Microsoft-owned studios. The Doom: The Dark Ages physical disc contains just 85 MB of data, so almost all the game content is still a digital download.

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Interestingly, the PlayStation versions of these games do contain an actual disc, so it’s only the Xbox editions that are a code in a box. That discrepancy leads some to believe that this is indeed a sign of the company starting to phase out physical media rather than a choice by specific studios to do a digital-only release. Other Redditors in the comments pointed out how last year’s Microsoft layoffs included Xbox physical retail teams, potentially suggesting that physical sales are less of a priority for the brand today.

The market has been leaning in this direction for a while now. Digital platforms like Steam and subscription options like Xbox Game Pass have made digital copies increasingly popular, even if audiences remain vocal about wanting hard copies as well. Following the money shows a trend toward the digital, too, as 75% of Xbox console sales have been digital-only variants so far in 2025. Whether all this means Xbox is putting an end to physical game versions, or when such an official end may come if it isn’t already here, is still unclear, but the shift away from discs is hard to ignore.

Brand

Microsoft

Original Release Date

November 10, 2020

Original MSRP (USD)

$499

Operating System

Proprietary (Windows-based)

Processor

Custom AMD 8-core Zen 2 3.8 GHz

Resolution

720p – 4K UHD