Following its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Xbox has laid off 1,900 employees across itself, Bethesda and Activision. Alongside this, the company has reportedly shut down teams responsible for releasing physical Xbox games.
With major games retailers reducing the sales of physical media, Xbox is going all-in on its proposed digital future, boosted by Xbox Game Pass.
According to Windows Central’s Jez Corden, Xbox recently closed down divisions that were in charge of releasing physical copies of Xbox games. This could mean that upcoming games such as Indiana Jones and The Great Circle will only be available digitally.
Xbox has already started digital only releases of new games. Last year, Hi-Fi Rush (Gfinity’s Xbox Game of the Year), was only available digitally. This year, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is not going to have a physical release.
“Microsoft has also shut down departments dedicated to bringing Xbox games to physical retail,” Corden said. “Which If you've seen the digital-only Xbox console leaks... well, you can get an idea of where Microsoft is going here.”
Of course, this doesn’t mean that every game will have a digital only release. Some of Xbox’s biggest titles — like the upcoming Avowed — may receive physical copies via outsourced companies. However, it seems Microsoft is less interested in physical games that can be traded in or lent to others.
Per our sister site StealthOptional, a new refresh system for the Xbox Series X will completely remove the device’s 4K disc drive. This means that players on the new console will only be able to buy digital games or use the Game Pass/Cloud Gaming services.
Via TweakTown, Xbox games are even having their physical copies removed from store shelves. In America, physical copies of Starfield have been removed from Walmart due to low sales.
With physical game sales still pretty much 50/50 in comparison to their digital counterparts, it’s surprising to see Xbox go so hard on a digital-only future. Then again, this is the same company that released the Xbox One.
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