Xbox had reportedly planned to continue supporting physical games media, at least before the company’s ongoing “reset” led by new CEO Asha Sharma.
During the latest episode of Digital Foundry’s DF Direct podcast, the crew discussed the uncertain future of physical media, the rumored move toward digital-only consoles, and whether players will hold onto their current PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles to retain access to their disc libraries. Co-host John Linneman revealed that he had heard from multiple sources that Microsoft previously intended to continue supporting physical games in some capacity for its next Xbox hardware. However, he doesn’t know whether those plans have changed following the restructuring of the platform under the leadership of new CEO Asha Sharma.
“One thing I’d heard from a couple sort of sources, and this is just kind of like, you know, potential rumory stuff, but at least before the current Xbox reset, I don’t know where it is now, it sounds like Microsoft was actually very much going to continue disc support.”
According to Linneman, Microsoft’s motivation wasn’t necessarily to preserve physical retail sales. Rather, it was about maintaining compatibility for existing Xbox owners. “Not because they valued retail disc sales, but because they wanted to like ensure that all your Xbox games were still playable on new Xboxes.”
He speculated that Microsoft’s plans may have involved an external disc drive or another method of authenticating physical game ownership, potentially in relation to the rumored disc-to-digital entitlement program. “We could offer maybe like an external drive or basically some means. And I think that might all tie into this disc-to-digital stuff as well.”
Linneman believes the company may still recognize the importance of preserving users’ existing game libraries. “I do see a future where Microsoft actually supports discs going forward for users that want to take their library with them while Sony just completely cuts people off.”
