Xbox reassures fans about strategy shift following backlash

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has confirmed the company’s stance on physical games going forward, and it’s good news.

The last few weeks have been a challenging time for Xbox fans. The company recently confirmed its pivot to third-party gaming software with the announcement that four Xbox games will make their way onto the PlayStation 5 next month. The four games will be Hi-Fi Rush, Grounded, Pentiment and Sea Of Thieves.

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Fans knew this news was coming due to several industry rumours, some of which suggested Xbox would drop out of the console war entirely and focus solely on software for other platforms. This was proven false by Xbox boss Phil Spencer, and he’s also commented on another rumour floating around that the future of Xbox will be all digital.

The last few years have seen Xbox and PlayStation attempt to push players into an all digital gaming format via new consoles that don’t have a disc drive installed. PlayStation will soon be dragged into a court case due to accusations the company took advantage of its dominance over the game industry by increasing digital store prices between 2018 and 2022.

Phil Spencer said in an interview with Game File, "I will say our strategy does not hinge on people moving all digital. And getting rid of the physical, that's not a strategic thing for us [...] We are supportive of physical media, but we don't have a need to drive that disproportionate to customer demand.” Spencer went on to add that “a majority of our customers are buying games digitally”.

This is good news for gamers who prefer physical media, which is a much better way to actually own a game or film, especially considering store closures and discontinuation, an example of which could be seen with PlayStation last year.

So for the time being, Xbox players can sleep easy knowing they’ll still be able to buy physical games for the foreseeable future.