{"id":840958,"date":"2026-08-03T02:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T02:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/840958\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T02:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T02:23:16","slug":"half-of-xbox-series-discs-need-downloads-to-work-properly-and-playstation-is-not-far-behind-report-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/840958\/","title":{"rendered":"Half of Xbox Series discs need downloads to work properly, and PlayStation is not far behind, report shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

It looks like owning the disc isn’t quite the safety net gamers assume it is. A new study from Does It Play<\/a>, cited by Ars Technica<\/a>, tested hundreds of physical releases across PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch 2, and found a sizable chunk can’t be played as intended straight off the disc.<\/p>\n

The study tested how many physical games needed additional downloads to work properly, or to add missing content. The Xbox Series X came out worst. Only half of the 78 tested titles were complete and playable without any download. Another 12% could be finished but were buggy or missing content, leaving 38% that needed a patch just to work properly.<\/p>\n

\"Half<\/p>\n

VIEW GALLERY – 5 IMAGES<\/p>\n

Its competitor, the PS5, fared better, though not by much. Out of 792 tested games, 34% needed a download to fix game-breaking issues or unlock content missing from the disc itself. Switch 2 held up best at 75% fully playable offline, though its sample size was much smaller at 48 titles.<\/p>\n

This certainly isn’t happening in a vacuum. Sony is already phasing out disc production<\/a> for new PlayStation games starting in 2028, and a recent Xbox server outage<\/a> briefly locked players out of physical disc games too, proof that a disc in your drive doesn’t guarantee access once servers get involved.<\/p>\n

\"Half<\/p>\n

However, physical media still has real upside. Discs can be resold, lent out, and are usually cheaper than digital purchases, and Sony still sold 70 million<\/a> of them last year alone. But, if half your Xbox library needs an internet connection just to boot up properly, the argument that discs equal true ownership gets a bit shaky.<\/p>\n

\"Half\"\"Frequently Asked Questions<\/p>\n

TweakBot answers common questions about this news using TweakTown’s own coverage from this page and related content from our archive. Tap a question to reveal the answer, or type your own below.<\/p>\n

Question #1<\/p>\n

Which Xbox Series X titles in the study required downloads just to boot or to fix game-breaking issues? Click to reveal answer<\/p>\n

Question #2<\/p>\n

How many and which PS5 games tested needed a download to unlock content missing from the disc?<\/p>\n

Out of 792 PS5 titles tested, 34% needed a download to fix game-breaking issues or unlock content missing from the disc, which is about 269 games. The article does not list which specific PS5 games required those downloads.<\/p>\n

Answered<\/p>\n

Question #3<\/p>\n

For the Switch 2 titles tested, which ones were fully playable offline and which required patches?<\/p>\n

For the Switch 2 sample of 48 titles, 75% were fully playable offline and 25% required a download or patch to work properly or to add missing content. The article does not list individual Switch 2 games or identify which specific titles needed patches.<\/p>\n

Answered<\/p>\n

Question #4<\/p>\n

What examples or specific incidents linked Xbox server outages to players being locked out of physical-disc games? Click to reveal answer<\/p>\n

Have a question not listed here? Ask below and TweakBot will answer it.<\/p>\n

\"TweakBot\"<\/p>\n

TweakBot is analyzing your question\u2026<\/p>\n

TweakBot is generating an answer<\/p>\n

Was TweakBot helpful?Thanks for the feedback!<\/p>\n

Preservation is also a big worry here. Sony’s disc-less future already has the PS6 skipping a drive<\/a> entirely, and once servers for these patches go dark, some of these games may become unplayable exactly as they shipped, no matter how many physical copies are sitting on a shelf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It looks like owning the disc isn’t quite the safety net gamers assume it is. A new study…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,105],"class_list":["post-840958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}