{"id":719369,"date":"2026-07-30T16:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/719369\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T16:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T16:27:08","slug":"xbox-tech-boss-says-unacceptable-outage-should-not-have-affected-disc-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/719369\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox tech boss says ‘unacceptable’ outage should not have affected disc games"},"content":{"rendered":"

The issue follows a separate incident on 24 July in which the PlayStation Network also suffered an outage for several hours<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both incidents have created unease about a so-called digital-only future in games and the questions over game ownership and licensing that come with it.<\/p>\n

In June, Rockstar Games announced<\/a> that physical copies of GTA 6, perhaps one of the most hotly-anticipated games in history, would contain a code for a digital download for the game rather than a disc.<\/p>\n

Nintendo has also shifted further towards digital distribution in recent years with the introduction of Game-Key Cards – physical cartridges that act as a key to download a game, rather than containing the game itself.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Sony announced plans, external<\/a> to no longer release new PlayStation games on discs from January 2028.<\/p>\n

It said while new games would still be able to be bought in shops, they would come with a digital code.<\/p>\n

Both announcements have prompted backlash from people worried about a future without physical games.<\/p>\n

Stop Killing Games is a consumer rights movement campaigning for publishers to leave online games playable if they end up switching off their servers.<\/p>\n

“The problem is the industry has a very poor reputation of disabling games once they end support,” said Scott Ross, co-founder of consumer rights group Stop Killing Games, following Rockstar’s announcement.<\/p>\n

“The trust from customers for many large publishers just isn’t there.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think the lack of a disc is the problem in itself, but rather it can be a symptom of a larger, very consumer-hostile practice.”<\/p>\n

Jez Corden, executive editor of the website Windows Central, said Sony’s decision to stop selling physical games had “put digital rights under a microscope”. <\/p>\n

And he said the statement on the Xbox outage suggested the firm was “sensitive of the discussions around digital rights and disc-based games right now”.<\/p>\n

Digital sales now account for the vast majority of game revenue – but the recent spate of outages have lead some to hope games companies may begin to rethink their strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The issue follows a separate incident on 24 July in which the PlayStation Network also suffered an outage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-719369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}