Summary
If you’re a gamer that enjoys actually owning your games, then the future probably looks a bit spooky for you. Not only do we havePlayStationselling optional disc drives,but Nintendo’s new Game-Key Card system is also raising concernsthat the all-digital era may be a lot closer than we all thought. In fact, if you’re an Xbox fan, it may already be here.
Xbox managed to raise quite a few eyebrows when it seemed as though PlayStation would be getting a physical version of Gears of War: Reloaded,but not Microsoft’s own console. Fast-forward a couple of months, and it now seems as though Xbox has just stopped making physical discs for all of its big upcoming games.
Xbox Is Seemingly No Longer Selling Physical Discs For Its Big Games
Release dates for The Outer Worlds 2andNinja Gaiden 4 were revealedduringSunday’s big Xbox Games Showcase, and pre-orders have gone up for those that want to snag their copies early. Unfortunately, it seems as though large retailers such as Best Buy aren’t actually taking pre-orders for standard physical copies.
There are physical Xbox pre-orders for Deluxe Editions of The Outer Worlds 2 and Ninja Gaiden 4,but these are literally just download codes in boxes, and don’t include a disc. Meanwhile, both games are getting standard physical editions on PS5, suggesting that Xbox is just about done selling its games on physical discs.
Of course, these two games aren’t absolutely gigantic titles, and Gears of War: Reloaded is more a PlayStation re-release than a full-blown remaster, so we’ll have to wait and see whether this trend continues whenheavy hitters like Gears of War: E-Day, Fable, Halo, and the next Forza game get closer.If Halo is going digital, then we can pretty much assume Xbox fans just won’t be buying physical games anymore.
It’s disappointing news, but not all that surprising given that physical sales have been very low for Xbox and PlayStation,and with the news that The Outer Worlds will cost $80 at launch, it’s difficult to see a physical version selling all that well. We saw with Doom: The Dark Ages thatXbox fans will just use Game Pass for first-party games, rather than buy them physically. Seems like the all-digital era is on the horizon, and I really hate it.
