Xbox Promises to Investigate Reports of Service Outage Preventing Players From Accessing Physical Games

Xbox is soothing fans’ fears astir integer ownership pursuing a system-wide outage that reportedly prevented games connected carnal discs from being played without an net connection.

Speaking to The Verge, Xbox’s Chief Technology Officer Scott Van Vliet promised players that the institution is investigating these reports, echoing the fashionable sentiment that, yes, games you ain connected a carnal disc should enactment offline.

“We’re looking into reports that immoderate players were incapable to entree games utilizing discs arsenic expected during the work interruption,” Vliet said. “Disc-based entitlement checks should not forestall players from accessing their games, and this is by design.”

The outage occurred precocious connected Sunday night, July 26, and lasted good into the adjacent time earlier yet being resolved precocious connected July 27. The contented prevented players from logging into their Xbox accounts, viewing their crippled libraries, and adjacent playing games astatine all. Vliet confirmed that this was owed to "a licensing work that sits extracurricular of Xbox, but which Xbox depends upon,” vowing to “do better” and calling the disruption an “unacceptable situation.”

“We're moving a afloat post-incident review,” helium said successful a tweet. “I attraction little astir the one-line basal origin and much astir the existent questions: wherefore a nonaccomplishment successful 1 work was capable to instrumentality down this much, wherefore betterment took arsenic agelong arsenic it did, and what we alteration truthful a azygous constituent of nonaccomplishment can't ruin your nighttime again.”

Xbox wasn’t the lone large games web that suffered from an outage recently; PlayStation Network besides went down for hours connected the greeting of July 24, preventing players from accessing integer games and launching apps, arsenic good arsenic throwing a large wrench into Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls's record-breaking unfastened beta. Luckily, things were resolved that aforesaid day, though PlayStation has not publically revealed the origin of the issue.

That being said, the PlayStation outage prompted a slew of posts from players hailing the benefits of carnal games, which were mostly untouched by the web disruption and inactive playable offline, successful the aftermath of Sony’s determination to yet extremity each accumulation of carnal crippled discs by January 2028.

Xbox, connected the different hand, is reportedly preparing a method that would let players to digitize their carnal games, allowing them to instrumentality the disc into and giving them a integer licence for said game. What’s more, if a subordinate gives oregon sells a disc to idiosyncratic else, that integer licence past follows its caller owner, but the carnal mentation volition inactive enactment if players take not to digitize it.

For now, the increasing discontent astir Sony’s determination to eschew carnal discs successful favour of a digital-only aboriginal continues to ruffle feathers, prompting players to flood the brand’s societal media with comments protesting the plans and hoping immoderate way, somehow, it'll alteration its mind.

Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With 10 years of acquisition reporting connected games and entertainment, she’s got a storied inheritance successful the warring crippled community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her connected Twitter astatine @TheeMissGlaze.