Xbox chief Phil Spencer addressed deep questions surrounding the company’s stance on physical media following leaks of last year’s “stunning all-digital” Xbox Series “I support it,” and insisted on “getting rid of physical media.” It’s physical, but it’s not strategic for us. ”
The all-digital (and decidedly cylindrical) new Xbox Series did.But then Spencer Acknowledging the leak, He called the contents “old emails and documents” and claimed they had “changed a lot.”
But even so, the possibility of an all-digital new Xbox remains looming, whether it’s a mid-cycle refresh or a future console, especially following news of major layoffs in Microsoft’s games retail team. And Spencer now shed a little more light on his Microsoft views on physical media as part of his Game File interview with journalist Stephen Totilo.
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“We support physical media, but there is no need to promote physical media that is disproportionate to customer demand,” Spencer told Totillo. Spencer further elaborated, saying, “We ship games physically and digitally, but we’re really just following customer behavior. We believe our job is to deliver what the majority of our customers want.” And today, the majority of our customers buy their games digitally. ”
The implication seems to be that Xbox’s all-digital future is perhaps inevitable, if not necessarily imminent. Mr Spencer said the “reduction in suppliers and buyers” of disk drives meant that “the cost of drives has been affected” as gaming consoles “became the last consumer electronics devices with drives”. Stated.
But for now, Xbox doesn’t seem to have any immediate plans to discontinue support for physical media. “Our strategy doesn’t depend on people going all-digital. Getting rid of physical things is not strategic for us,” concludes Spencer. I did.
Spencer’s conversation with Game File follows last week’s confirmation that Microsoft – as widely rumored – plans to release four first-party games, previously exclusive to Xbox, on PlayStation 5 and Switch. It follows. Microsoft has yet to officially announce what those games will be, but current reports list Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Hi-Fi Rush, and Pentiment.
