Xbox is Making Changes to Ensure Disc-Based Games Still Work During Service Outages

Microsoft committed to making some changes to its Xbox backend services after a recent outage prevented gamers from playing their console games, even those installed from physical discs. Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet, who previously explained on X that the outage was caused by the failure of “internal dependency that is shared across Microsoft,” has since shared more details about what happened with The Verge.

According to Van Vliet, the licensing service issue that caused the outage shouldn’t have affected disc-based games, even though physical discs act as a license for playing Xbox games. “We’re looking into reports that some players were unable to access games using discs as expected during the service interruption. Disc-based entitlement checks should not prevent players from accessing their games and this is by design,” the exec said.

Van Vliet added that an upcoming Xbox update will ensure that Xbox consoles will continue to use saved disc-based entitlements to keep games installed from a disc playable during a service outage. “Offline mode is also designed to rely on those saved entitlements,” the exec also said.

This recent Xbox outage, which started on Sunday night and was resolved on Monday, came at a time when the video games industry appears to be ready to move away from physical disks. This is making a lot of console gamers worried.

In recent weeks, Sony got a lot of bad buzz after announcing that it will end production of physical discs for new PlayStation games in January 2028. While Microsoft has yet to announce similar plans for its next-gen Xbox console codenamed “Project Helix,” the writing seems to be already on the wall. Microsoft has been selling disc-less Xbox consoles since 2019 with the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition, and the company has reportedly started testing a new disc-to-digital program internally.