Xbox's recent widespread server outage, which prevented many players from accessing their digital libraries, also caused unexpected issues for users attempting to play physical, disc-based games. Xbox technology chief Scott Van Vliet has since stated that these problems should not have occurred, attributing them to an external licensing service failure. He confirmed that a future update will address this, ensuring players can access their physical games even during future service interruptions.
The incident, which began on July 27, disrupted a significant portion of Xbox's online infrastructure, leading to login failures and inaccessibility of digital titles. Following the resolution of the outage, Van Vliet explained on Twitter that the root cause was an external licensing service malfunction. While this explanation detailed the digital game access issues, it did not initially address reports of physical games being unplayable on some offline consoles.
Addressing these specific reports, Van Vliet told The Verge that Xbox is aware of the problem with disc-based games. He clarified that while physical games do require licensing checks, these checks are designed not to prevent access during an offline state or a service interruption. "Disc-based entitlement checks should not prevent players from accessing their games, and this is by design," Van Vliet stated. He further explained that the issue stemmed from consoles being unable to correctly utilize "saved entitlements" during the outage, which are crucial for offline mode functionality.
Xbox is working on an update intended to rectify this specific problem. Once implemented, this update is expected to allow players to access their physical games without issue, even if Xbox services are unavailable or the console is offline. This addresses a concern that server dependency could impact access to owned physical media.