Xbox is investigating reports that a recent system-wide service outage prevented players from accessing games installed on physical discs without an internet connection. Scott Van Vliet, Xbox's Chief Technology Officer, stated that the company is looking into the issue and confirmed that disc-based entitlement checks are designed not to block access offline.
The outage, which occurred late on July 26 and lasted into the next day, disrupted players' ability to log into their accounts, view game libraries, and launch games. Vliet attributed the problem to a licensing service external to Xbox that the platform relies upon, calling the disruption "unacceptable" and promising a thorough post-incident review to prevent similar failures from impacting players in the future.
This Xbox outage followed a separate disruption on the PlayStation Network earlier on July 24, which similarly impacted access to digital games and applications. While PlayStation has not publicly disclosed the cause of its outage, it prompted renewed discussion among players about the benefits of physical media, which largely remained playable offline during the network interruption. This contrasts with Sony's stated plans to cease production of physical game discs by January 2028.
Reports also suggest Xbox is exploring a feature to allow players to digitize their physical game collection, granting a digital license tied to the disc. This license would transfer if the physical game is given or sold to another owner, though the original physical disc would remain functional for the initial owner if they opt not to digitize it.