Xbox Confirms Physical Game Discs Should Have Worked During Recent Service Outage

Xbox has acknowledged that players using physical game discs should not have lost access to their games during the platform's recent service disruption, after some users reported that disc-based titles would not launch while Xbox services were offline.

Earlier this week, Xbox experienced an extended outage that disrupted online services for much of the day. Alongside the online issues, some players discovered that games installed from physical discs were also inaccessible, raising concerns about how the platform handles ownership verification.

According to Microsoft's technology chief, Scott Van Vliet, the widespread disruption stemmed from issues involving an external licensing service. While the outage affected digital licensing systems, Microsoft says the same behavior was never intended for physical game discs.

Xbox Explains Why Disc-Based Games Failed During The Outage

Speaking to The Verge, Van Vliet said the company is investigating why some players were unable to use disc-based games during the interruption.

"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," he said.

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Van Vliet added that disc ownership information is designed to be stored locally, allowing compatible games to remain playable even when an Xbox console is offline. However, the mechanism responsible for enabling that behavior did not function as expected during the outage.

Microsoft says the problem will be addressed through an upcoming software update.

Xbox Continues To Address Service And Business Challenges

The incident adds to a series of challenges Xbox has faced over the past several months. Following a difficult 2025, the gaming business has undergone leadership changes, implemented price increases, and announced plans to reduce its workforce by approximately 3,200 employees.

The company has not provided additional details on when the update correcting the disc entitlement issue will be released, but says a fix is in development.