Microsoft regularly finds itself confronted with complaints from players because of contradictory statements, and this is once again the case today with the latest message from Sarah Bond, the president of the brand.
“We don’t want a code in the box”
Following the reprieve obtained by Google that we mentioned this morning, the president of Xbox declared that Microsoft had to change its plans on cloud gaming. She said that at Xbox, the goal was to “give gamers more choice in how and where they play,” including the ability to play and purchase games directly from the app. Xbox.
This sentence did not fail to provoke a reaction from part of the community, and in particular Xbox players who support physical support, since the most “liked” responses to Sarah Bond's tweet directly refer to Microsoft's choice not to offer real physical editions of Avowed.
I can't wait for your team to implement this system, but as always, when talking about players having the choice to play the way they want, don't forget about physical Xbox players.
We don't want codes in a box
Why don't you give Xbox players the option to purchase physical games if you support choice? A code in the Avowed box is nonsense!
If you haven't followed the story, Avowed, the big Xbox RPG expected in February 2025, will only be released digitally. If a physical collector's edition is available for pre-order, it does not include any disc and only a code to download the game will be offered. A decision all the stranger when we know that this edition is sold with a steelbook… the interior of which will therefore remain empty.
Physical games and Xbox no longer go well together
Players attached to physical media are rarely at the party with Xbox. With its services such as Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Cloud Gaming and its numerous consoles without a physical drive, Microsoft has been pushing towards dematerialization for several years now.
However, many people prefer the physical medium, in particular because of the high prices charged on the different stores, the impossibility of being able to lend their digital games or quite simply for the pleasure of actually owning a game as an object. .
Unfortunately, physical Xbox versions are becoming increasingly rare, whether for third-party games, but also first-party games. Worse still, when a physical edition is available, there is rarely the entire game on the disc, the fault, in particular, of the weight of the games and the limited size Blu-rays used by Microsoft compared to those of Sony.
This is particularly why PS5 games are regularly complete on Blu-ray, while Xbox games are less frequently and require an additional download in order to download the rest of the data.
As always, obviously don't hesitate to give us your opinion on the subject in the comments. If you want to learn more about physical game support on Xbox and PS5, we invite you to follow the work of Does it Play?.
