Xbox's move towards a more digital-focused future is coming under increased scrutiny these days - especially when more reports on the matter keep cropping up. Last month we heard that US retailer Walmart may have planned to pull Starfield discs from store shelves, and now a new industry comment has hinted at a similar situation in Europe.
Speaking on a recent episode of the GamesIndustry.biz Microcast (thanks, VGC), host Christopher Dring made some interesting comments about what he'd heard from a major game publisher in Europe.
"I was told by a major publisher, just before Christmas, that across Europe several retailers have started just not listing Xbox games anymore. So, they've just stopped stocking Xbox games. Xbox is such a digital console now that physical performance of Xbox games is really low.
I couldn't find which retailers these are but it was a proper senior European publishing boss that said it to me."
It's no secret that Xbox games don't perform particularly well on disc in comparison to digital sales - which is perhaps no surprise given the popularity of Microsoft's all-digital Xbox Series S. Still, these sorts of reports are becoming more common, and it definitely feels like Xbox is moving further and further towards a digital-only future, even if we've had no confirmation of the team moving completely away from discs just yet.
What we have heard is that at some point recently Microsoft had plans for an all-digital Xbox Series X, as leaked by FTC documents last year. Microsoft hasn't clarified these leaks or officially announced such a system yet, but we should hear about it soon if it's real.