Open letter to Xbox

Versión en Español

Dear Mr. Spencer and dear Xbox team members:

We write this open letter to tell you about the comparative grievance we are suffering as Xbox users on account of the conditions of publication in physical format on your video console.

Many times we are forced by those conditions to choose between playing a game on Xbox or playing on another platform having it in physical format. For many of us it is not about choosing the best option but choosing the least bad one.

This weekend that problem jumped back to the fore (not that it had finished leaving when it had to re-enter) the everlasting issue of physical distribution on Xbox.

Deep Differences

Asking the team behind the game Sword of the Necromancer if there would be a physical version option for Xbox the answer was clear. Xbox asks them for much higher amounts of copies than their competitors to allow to publish the game in physical format.

In addition, they have indicated that to that threshold is added the fact that Xbox boxes are significantly more expensive than those of their rivals. So there is no way that for a study of that size it is profitable to approach the project with these conditions.

It is not the first time it happens. Sometimes even after announcing the physical version of a game on Xbox it disappears when it cannot reach those required publication thresholds. Another example is the video game Aeterna Noctis. Its Chaos Edition was originally announced for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation consoles and Xbox.

Later the Xbox edition disappeared.

The creators of these games are willing to publish them in physical format for Xbox, but they are denied the opportunity due to conditions that do not fit the market position of Xbox. Remember that today it is the platform that occupies a third place on consoles numbers. To aggravate the situation only one of its two new generation consoles has a disc reader.

The lesser between bad options

So, on many occasions, users who continue to support the physical format see how the game they want is available on all platforms except the one they want to play it. It would be interesting to know how many times those game does not come out on Xbox, physical or digital, for that same reason.

This means that in the end users have to make an unpleasant decision. Play the game on Xbox on digital, even if they prefer to have the game in physical format, or to have it in that format buy it on other platforms. The devil’s alternative, we cannot choose the best option, only the least bad.

Users transmit information to companies with our acquisitions, variables that affect policies for the future to some extent. This is where the dilemma comes.

Small clarification

It is important to understand that what I want to criticise is the fact that we (as Xbox users) are obliged to make the decision of what to support, not the fact that one or the other is better. Everyone is free to make the decisions they think are convenient and seem most favorable or reasonable for themselves.

The alternatives

There are many people I know who have told me “I really like this game and I want to play it on Xbox, but since it does not come out in physical format, I prefer to buy it on X platform”.

This is the sad reality we have to face. And according to the decision we make, we imply one thing or another. But none of them are good on the long term.

Support the format

After investing hundreds or thousands of euros in a game library, we all like that they will continue to be available in the future for keep playing. And yes, all players want it. Many voices say “I do not buy a system of X euros to play old games”, but they do not stop buying out Remakes (the least) and remastered (the most) of them. So yes, players want to keep playing “old games”…

But what if the next system doesn’t have a reader unit? Or in the case of games that do not come complete on the disc… what happens if the patch is removed from it? Or if someone comes and mess it, like the developers of The Division 2, and not only breaks the game, but leaves it without being able to patch it?

A lot of users prefer to have the game in physical to support its preservation. And if a game doesn’t come out on one platform, they can end up buying it on another.

In that case, sales of the game fall on the Xbox system, conveying the idea that users of the platform are not interested in the game, making it difficult to release new releases or sequels.

Support the system

On the other side of the scale is supporting the system. If the game interests you and comes out on Xbox, even if only in digital, acquire it in order to show support for it.

But of course, in this case you launch a message of “I don’t care about the physical format, just give me the game”. So, you distort the answer in another way. Companies see that what interests users is that the game comes out, regardless of the format.

Remember that at the price level THERE IS NO difference between the physical and digital format. Users pay the same whether they have the game with its box, cover, disc, distribution costs … than only having the digital license.

Obviously companies are going to like this approach. Same income and less expenses equals more profits.

And we are talking about Microsoft is the first that it’s seems to seek that users move to the digital format. We are talking about that there are several physical releases that are mere license keys (Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5, to name a few). From Hi-Fi Rush there is no news of a possible physical edition… and Minecraft Legends is only confirmed in physical (at the time of writing in Spain) only for other systems…

Without many options

In the end it is not about choosing the best option but about choosing the least bad. Neither fully benefits the ecosystem or its users.

It’s hard to tell a company “I want your game and I want it in physical format” if you don’t get both options on the platform. Your only option is to support the games that meet both conditions, hoping that they see what you really want (hey, we went from not having the Yakuza / Like a Dragon saga to having it and the last 4 games (Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Judgment, Lost Judgment and Like a Dragon: Ishin in physical)… so its no hopeless.

At the end of all, our decision remains. Neither is good, both are bad. In the end, in my case, I decided to go ahead by supporting the system, even knowing that it is not what I really want. And I understand the people who support the format, even if they want to support the system. We can’t (except for some survey that companies do) transmit all the information, so we can’t make them listen to what we really want.

The preservation of games

There is no doubt that Microsoft, to this date, is the company that has bet the most on the preservation of video games. It is the only company that has put in the hands of consumers a machine that can play games from four different generations of its consoles. I have games that have been with me for decades and still work on my Series X. Not only that, they work better than ever. For that, I can only thank all the effort that the Xbox team has put into achieving that feat.

That is why it is difficult for me to understand the obstacles that are being put to publishers and developers to publish their games in physical format. Mr Spencer, as you have emphasised on many occasions, wants to give users the freedom to play what they want, where and how they want. But that contradicts the current publishing policy that Xbox continues to maintain.

Therefore, from the respect, we ask you to review the conditions that are requested for the publication of the games on Xbox. Simply by matching the conditions offered by its competitors many more games would reach the Xbox ecosystem, even games that now ignore the platform would end up arriving.

Thank you very much for all the work done to date, and thank you very much for reading this far.

Sincerely, the xboxphysicalgames.com team.