Xbox Physical Media Uncertain After Latest Layoff Division Report

There’s been a few notable headlines today based around Microsoft. If you caught the news earlier this morning, you discovered that Microsoft cut an astonishing 1,900 jobs in their gaming division. This came shortly after the finalization of Microsoft’s acquisitions. For nearly $70 billion, Microsoft managed to pull in Activision Blizzard. After a long battle with regulators, Microsoft was able to finalize the deal, and it left some wondering what these teams might be working on. However, it looks like quite a few individuals are now finding themselves without their jobs under the Xbox banner.

However, a new report online from Windows Central Jez Corden is that Microsoft has cut back its physical retail departments. If this is true, then it’s looking like the folks responsible for ensuring physical media might be out with a new focus of going all digital. Microsoft has certainly toyed with this idea for a little while now, with the company offering digital-only consoles. Likewise, there were several leaks last year that unveiled Microsoft, bringing out a mid-gen refresh for the Xbox Series X. That mid-gen refresh leak also indicated that Microsoft was scrapping the optical disc drive from the Xbox Series X and would instead offer a digital-only model, much like the Xbox Series S. 

We haven’t seen that come to fruition yet, but it does look like this could happen if Jez Corden’s report on X is correct. That might mean we could soon see this new revision model come out, with Microsoft confirming that future titles under the Xbox banner would be available digitally. But again, this is just a report right now, and we’re waiting to see what the future holds for Microsoft’s line of physical media when it comes to their gaming division. Much like how Jez stated in a follow-up post, this could be a move where Microsoft outsource some of this retail work.

Microsoft is not the only one that has just let go of employees. We even reported that thousands of other jobs have already happened this year alone. So we’re hopeful this trend is done, and we can see new growth in this industry. Of course, there’s always the looming threat of what the future may hold for some, such as the recent reports of Piranha Bytes shutting down if they can’t find a new buyer. Likewise, Bungie developers have been working hard to ensure that a complete takeover from Sony doesn’t happen. For now, we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for Microsoft’s console division if we have a mid-gen refresh that removes disc drives into the mix.