After PlayStation decided to kill discs, the very future of physical media was put into question. Sony owns a major stake in Blu-ray, so if it decided not to go forward with it, then it was going to take everyone down with the ship, Xbox included.
But now, it seems Xbox is gearing up and preparing for a potential future where it does, in fact, support physical media. As spotted by Jez Corden of Windows Central, Xbox posted a new job listing looking for an “Xbox Games Supply Strategist,” a position which would largely be devoted to handling physical game releases.
“The Xbox Games Supply Strategist will coordinate the launch of physical Xbox games across all platforms, lead development and oversee execution of global supply positioning strategies across all stages of the product lifecycle,” the job description reads. It doesn’t really get more clear-cut than that, though we have to consider whether this position covers the current Xbox hardware generation or extends beyond it and into the in-development Project Helix.
Read what’s behind the latest news in gaming (with a bit of snark) by subscribing to the Destructoid Checkpoint newsletter!
After Sony’s decision to phase out discs starting in 2028, Microsoft did not offer any comments on the matter, but leakers did start saying that Project Helix will most likely not support them either. That has never been confirmed by anyone at Xbox, and what’s more, Xbox released a new tech allowing users to create digital copies of their physical games that they can then play on the go without actually having anything present in their drives.
With such a push toward homogenizing the physical-digital dichotomy, and with this new role now open, I believe Microsoft is in no way distancing itself from physical media. After all, the company is slowly bridging the gap between the two, allowing them to co-exist without encroaching on the other’s market share.
We recently wrote about how Sony’s own first-party games are still shipping a significant amount of discs, with titles such as Wolverine selling up to 35 percent of their total volume in physical formats. There is no logical reason to destroy this medium other than the desire to maximize profits by cutting out middlemen (retailers) and keeping the otherwise inaccessible 30 percent.
