Almost all new Xbox Game Studios games have been released only in digital format

The release of games on physical media has been a widely accepted norm in the industry for decades, but the growing popularity of digital downloads has changed the established rules for the distribution of video game products.

Microsoft followed this trend and, as the players noticed, left almost all of its latest projects from Xbox Game Studios for Xbox Series X and Xbox One without disk releases.

We are talking about As Dusk Falls, Grounded, Pentiment, GoldenEye 007, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire: Tokyo, which were released only "digitally" and are available either for purchase in the Microsoft Store or by subscription through the Xbox Game Pass service.

The exception was the Deathloop port, which can be bought on disks, however, the company still tries to release large AAA titles on disks (Microsoft Flight Simulator, Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5), but as for small and niche games, here the company apparently decided to give preference to digital distribution.

However, some of these projects, for example, Psychonauts 2, eventually also come out in physical format.

According to a study by the analytical agency NewZoo, more than 70% of all game sales in 2022 were digital downloads.