Xbox to Change Licensing System After Inaccessible Games Scandal

The latest major Xbox service outage revealed a problem that owners of physical games should not have encountered. Some users couldn't even launch games from discs, and Microsoft is preparing a fix.

Microsoft acknowledged that disc games undergo license verification, but such verification should not block access to games during server issues or offline.

Xbox Head of Technology Scott Van Vliet stated that the company is investigating player complaints, and the situation that occurred did not align with the system's operating principles.

The outage began on Sunday evening and lasted almost a day. Users encountered problems logging into accounts, launching applications, the store, and accessing digital and physical games.

According to Microsoft, the cause was a bug that prevented some consoles from properly using locally stored licenses. This data is supposed to ensure games work in offline mode.

The company will release a fix in one of the upcoming system updates so that a similar outage no longer deprives players of access to games purchased on discs.