No. Xbox is not matching PlayStation's January 2028 "no new discs" policy. Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said killing physical is not a strategic goal. That does not mean discs are thriving. It means Microsoft says it will follow demand, not force an all-digital ideology the way Sony's 2028 cutoff does for new PlayStation releases.
Spencer's actual quotes
Pressed on whether Xbox would abandon discs, Spencer answered with customer behavior first:
We are supportive of physical media, but we don't have a need to drive that disproportionate to customer demand.
And:
We ship games physically and digitally, and we're really just following what the customers are doing. And I think our job in running Xbox is to deliver on the things that a majority of the customers want. And right now, a majority of our customers are buying games digitally.
Then the line physical fans quote for comfort:
But I will say our strategy does not hinge on people moving all-digital. And getting rid of physical, that's not a strategic thing for us.
That is the wedge versus Sony. Sony dated the end of new disc presses. Spencer refused to make "delete physical" a strategy.
Why the panic still exists
Xbox already sells a digital-first box: Series S has no disc drive. A leaked all-digital Series X concept fed the fear that the flagship would go drive-less too. Spencer would not commit to that leaked SKU in the same conversation, but he pointed at Series S as proof Xbox already serves digital-only buyers.
He also explained the hardware economics without promising a funeral for discs:
Gaming consoles themselves have kind of become the last consumer electronic device that has a drive. And this is a real issue, just in terms of the number of manufacturers that are actually building drives and the cost associated with those.
Fewer drive makers means higher COGS. That pressure is real. Spencer's claim is that Xbox will not build a corporate strategy that requires physical to die.
On layoff rumors about physical teams, he said the moves were about retail-org alignment across ZeniMax, Activision, and Xbox, not deleting the ability to ship discs:
It wasn't about us getting rid of the capability.
