By Another great Microsoft reversal
Shortly after Microsoft lifted the lid on Ninja Gaiden 4 and The Outer Worlds 2 during its 2025 Xbox Games Showcase, it was revealed that both of these games would get code-in-a-box physical releases – but the team has now reversed that decision and the two games will ship on-disc here in 2025. Hurrah!
News of this latest Microsoft reversal comes from Canadian retailer PNP Games, who says it’s had confirmation that both of these Xbox first-party games will now get proper disc-based physical copies later this year. The store is also trying to find out whether data for the full game will be on the discs as well, but they’ve had no response on that just yet.
This news comes right after Microsoft reversed another controversial decision regarding The Outer Worlds 2. Prior to this week, the upcoming Obsidian RPG was set to be Xbox’s first $80 game, before the team decided to roll that change back and stick to $70 for its late 2025 lineup. That’s a couple of big wins for the Obsidian team, then.
At the time of posting, Microsoft hasn’t given an official statement on this latest reversal, so we’re not entirely sure of the motivations behind its decision. Physical games not properly shipping on discs is becoming a bigger and bigger community concern though, and we wouldn’t be surprised if pre-order numbers were affected as a result.
Happy with this move, physical game fans? Talk to us about this change of heart down in the comments.
Ben is a News Writer at Pure Xbox, and is a fan of action, racing and straight-up shootin’ in any Xbox game he can get his hands on. When he’s not clutching an Xbox controller like his life depends on it, Ben spends his time listening to music that’s far too old for him, watching football on the telly and probably eating somewhere.