Xbox criticized after outage leaves fully-owned games unplayable for four days

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DRM policy means games need to be able to connect to servers to be played

Xbox Series S
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Xbox has been criticized after leaving users unable to play games for up to four days over the past weekend.

Late last week, Xbox users around the world began to notice issues with launching games, and Xbox itself confirmed on Sunday that downloadable games on consoles were unable to launch for a wide variety of users in Europe. Earlier today on Monday, May 9, the Xbox Support Twitter account claimed that users should now no longer be facing the issues when trying to play downloaded games, but that's not the case, as per the replies to the tweet below.

This has all led to substantial criticism of Xbox's online DRM policy. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it's an online check that a game initiates when booted up, but if the game can't connect to online services for whatever reason, then the DRM check will fail, and as such the game won't be able to launch at all.

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This is now what we're seeing from Xbox users. Since Microsoft's servers are apparently struggling in Europe, with outages extending over the whole of the past weekend, it's leaving games that need a DRM check unable to launch at all. In the replies to the Xbox Support tweet above for example, one user reveals they can't play Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, while another reveals they can't even boot up the Xbox app through the Xbox Series X console.

It's easy to understand why audiences around the world are being highly critical of Xbox's DRM policy in the wake of these server difficulties. DRM checks unfortunately remain a blight for game preservation, as if Xbox ever chooses to shut down servers for its current consoles in the future, it'd unfortunately render games and apps entirely useless without the ability to perform DRM checks.

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Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer
Freelance Writer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.