Welcome to the first entry in Building the Shelf, my new series about building my physical Xbox collection. Fittingly, it starts with me admitting I put the whole thing in a box.
A couple of years ago I started picking up physical Xbox games. No grand plan: I’d see some going cheap, buy them, then buy more.
The collection so far
- 32 original Xbox games
- Around 130 on Xbox 360
- About 40 on Xbox One and Xbox Series X
- Over 200 physical games in all, plus roughly 350 more in my digital library
Last year I’d had enough and boxed the lot up. This year something changed, so they’re coming back out.
Why the games went in the box
For me it came down to two things: Game Pass jumping in price, and Halo. It felt like Xbox cared more about getting its games everywhere else than about the people who’d actually bought an Xbox.
In February 2024, Xbox said just four of its games were heading to other consoles, and told us not to read it as a sign that everything was coming. A week later we learned which four: Pentiment, Hi-Fi RUSH, Grounded and Sea of Thieves.
“Just four” soon became everything. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle launched on another console in April 2025, Forza Horizon 5 was announced for one in January 2025, and then in October 2025 came Halo: Campaign Evolved. Honestly, I think that was daft. Put your games everywhere and you’ve given people no reason to play on Xbox.
I’m not a massive Halo fan, but Halo is the icon of Xbox and Master Chief is basically its face. Seeing it leave home was when it really hit me.
Misstep after misstep
After that it was one misstep after another. On 1 October 2025, Game Pass Ultimate went up by more than half, from £14.99 to £22.99 a month ($19.99 to $29.99 in the US). I cancelled straight away.
Console prices went up too, with the Series X hitting £499.99 in the UK in May 2025.
Then came the “This is an Xbox” campaign, where your phone, laptop and TV stick were all apparently an Xbox. I thought it was terrible. If everything is an Xbox, nothing is.
It felt like the brand was being run into the ground, with no future for Xbox. So everything went in the box.
Xbox finally listened
And then it looks like Xbox finally listened. In February 2026, Phil Spencer retired and Asha Sharma took over as CEO, and in May Matthew Ball joined as Chief Strategy Officer. They seem to know what needs to happen.
The big moment for me was the Showcase in June, where Gears of War: E-Day and Clockwork Revolution were confirmed as Xbox console exclusives. But it was also the small, meaningful steps: Xbox looking like Xbox again, even the changes to achievements. Game Pass Ultimate dropped back to £16.99 ($22.99) in April, too. Exclusives are back, and Xbox players are coming first again.
Not all good news
It hasn’t been all good news. In July, Xbox announced around 3,200 job cuts, and studios have left Xbox or been closed.
This might not be a popular opinion, but I think a lot of studios weren’t cutting their cloth. Some underperformed and were given so much slack that failure had no consequences. Game Pass or not, the games still needed to be good. So I think those cuts were the right call to keep Xbox going.
And yes, Halo still launched beyond Xbox. The exclusives are selective, not a complete U-turn. But the direction has changed.
Disc-to-digital gets the lids off
So, time to get them back out. One thing I think is really cool is Xbox’s disc-to-digital, announced in August. Put an eligible disc in once and you get a digital licence as well. I tried it for the video, and it works.
It’ll have me picking up discs again whenever I can. We like collecting, but we also like digital convenience, and this way you get both. My one gripe is that I wish Xbox had explained it better for Xbox One games.
Where Xbox goes next
I think this shake-up will be good. Gaming will evolve past the console, and that’s where Xbox was heading under Phil. It was just too much, too soon. Games will keep spreading out, but there still needs to be exclusivity. You need a reason to choose Xbox.
I haven’t got the space for everything yet, so the games are coming out a few at a time. That’s what Building the Shelf is about: some of the games, plus new pickups as I get them.
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