Physical releases, especially on Xbox have slowly become less common this generation as more gamers switch to all digital consumption. While Xbox themselves have been releasing fewer physical versions of their own published games, most other major publishers still supported physical on the platform. That is apparently changing now as Sega has reportedly pulled the plug on Two Point Museum's physical release on Xbox.
As someone who still collects physical games for Xbox and is a big advocate of supporting physical releases in general, I often check sites for new games coming to retail. I have (had?) Two Point Museum pre-ordered for a few months now via Amazon Canada. It was available at all major retailers here and in the US for both PlayStation and Xbox.
However earlier this week I was scrolling the pre-order sections online and noticed that Two Point Museum was suddenly no longer listed on the Xbox pages. Odd. So I checked the US stores. Also gone. Amazon was the only one with it still listed but it was no longer available and no longer had a release date. Only the PlayStation version showed up anywhere.
I had a few of our Europe writers check on their end and it was still listed on Xbox at GAME and Amazon UK as of Wednesday. Today it is now listed as unavailable at some and still available at others. So is it really cancelled on Xbox? This happens from time to time with smaller publishers. They list the game and if pre-orders are low they cancel it. Sega is no small publisher though.
What's The Official Word?
After seeing this on Wednesday I reached out to Sega for any official word and have not received a response. However having gone to a couple GameStop locations today to inquire their systems are showing that "the Xbox version has been cancelled."
This is certainly uncharted waters for a major publisher. While Two Point Museum isn't as high profile a release as other games from AAA publishers, it still as far as I know is the first time a major publisher announced a physical version and then cancelled the Xbox version.
As someone who continues to advocate for physical it is a concern. While many collectors have accepted that physical is dying out we at least figured the major publishers would still support the medium. I've spoken about how Xbox collectors are frustrated of late, and this certainly won't help.
Should we get any official word from Sega we will update this story. Two Point Museum is scheduled to release March 4th for PlayStation 5, PC and Xbox Series S/X. The PlayStation retail version appears to still be available.
