Exclusive: Xbox Clarifies Physical "Minimum Print" Requirements On Xbox

Are you a physical collector when it comes to Xbox that has been growing frustrated everytime a company prints games for everywhere but Xbox? The blame for a while has been put on Xbox, but that may not be where the blame should fall after all.

Anyone who has followed me for a while, even before Gamer Social Club, knows I'm a big supporter of physical media in gaming, especially on Xbox. For years we've heard publishers talk about skipping Xbox physical media due to a "large minimum print" requirement, and for a long time that was true. It wasn't until a few years ago that Xbox came out and said they will change their policy on this.

The problem is, we never actually heard a number when it came to this. Was it 10,000 copies? 100,000, perhaps even higher? We never knew, but all we had to go on was these companies saying they aren't printing copies because of Xbox's rule about prints. That reason never seemed valid to me though. I've seen and own games on Xbox with sub 1,000 prints.

Unfortunately physicals are not possible for us. This is completely on Microsoft unfortunately, they as a company do not prioritize or help smaller / indie developers or publishers. They require an absolutely MASSIVE minimum order in order to do physical and I'm simply not able.
— Seed of Nostalgia – Primitive Pixels (@PrimPixelsGames) April 24, 2025

Now I get for a small team that if the number was say 1,000 that it might not be reasonable. Every dollar counts for these small teams so if they didn't think they could sell that many, why print them at all. Still I wanted to find out about this in a more official capacity.

No Limit On Prints

For the past few months I've been digging and digging trying to get an answer. I've reached out to small publishers, developers and even Xbox themselves for clarification. Most didn't bother responding and the ones that did didn't offer anything concrete, until now.

Xbox themselves have reached out with an official statement regarding this topic, and it opens a whole new discussion up. The statement reads:

“Xbox has no minimum order quantity for physical media. Retailers, studios and partners make their own decisions based on what they feel is best for their business and players. If a developer wants to make physical copies of their Xbox games, they should get in touch with us to learn how to get started.”

That statement is about as clear as they come, no limitations. This then turns the question into, well what were these other publishers and developers talking about when it comes to minimum prints? My best guess at this point is they either:

A) Think the old policy is still in place

B) have limited print requirements from the actual companies printing the discs

C) Are just saying that so the blow back is on Xbox

I'll give the benefit of the doubt that it's not option C so let's eliminate that now. If it's option A and the company just hasn't worked with Xbox in a while (or ever) that makes sense. Option B if I had to guess this is probably the most common issue. I don't know how those deals with production and distribution companies work, but they'd likely count a PlayStation SKU and an Xbox SKU separately and want minimum orders before they print.

Whatever the reason is, we can at least finally have some clarity on what the rules are when it comes to Xbox themselves. Hopefully enough developers and publishers see this news and can work with Xbox to solve the issue of so many games skipping Xbox physically.

There of course is also the fact that Xbox themselves have stopped printing many physical games. South Of Midnight has no physical release. Avowed and Flight Sim 2024 have codes in boxes. If there's no limit why not just take pre-orders and print them + a few extra? Xbox wouldn't comment on that and is the most perplexing thing to me about this.