Xbox chief technology officer Scott Van Vliet said in a post on X that a licensing service sitting outside Xbox, which the platform depends on, began failing late on July 26 and took roughly 16 hours to clear, blocking sign-ins, library listings, and game launches across Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Microsoft restored service at 2:30 p.m. PDT on July 27.
For part of that window, Microsoft's status page warned that players might have trouble launching disc-based games, leaving a physical copy sitting in the tray no more useful than a digital one. Discs on Xbox One and Series consoles carry encrypted XVC packages with attached licenses, rather than acting as bootable media, per Microsoft's documentation.
