Column by Yuri Litvinenko about the new attitude towards downloadable content in Russia

Game consoles remain almost the only class of consumer electronics for which the distribution of content on physical media plays a significant role. But the concept is changing, as it turned out, for example, during the California case of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Microsoft.

The corporation that disabled Xbox gaming services in Russia has two current consoles – the Xbox Series X with a disk drive and the cheaper Xbox Series S without a disk drive. In November 2025, Microsoft expects to introduce an updated version of the older model – with expanded memory for games, but without support for physical media. Current versions are planned to be discontinued.

In conditions when digital services are working normally, refusing to distribute content on physical media makes sense, including for buyers. But force majeure and politics have not yet been canceled.

Thus, after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, all console manufacturers closed Russian digital stores. Without means of bypassing the blocking and various kinds of intermediaries, it is impossible to pay for access to the Xbox Game Pass subscription, but the company released consoles without a disk drive precisely with the expectation of popularizing the subscription scheme. As a result, according to M.Video-Eldorado, in the first eight months of 2023, 80% of sales of PlayStation and Xbox game consoles in the Russian Federation accounted for models with disk drives, although they cost significantly more than models without a disk drive.

The more new electronics from companies that have stopped providing services in the Russian Federation are designed for downloadable content, the more their products will be perceived by consumers as products for advanced users who understand why they bypass restrictions, spending time and money.

The perception of physical media in other segments may also reverse. For example, large hard drives will not be seen as an extravagance, but as a way to store your media library. Editor-in-Chief of the Intermedia agency Evgeny Safronov confirms the growing demand for drives – however, on the gray market, with already recorded pirated copies of films: “In the eyes of people who buy such discs, the legal model of content distribution has disavowed itself.”

Here, of course, we should not forget that companies are trying to control the distribution of content on physical media. According to recent user reports, discs with Universal films have stopped playing in Russia on players that support BD-Live Internet services. So let’s see which blockages will be easier to bypass.