The push toward all-digital game libraries is convenient—until someone else takes control of your account. A troubling report is making the rounds after a longtime Xbox player, known online as Squirrel Mort, said they were locked out of a Microsoft account that reportedly contained around 15 years’ worth of Xbox game purchases. With access gone, the fear isn’t just losing a username. It’s losing an entire digital collection built over a decade and a half.
As more gamers move away from physical discs and rely on digital purchases, the value of an account stocked with games, add-ons, and subscriptions rises dramatically. That also makes it a bigger target. In this case, the player claims a hacker gained ownership of the Microsoft account and then changed key security details—such as the registered email address and other recovery information. Once those account credentials are replaced, getting back in can become extremely difficult, even for the original owner.
That’s the nightmare scenario for digital gamers: being told the only option is to create a new username and password while the original account—and every purchase tied to it—stays out of reach. For someone who’s been buying games since the Xbox 360 era, that can represent thousands of dollars and years of memories. And it isn’t only about gaming. Because Microsoft logins are connected to services beyond Xbox, a takeover can potentially affect other important data, including files stored in OneDrive.
What makes the story even more concerning is that similar complaints have appeared from other users, suggesting this may not be an isolated incident. One industry commentator responding to the situation said they’ve been looking into comparable reports for months, noting that these cases often end in outcomes customers find unacceptable.
Still, there are signs that persistence can matter. While some players describe getting stuck in a loop with automated or unhelpful responses, others say they’ve eventually recovered access by escalating the case, providing documentation, and continuing to push for a proper review. Support experiences can vary widely, but the takeaway is clear: if an account is compromised, acting fast and continuing to follow up may be the best shot at restoring access.
Xbox isn’t the only platform dealing with the risks of digital ownership. PlayStation users have also reported account theft and lockouts, especially among players with high-profile trophy histories. Those accounts can be valuable on underground marketplaces, which gives criminals even more incentive to target them. In some cases, frustrated users have accused customer support systems of being too easy to exploit or too slow to protect rightful owners.
For anyone with a large digital game library, the most practical protection is also the simplest: enable two-factor authentication. It’s easy to overlook security when everything is working normally, but the moment an account is taken over, you’re reminded how much value is sitting behind a single login. Whether you play on Xbox or PlayStation, tightening account security now can help prevent the kind of loss that no gamer should have to face.
