Xbox Player Loses Thousands in Games After Microsoft Deletes His Account

What happened to Joshua Kane’s Xbox account?

Twitch streamer Joshua Kane says Microsoft deleted his 25-year-old account after it was compromised, taking his digital Xbox games and OneDrive data with it. According to VICE’s report, Kane says he proved to Microsoft that he was the original owner and that the account had been hacked, only for the company to delete it rather than restore it.

Writing on X, Kane described the loss in blunt terms: “Microsoft DELETED my account AND OneDrive!!?? After ACKNOWLEDGING that I’m the owner of the account and that it was compromised??? 25 f***ng years of data, thousands of euros spent on games?? My son’s baby pictures? GONE!” He says the account held around 20 years of digitally purchased Xbox games, worth thousands of dollars, alongside family photos and documents. Microsoft had not publicly commented on his claims at the time of the report.

His post went viral, and the replies made clear he was not alone. One commenter said Microsoft had done the same with an account they had held “from day one of Xbox Live (20yrs+),” adding that support is largely staffed by community volunteers with limited tools. That is the uncomfortable core of the story: when the account holding your library is gone, the games you paid for go with it.

Why this matters for anyone with a digital library

The deletion reignites a question that has followed every all-digital storefront: do you actually own the games you buy? Kane’s case is being treated online as evidence that a digital purchase is really access granted for as long as you keep control of one account. Lose that account — through a hack, a lockout, or a deletion — and the licence disappears with it.

Microsoft has faced this fallout before. In July, a Brazilian Xbox fan sued the company after his account was locked and, per the reporting, was told to make a new account and buy his games again. He won his court case, which is why so many people urged Kane to pursue legal action too. It is a reminder that courts have been willing to treat a lost digital library as a real harm rather than a terms-of-service footnote.

The timing sharpens the point. With Sony set to stop producing physical PlayStation games in 2028, the industry is drifting towards libraries that exist only as account entries. Kane’s account, deleted after 25 years, is exactly the scenario that makes players nervous about that future. This is also a period when Xbox’s relationship with its own community is already strained; the platform has spent the past year weathering studio closures, 3,200 job cuts, and a fanbase that has taken to Microsoft’s own feedback site to protest, as IGN Middle East reported.

How to recover an Xbox account without email or password?

If your Microsoft account is locked or compromised, the main route back is Microsoft’s account recovery form at account.live.com/acsr, where you supply old passwords, billing details, and your Xbox gamertag to prove ownership. Using a device and location you have signed in from before improves your chances, and Microsoft’s own guidance is worth reading before you start; the company also documents how to reopen a recently closed account during its grace period.

The catch is timing. Microsoft can close accounts left inactive for two years, after which there is a 60-day window to sign back in and reactivate. Once that window passes — or an account is otherwise classed as permanently deleted — Microsoft’s support documentation, echoed by independent explainers on what happens to old accounts, indicates there is no technical path back. That is why prevention beats recovery every time.

Practical defences are straightforward. Enable multi-factor authentication on the Microsoft account tied to your Xbox purchases, use a strong password you do not reuse, and check your sign-in activity and connected devices regularly. Keep your recovery email and phone number current so Microsoft can actually send you a code when it counts. Sign in at least once every couple of years to avoid inactivity flags. And keep an offline note of key details — gamertag, rough account creation date, and transaction IDs for major purchases — because if things go wrong, proof of ownership is the strongest card you can play.