The era of physical games appears to be quickly coming to an end. After Sony announced that it would stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation games in 2028, details have surfaced regarding Xbox’s plans for the future as well.
According to a new report from Tom Warren at The Verge, Xbox is working on a new disc-to-digital feature that will let Xbox players convert all their physical games to digital copies.
Digitize Your Games Library
Warren reports that this new “Disc2Digital” feature has appeared in the Xbox PC app code since May. His sources say that it will work for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One discs, but not Xbox 360 or original Xbox games.
How it’s planned to work, he writes, is that players will insert a compatible disc, install the game, and load it. It’s going to require a Microsoft account on the console and will then give players a “digital entitlement” for the game.
“This digital entitlement is tied to the specific disc, and it will move from account to account if you swap the physical game with a friend or log in to a different Xbox profile and try to play a disc-based game,” the report reads.
It’s also said that the disc-to-digital feature will support discs bundled with a system and even multi-disc games. That said, not every disc, even for supported consoles, may work.
“It all depends on how and when the disc was manufactured, and it may not have the features we need for this program,” Microsoft said.
The discs will also still work after the process is done, allowing you to continue to play them on the proper systems.
Regarding the reports that Xbox’s Project Helix console won’t have a disc drive, Warren says Microsoft “hasn’t fully finalized” that decision.
What do you think of the reported Xbox Disc-to-Digital program? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, or join the discussion in the official Insider Gaming Discord.
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Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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Very cool, but I wish this was a thing back when most people still bought discs
That’s actually helpful. Now if they can make the entire OG Xbox and 360 library BC that would be helpful! They own Activision and a ton of those games are still missing like True Crime also the old Tenchu games. Now if only they could do this for Steam transfer your Xbox library to Steam merge accounts.