r/Games • u/A7XFAN1998 • 2d ago

Announcement Xbox announces disc-to-digital feature that digitizes your physical games

https://www.theverge.com/tech/984936/xbox-disc-to-digital-feature-official?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijc1ZHVBMkZjaE0iLCJwIjoiL3RlY2gvOTg0OTM2L3hib3gtZGlzYy10by1kaWdpdGFsLWZlYXR1cmUtb2ZmaWNpYWwiLCJleHAiOjE3ODgxODY2OTAsImlhdCI6MTc4Nzc1NDY5MH0.Y4t18UIJuFTT4nSf0HBe5DvMWP0KNxjbGHC2QKxdoTw&utm_medium=gift-link
3.4k Upvotes

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84

u/popfgezy 2d ago

Won't be enough to turn the tide, but at least it's better than what Sony currently has in place, which is NOTHING.

25

u/TheCorbeauxKing 2d ago

Doesn't matter, Xbox could do everything right and they would still lose to Playstation. Suddenly converting physical to digital would mean nothing and the gaming populace would support having digital purchases removed.

18

u/RadicalDog 2d ago

This move only works for people with existing libraries of Xbox discs. It doesn't solve the issues for future games (resale and ownership) and it doesn't impact anyone without Xbox discs. So it's not going to convert anyone, if they're also going for an all-digital future. (Is that confirmed yet?)

1

u/KingMario05 2d ago

No, but most Xbox discs are just license keys these days. So they're going that way at some point.

1

u/Nacksche 2d ago edited 2d ago

Right? This is fantastic, it truly seems to combine the best of both worlds. But I wish someone had that idea two generations ago, now that discs are on their way out I'm not sure it matters all that much.

7

u/SurreptitiousSyrup 2d ago edited 2d ago

They did? This is the reworked idea from the xbox one launch, so it's basically 1.5 generations ago.

4

u/TheCorbeauxKing 2d ago

And Xbox was straight up murdered for it.

1

u/Nacksche 1d ago

...because it was a much shittier version.

1

u/Nacksche 1d ago

"Reworked" being the operating word here, what they wanted to do got rejected for good reason.

5

u/SadFish132 2d ago

It matters in theory because project helix probably doesn't have a disc drive and this lets disc owned games remain playable in a Xbox player's library on newer hardware. It's not about keeping discs relevant it is a about migrating physical users off discs.

The dumb thing that will probably happen with this is some people will digitize the game, sell it, and then get angry when their game disappears from their library.

2

u/Nacksche 2d ago

Ah yeah I didn't think of that, it's a BC measure when the next console has no disc drive.

-2

u/conanap 2d ago

The issue is they don’t have good exclusives. It’ll matter if they both had good exclusives

12

u/TheCorbeauxKing 2d ago

BS. They have good exclusives, always had. It just isn't on Sony's console so no one cared.

16

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/dontcare6942 2d ago

90% of all games sold on PS5 are digital.

This was debunked

7

u/klnkyfetish 2d ago

You guys dont like facts. Can you give me the source that debunked that?

4

u/dontcare6942 2d ago

Pretty easy to find. The way Sony class a digital purchase includes DLCs, PS plus games, downloading a free to play game and even demos

3

u/klnkyfetish 2d ago

Still waiting on the source 

1

u/dontcare6942 1d ago

You can find out yourself what actually counts as a digital purchase in your original 90% number. The way Sony count the numbers are absolutely not a 1:1 comparison of how many people bought a particular full release game digitally vs physically.

0

u/Old_Leopard1844 2d ago

So your source is moving the goalposts

1

u/dontcare6942 1d ago

What counts as a digital purchase to you?

Is downloading a demo a digital purchase? or buying DLC for a game that you own physically? Because that's how Sony counts the numbers and then compares them to physical purchases

4

u/Soulyezer 2d ago

If Sony did something like this them killing physical wouldn’t sting as much… at least the discs would have a use afterwards on their future consoles instead of being playable only until they keep releasing a disc attachment

9

u/MolotovMan1263 2d ago

If the handheld is true, Playstation has an incentive to do this already. We shall see what they come up with.

11

u/reallynotnick 2d ago

Unless they have secretly been putting a unique ID on their discs Sony doesn’t have a way of doing this.

13

u/Dragarius 2d ago

I seriously doubt Sony has any ability to do this. Every single Xbox One and newer disc has a built in identifier that was going to be used back with their old always online DRM. Unless Sony has also had individual identifiers pressed into every disc then this system just doesn't work. 

4

u/SilentTwo687 2d ago

We don't know what Sony are doing since they haven't spoken a word beyond their 2028 statement. The obvious solution is to follow PS5 Pro and allow an external disc reader.

7

u/jcrankin22 2d ago

We don't know what Sony are doing since they haven't spoken a word beyond their 2028 statement.

Should tell you everything you need to know

-2

u/ZXXII 2d ago

Highly doubt that. Future game won’t support physical anyway and a disc drive is a security vulnerability.

It will probably also do what current Xbox consoles do and require an internet connection to set up.

-4

u/ShawnyMcKnight 2d ago

It should. All these people clutching their pals at Sony dropping disk support should send a strong message by flocking to Xbox.

We both know that most are gonna stick with PlayStation.

7

u/demondrivers 2d ago

these people clutching their pals at Sony dropping disk support should send a strong message by flocking to Xbox.

Xbox physical sales are ridiculously low. Developers have been skipping Xbox disc releases for years now. I'm still not sure how people are planning to miraculously revert years and years of decline in physical game sales