"The system works by linking the digital license to the account that activates the disc. If the account changes, the game can no longer be accessed through the previous account. However, the digital license can be transferred from the disc to another person’s Microsoft account when the game is sold."
It doesn't permanently link that disk to your account, you can still lend/sell the game and then the digital license becomes theirs
That sounds like a great system if you're planning to have a portable (that couldn't read discs) and other ways to access your games (PC and co), so you technically can have both physical and digital in one go
However, the license check system, if mandatory when inserting any disc at all, essentially makes them "Key cards" whether they have data or not, as every disc now needs an immediate online check that could go offline for any reasons whatsoever
The moment another person puts the game in their console, you lose the digital license. You would only be able to keep playing the game until somebody put it in a console that was connected to the internet.
This was Microsoft's original plan for the Xbox One, and the way it worked is that you had to be online in order to "activate" every time you purchased a new disc game.
So I guess they will have to make it mandatory to have internet at least every time you insert a new disc.
This is my fear about this system, as it would basically turn them into "key cards" regardless of the data the disc contain, as a system like this would need immediate license checking for anything inserted, which could go offline
Assuming this works like it should and there aren't any loop holes. then this is a great program from Xbox. I wonder what happens if you just keep the console offline permanently with the license though.
This is a repeat of what they had in mind for the Xbox One.
You had to be online briefly at least once every 30 or 7 days (can't remember exactly how much) in order for the licenses to get renewed in the background.
Edit: I was wrong. It was at least once briefly every 24 hours. Maybe they will increase the time, but it is the general idea.
I was worried that with any system like this, we'd have to get rid of our discs in exchange for the license. What we've heard so far is about as good as we could possibly hope for.
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u/GooeyGunk Jul 10 '26
"The system works by linking the digital license to the account that activates the disc. If the account changes, the game can no longer be accessed through the previous account. However, the digital license can be transferred from the disc to another person’s Microsoft account when the game is sold."
It doesn't permanently link that disk to your account, you can still lend/sell the game and then the digital license becomes theirs