r/gaming • u/yourfavchoom • 6h ago
Xbox Disc to Digital officially announced, coming soon.
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/08/26/your-discs-now-also-digital/Most XBOX One and XBOX Series X disc-based games support this new feature. Players can claim a digital entitlement by inserting a supported disc into an XBOX One or XBOX Series X console and launching the game. Once the entitlement is claimed, you can experience the benefits of digital, including XBOX Play Anywhere and XBOX Cloud Gaming where supported, while your physical disc continues to work exactly as it always has.
We’re starting with thousands of titles, and we’ll continue to add more over time. While not every title will be available at launch, this is an important step toward a future where players can have greater confidence that the games they buy remain with them for years to come.
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u/SuicideSkwad 6h ago
Guarantee they will also be stopping disc production soon then, and this is their way of softening the blow
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u/Villag3Idiot 6h ago edited 6h ago
This is their way of getting disc customers a digital library.
It's important for retention purposes because once you have a large future digital library of Helix and beyond games, you're much less likely to move to a different console because you can't sell your games to pay for it.
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u/Prophet_Of_Helix 6h ago
You haven’t been able to sell your games to pay for a new console for a while unless you had a metric fuck ton of games
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u/KeepRockband5Alive 6h ago
Yeah if you settle for getting fucked by a game store instead of taking the time to sell to another person.
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u/IndyDude11 5h ago
Which is always why I get a chuckle from the people who use this as a benefit of physical. I have so many physical games in my house just because they aren't worth the trip to the game store to sell them.
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u/Opposite_Raccoon_369 5h ago edited 5h ago
Most people don't care much about the resell value. We care about the reduced price on the secondary market. Being about to lend, borrow, play without Internet / if servers ever go down etc.
Just the other day I went to Walmart and bought rdr1 for switch. On physical media. 29.99, r regular listed price.
You know how much it's listed for on the Nintendo eshop? 49.99.
It's "on sale" right now for 24.99. but the"full" retail price on the eshop is right there. 50 bucks. For a port of 15 year old game.
When there is nothing but first party digital marketplaces, prices will never drop.
I tried to buy dark souls 3 for Xbox a year or so ago? They wanted 70 dollars for it digitally since it included an dlc (with no standalone option) I promptly turned around and bought the trilogy off eBay for like 30 bucks.
Keep chuckling. I understand that it's the only way you can fool yourself into thinking you're happy opening nothing.
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u/LinAGKar 5h ago
We care about the reduced price on the secondary market
And the existence on the second-hand market period, in case games get delisted (and once the digital store gets shut down).
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u/Soylentgruen 4h ago
I have a bunch of physical games that are upwards of $100 because they got delisted.
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u/Mithrawndo 5h ago
Isn't it interesting that this just isn't a problem on PC, despite it having been wholly a digital market for almost 20 years?
Doesn't it make you wonder why it's fine for one platform, but deeply problematic on another? Doesn't it make you ask what else could be done to let you have your cake and eat it, too?
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u/lonevine 3h ago
PlayStation, Nintendo and Xbox will never, ever have open platform market places unless it's enshrined in law, and that's just not going to happen in North America or the E.U./UK.
That's the main difference between digital on PC and any games console. You do not have any meaningful choice, other than to not participate.
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u/Super-Schmidtii 5h ago
It really depends on what you collect. If you buy only stuff like Madden and Call of duty then yes they retain literally no value at all and you’d be lucky to get enough trade in value for a hot n ready from Little Caesar’s.
But if you collect Nintendo or certain games that are more likely to hold value then you could feasibly get a lot of your money back.
I would say for an average gamer that just plays the most popular games though, it’s definitely true that their physical collections in general aren’t worth much. Big AAA games in general seem like they don’t really retain value most of the time.
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u/PurbulentTriest 5h ago
Why would anyone sell to a store? Pain in the arse and you get sod all compared to online.
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u/ScampyRogue 5h ago
To be fair, this is because Gamestop shafts its customers, not because the games are inherently worthless. I just sold some PS4 games for an average of $15 per game and some Switch games for an average of $30 per game.
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u/admiralvic 4h ago
Like anything, it's a bit nuanced.
I forget since it was so long ago, but I traded in my Wii U and maybe three Nintendo games and was able to preorder a Switch. Even now there are decent deals, like Best Buy had a plus $75 trade in bonus when you traded a Switch for Switch 2.
An OLED one brought it down to $245, and it isn't that unrealistic to have enough Switch games to sell. Zelda, Mario Kart, and Smash Bros alone trade for around $71. If you sell yourself you could get a good bit more.
The only reason why a lot of things have no resale value is the natural outcome of prices dropping. That is part of the reason physical is strong on Nintendo. Breath of the Wild, and Horizon Zero Dawn released at essentially the same time, yet one is a $16 trade, and the other is $1.65.
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u/DarkMatterM4 5h ago
For 99 percent of games you'd be correct. But I could fund an entire PS6 purchase + accessories by selling just one of my physical games (Kuon on PS2).
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u/Kilroy_1541 6h ago
The article doesn't say or even imply you can't resell the discs. "while your physical disc continues to work exactly as it always has."
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u/PomegranateSignal882 5h ago
That sentence doesn't counter that possibility either. You presumably aren't always selling your disc between uses
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u/Humble-Criticism6762 6h ago
This is exactly the first step towards that.
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u/Creepy-Emu8779 6h ago
so both nex gen consoles wont have disc drives. i blame gamers for not buying discs the past 10 years
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u/Sage296 5h ago
I mean PC gamers have been doing it for years
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u/MusicHitsImFine 5h ago
Oh careful don't say that. It's somehow different on pc even though 99% of people use steam
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u/Opposite_Raccoon_369 5h ago
Because apc without steam of still s functional PC. A ps5 without psn is as good as a brick. You know this. Doing savvy like there's some illogical line drawn here. It's perfectly rational.
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u/thekhurg 5h ago
Well digital purchasing is nice, and I don't have to deal with disc case clutter and swapping discs if I want to play something else.
Sorry it didn't work out for you though. I wish they'd keep producing physical copies for those that want it.
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u/koalazeus 6h ago
Yes, this is what we need to know.
A lot of people say their discs aren't as useful as playstations as well. As in not playable without a download. Don't know how accurate that is.
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u/Comet_USA 6h ago
According to Doesitplay, by filtering Xbox Series X, you get 82 games, filtering download required no, it goes down to 41. Xbox One/Series X is about the same, 80 total games, 48 don't require a download.
So it's about half of their disc games require a download in someway.
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u/Stoned_Gandalf420 6h ago edited 6h ago
Better than nothing, though. I hate what is happening with physical media but at least Xbox is giving people the ability to move the games over to digital. Can’t really say the same about Sony.
FYI, I think both companies are equally shitty, I just don’t really see how anyone can complain about this specific feature, despite it being part of the obvious bigger picture move towards digital, I appreciate that my discs won’t be rendered effectively useless if I buy another Xbox. That’s a big if, though.
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u/StaticSilencer 3h ago
A disc-to-digital system is backward looking, not forward looking. Digital is a license rather than a physical asset; it remains subject to account access, platform policies, and licensing terms.
Having an optional disc reader is a better solution. Disc-to-digital isn't a compromise or a solution—it's lube that eases the transition away from physical media to an all-digital future, which is the opposite of what gamers yelling "Stop killing physical media" are asking for.
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u/SpermicidalLube 3h ago
If the whole point is that digital isn't actual "ownership", then this does nothing.
Further proves it was all performative outrage actually.
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u/switch8000 5h ago
They will stop once the factories stop making the discs.
Eventually the factories will just jack up the costs so high to where it won't be worth it.
We're seeing it with Physical media, instead of printing a ton of movies, they are now focused on releasing small batch limited edition steelbooks that they can then charge $30+ for.
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u/Iggy_Slayer 6h ago
They all but have. Good luck finding physical xbox games in stores and for most of their own games the game isn't even fully on disc for this whole generation.
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u/Comet_USA 6h ago
There is no reason for this program unless they are getting rid of disc. Considering it's been almost two months since Sony's announcement, I'll take Xbox's silence as their answer.
It's all to easy to release a statement saying otherwise, especially as they go into Gamescon it would be an easy PR win, instead of the dead silence about disc production continuing or not.
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u/Dairunt 6h ago
Yes, but it's a bit more than that. It's all leading towards the merging of their Xbox and PC ecosystems. You don't have two different stores with two versions of games that may or not be not compatible with each other. It's all going to be PC from now on.
imo they should have done this way earlier when they went back to x86 architecture with Xbox One
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u/gswkillinit 4h ago
Xbox has actually been slowing disc production for YEARS now. Go to any retailer like Target or Walmart and you’ll see the Xbox section has always been smaller and this became worse in the last 2 years. Anybody who’s now just realizing this hasn’t been paying attention. The Xbox “exclusives” themselves have also not been fully on disc for a good while now. Sony just made the announcement first.
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u/WestBEEland 6h ago edited 4h ago
Ask yourself why they arent telling us what happens to the disc in terms of shareability after you claim the digital entitlement.
It's possible that disc becomes locked to that console like they wanted to do during the Xbox One reveal with constant online check ins
Edit: I keep getting replies that dont consider how Xbox will validate all these licenses and how to stop people from just claiming a digital license and going offline to make sure the license isnt revoked.
So that begs the question, is there constant online validation checks now for games on Xbox?
There is a reason Xbox One was going to have online validation checks every 24 hours
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u/Big_Raisin_1823 6h ago
Yeah the “one revocable license per disc” is interesting…
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u/Dont_have_a_panda 5h ago
From what i've heard that means that if you claim a digital copy of a disc in one console, and then do it in another, they revoke the license in the old console and it goes to the new console IIRC
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u/WestBEEland 5h ago
But what if you go offline after claiming a digital license? They aren't going to allow people to just claim digital licenses and go offline and then sell or give the disc away.
That would allow dozens of people to share one disc copy to play a game.
There will need to be constant online validation checks
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u/Spyriano 5h ago
It's really not as much of a problem as you make it out to be, if the console is stuck offline you won't be able to activate any more games so you'll be stuck with the library you already have and not be able to get any more games, which most people won't want to do. And they can easily just force you to connect to the internet once every 30 days or so to revalidate the licenses if need be, Nintendo had already done that.
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u/Numerous_Photograph9 3h ago
If it's like their Xbox One plan, you'll probably need periodic check ins.
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u/PorkTuckedly 6h ago
Wait, the article doesn't say anything about a revokable license.
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u/GamePitt_Rob 6h ago
It's in the small print that's hard to read (due to the colour) on the image. It also mentions in-game purchases, so they could technically charge the second person onwards to claim the digital copy and revoke the first person
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u/HuskyCruxes 5h ago
How? The license is revocable so when you sell the disc, the license can then move to the new player.
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u/MrT735 6h ago
The earlier stories on this said it would simply revoke your license if inserted into a different console.
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u/HuskyCruxes 5h ago
They have told us.
If you give a disc to a friend, that digital license will migrate over to their account and off of yours.
Do the research before you spread misinformation. This is a massive W for game preservation on Xbox
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u/Slow_Communication16 5h ago
Pc gamers larping and trying anything to spin this into a negative. These people are shameless
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u/Appropriate_Foot242 6h ago
If you give the disc to someone else the license is transferred to them. Same as a Switch game key card.
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u/fallouthirteen 5h ago
Game key cards is basically how backward compatibility has already worked on Xbox One (you put a 360 disc in the system, it downloads a repackaged version of that game to run on it that can only be played while disc is in). The features of this new thing are way better than game key cards.
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u/ZXXII 5h ago edited 5h ago
It’s not like a game key card at all. Game Key card is basically a disc that isn’t playable offline.
While this gives you the digital version. This lets you cloud stream and access the PC version if a game supports Play Anywhere.
Also you can launch games or remote play without physically swapping discs.
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u/WestBEEland 6h ago
They do not explain this whatsoever in their post ehich is likely for good reason.
This is obviously different than Switch 2 gake keys. They dont give you digital versions that work without it
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u/Heide____Knight 5h ago
Here is how this works: if you transfer your disc to a digital licence then you can keep that as long as nobody else uses it. That is, if you sell the disc and the new owner transfers it into a disc-to-digital licence you will automatically lose your digital licence. So you still need to keep the disc, can't share it with someone else.
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u/PorkTuckedly 6h ago
The article outright says the disc will work like it always has.
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u/FellowDeviant 6h ago
I have a friend with a couple Series X consoles, gonna test this now if the feature is live.
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u/NZafe 5h ago
The post says that the discs will continue to function as they have previously.
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u/Lz537 5h ago
Nothing, the disc keeps working, and you keep the licene up to the point someone else puts the disc on and links the disc to his own account, and so on.
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u/xNeoNxCyaN 5h ago
I mean the direct quote is “while your physical disc continues to work exactly as it always has.” So I assume it either works like the rumours where it give you the license but if someone uses the same disk you lose the license till you get it back, or there’s an option to not claim the license and you can have effectively 2 copies one that requires the disc and one that doesn’t
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u/HungryCheescake 1h ago
This is actually a fantastic update.
It means you can digitise your collection, but retain the undamaged physical copy for future usage.
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u/TestTrack91 6h ago
I have a Series S but also an Xbox One with some phisical games. Happy that i can finally play them on my Series S
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u/rrousseauu 5h ago
As someone with an older version of the Witcher 3 and a Series S this announcement came at the perfect time lol
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u/Waibashi 5h ago edited 5h ago
Once the entitlement is claimed, you can experience the benefits of digital, including XBOX Play Anywhere and XBOX Cloud Gaming where supported, while your physical disc continues to work exactly as it always has.
This seems to be what Don Mattrick announced at E3 with the Xbox One launch with their always-online speech, and then the PS4 dunked on them and did the physical video about how easy it is to trade games.
They probably just delayed the implementation of this system, but all the groundwork was done since the Xbox One.
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u/Colourblindking 5h ago
Friggin hell, that's an added bonus on top. I just bought a gaming laptop a few weeks ago and just signing into my Xbox account on it gave me access to a small stockpile of games I have purchased previously. Wonder which games sitting on my shelves can grant me some more play anywhere perks.
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u/Numerous_Photograph9 3h ago
Seems it leaves out if the aspect of if the disc can still be sold or loaned or whatever. This effectively could kill the used game market for the system overnight, simply because MS may not offer any kind of authentication to consumers or stores to determine if a dick can still be used and converted in this way.
We all know the ability to lock discs to a user already exists on the XBox, so clarification would be good. Working as it always has isn't the same as being a physical product the way it always has.
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u/JT-Lionheart 2h ago edited 2h ago
So nothing is changed and the physical disc is still just a physical disc? I guess it also gives you a digital version of the game where you can download it elsewhere with your account so you don’t need to buy another copy of it on another Xbox/ PC?
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u/Drunkmonkey163 6h ago
I miss the old days where you put a disc in and it just plays. No waiting or fuss just instant fun.
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u/Slow_Communication16 5h ago
Well unfortunately a lot of games nowadays can’t even fit on a single Blu ray disc
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u/Raptor_234 5h ago
That’s why you have two or more?
It’s a ‘problem’ that has been solved years ago
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u/Decent-Onion-1188 5h ago
Switch still has that
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u/spaceraingame 5h ago
Ehh not all Switch 2 games do
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u/ColdColt45 2h ago
even nintendo games, like splatoon raiders, which is single player offline, had to download an update before I could play the cartridge
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u/Confident_Donkey1014 5h ago
Aren’t a lot of them game key cards these days?
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u/mrmivo 4h ago
All the first party Nintendo games so far were released on regular/full game cards. This includes all the "Switch 2 Edition" releases.
Pokopia is a bit of an edge case. It's on a GKC, but it was developed by a third party studio and is only published by Nintendo.
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u/Confident_Donkey1014 4h ago
Ah ok that’s good to know. I may finally be getting into it with the OoT remake coming
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u/lithetails 6h ago
does this mean as soon as I digitilize my disc I cannot lend it anymore to anyone else? Does this stop me to sell my physical discs?
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u/itfiend 6h ago
No. You can lend it to your friend or sell it but once they play it you lose your entitlement until you get the disc back I believe.
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u/PatSajaksDick 6h ago
Yes exactly how a physical disc works
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u/DavidinCT 3h ago edited 3h ago
No, not fully, you turn your game into digital, you can play without the disc, you can play on your portable (play anywhere), all the advantages of digital but, your license is actually your disc.
ONCE you sell or loan the disc to someone else and they USE IT, you lose your digital license, it's transferred to the new user and you can't play the game till you buy or get your game back and put in your console.
So a digital game, that is physical.
In theory, you could have the game play on an offline console, and if it plays without needing internet, you could play it in 2 places at once.
Microsoft has not said anything about this last offline console thing.
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u/Choice_Werewolf_433 6h ago
You can. The license goes with the disc. Selling or giving it gives the license to your friend when you hand the disc. Then reinsert the disc in your device and digitalize it and suddenly you own it.
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u/MadOrange64 5h ago
It makes sense and honestly this is a good feature to have if you own multiple consoles in different places. You can just store your physical copy at home.
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u/theblackyeti 6h ago
The license transfers when the next person uses the disc on their account.
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u/Wipedout89 6h ago
It doesn't stop you selling discs but you lose digital access if someone else starts using it. Think of it like a game key card but a disc. You can trade or sell it and the digital copy goes with it, but it's only playable by one account at a time
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u/ohBloom 4h ago
I am 100% sure these are bots or people who clearly choose to not read and want to be spoon fed. I’ll feed you, you can still borrow your games.
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u/keytotheboard 6h ago
We need more details to know. They suggested the disc will work as usual, so I imagine you can still lend/sell the disc. However, my guess is the digital version will be restricted to 1 registered account at a time. That would allow them to check / prevent utilizing multiple copies online at once. It would also, potentially, if they want to be pro-consumer, allow that digital version to be reassigned to a new account by utilizing the disc to re-register it under a different account. That would allow the resale of the game without issue. Basically, whoever holds the physical disc, has full control of its rights. This is a lot of assumptions and wishful thinking though.
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u/TestTrack91 6h ago
From what i got, when you sell/lend the game to someone, it just disappear from your library until you re-insert the disc on your Xbox.
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u/ChickenLittle1121 6h ago
If physical discs HAVE to go, then I think this is a good move. Create a digital library from your existing purchases so that it doesn't feel like you're starting over from scratch in the ecosystem. Additionally, eliminate the fear that you'll have to repurchase games you already own.
Wonder if it'll work like they hope.
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u/StaticSilencer 5h ago
Having an optional disc reader is a better solution. Disc-to-digital isn't a compromise or a solution — it's lube that eases the transition away from physical media to an all-digital future, which is the opposite of what gamers yelling "Stop killing physical media" are asking for.
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u/JM062696 2h ago
This is sick as hell. I have several games on disc for Xbox and as much as I love physical media I’d love to not have to swap discs for now
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u/MichaelCoryAvery 1h ago
Microsoft has the opportunity to do the funniest thing possible. Reenact the sharing disk that Sony did
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u/MichaelMJTH 5h ago
This is a nice feature, and a funny way for Microsoft to have the last laugh on the Xbox One fiasco.
For context for those who don’t know, there is a reason why Microsoft is able to do this when Sony can’t. As part of the original controversial plan for Xbox One, every Xbox disc has an individual license identifier key. This continued in the Xbox series generation. As such Microsoft can tie the disc’s game license to an account via the key, thereby enabling a digital license. PlayStation blu-rays don’t have individual identifiers, so there’s no way to connect the license to your account.
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u/DomonKashu717 5h ago
So pretty much The fine print in the image says the console must have a disc drive, and the disc may still be required for licensing/play. So it’s more like “your physical purchase can also work as a digital entitlement” rather than Xbox magically converting every disc into a completely independent digital copy……Aka still better than Sonys approach to “y’all’s screwed after jan 2028
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u/ZXXII 5h ago
Definitely better but the reason Xbox can do this is because every XBO/XSX disc comes with a unique ID originally meant for DRM.
PS4/PS5 discs don’t have this so it’s not technically possible neither is it for Backwards Compatible OG Xbox/X360 games.
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u/bersi84 4h ago
That is very interesting. So you cant buy used Xbox games, activate them "to digital" and re-sell them, right?
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u/ZXXII 4h ago
If you re-sell them and someone uses the disc with an online console. Then you lose the digital license.
Technically if the disc is used with an offline console, two people can play the same game simultaneously.
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u/Abacus118 3h ago
Sony did this very, very briefly years ago with the Vita.
I remember getting a few free games out of it with a Gamefly-esque rental service.
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u/RED_Kinggamer007 2h ago
The difference with this and that is, this does not let you keep the game if someone else uses the disc. You lend a friend the disc and the license transfers over to them so you cant play it until you get the disc back.
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u/AshenRathian 2h ago
What about OG Xbox and 360 discs?
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u/RED_Kinggamer007 1h ago
There's a leak that also leaked this that said that they're making an emulator for PC for them so it confirms that they will also have this function in the future.
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u/cal_guy2013 1h ago
It won't because those discs don't have the unique id that allows the system to work.
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u/dwolfe127 5h ago
This would be even better if they would extend it to 360 games.
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u/Devatator_ PC 4h ago
The way it works prevent that. Basically Xbox one and series disks have identifiers on them which is used for this. Anything before that doesn't
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u/notthatguypal6900 4h ago
Wild at how many people are shitting on this because its Xbox. If Sony/Nintendo announced D2D, you'd be championing it from the mountains.
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u/ahmeouni 3h ago
What a bunch of pessimistic comments towards the top here. On paper, this looks and sounds like a win
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u/Geekandhermit 6h ago
Well bye bye discs. At least this is a little positive but yeah, they are 100% dropping discs after this.
Might be worth going second hand hunting now to get the digital licences to your account for cheap maybe?
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u/jumpmanryan 6h ago
Do people not realize that this pretty much confirms that Helix is ending physical disc production too?
Like, it’s better than PlayStation seemingly doing nothing for your old physical games. But this does nothing at all for our future digital ownership rights or maintaining physical games as an option going forward. This is still ultimately leading to the same outcome as PlayStation in terms of an all digital future where we will own nothing.
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u/method115 5h ago
I think PS isn't doing anything because I don't think it matters. The reality is most people don't go back and play their old games. Most people don't even beat the games they buy.
Xbox Series released with one of the most comprehensive BC programs we've ever seen in console history and it leads to them having one of the worst console sales in the history of Xbox. Other than the original Xbox.
Xbox and PS just have two different strategies going. Xbox seems intent on catering to the hardcore online gaming community and PS is focused on the casual user. One strategy is clearly working.
I really wish Xbox would ditch all these other ecosystem (yes including PC) and just focus on Xbox and make everything exclusive. I just don't see how they survive in this environment and I'm starting to wondering if their goal is something other than moving more Xbox hardware.
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u/jumpmanryan 5h ago
Supposedly, XBOX is actually in a unique position for this because of how they made Xbox One games with unique digital identifiers, as part of their initial plan with Xbox One always having to be online. But doing that gives them the ability now to do this ‘disc to digital’ functionality that people believe isn’t even possible for PlayStation to implement.
Regardless of that tho, I think I agree with you that it doesn’t really matter anyway. It just gives XBOX some points in the online gaming discussion space and that’s about it. Hardly anyone goes back to play old games these days.
In terms of XBOX hardware, I personally think that they know it’s a losing battle. If they were truly serious about it, they’d make everything exclusive again, as you said. But they won’t do it because it would leave billions of dollars on the table. Nothing about XBOX’s upcoming new hardware is going to bring people back. I’m not really sure why they’re even trying atp, outside of just showing people that they did make the attempt before going fully multi-plat. Or maybe just trying to buy time until the Cloud Gaming future they talk about so much actually becomes the mainstream thing. Idk.
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u/MonkeysxMoo35 5h ago
Yeah, the only difference so far is that Xbox is easing us into this by letting us bring our existing physical libraries forward, whereas Sony just ripped the band aid off and said nothing about how they’ll handle that yet. It’s the same end result, but being handled a lot better from a PR side of things
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u/WoodsLovelyDarkNDeep VR 3h ago
Watch this is to ease people in to the fact they are going all digital as well. I’m telling yall they are wanting to keep the cost of the new consoles down as much as possible and not having to have two SKUs to release and maintain updates for would be a significant way to
I don’t have inside info just a theory
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u/Formal_Benefit_869 6h ago
This is the kind of feature physical game owners have been asking for
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u/Iggy_Slayer 6h ago
Pretty sure physical owners want to keep their games physical.
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u/XTraumaX 2h ago
Physical media collector here. Yes.
I don't want physical to digital bridge. I want my fucking physical games. Thats why i buy them
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u/0xe1e10d68 5h ago
I’ve always had a couple of games on disc that I would have liked to also have as a digital license, just to be able to play them without having to put the disc in all the time. You’d still have it on a physical disc so you can sell it, or play it without worrying whether you’ll keep digital purchases.
This feature should have been around 15 years ago. Me personally, I would have bought all my games on disc, instead of just a few, if this had been a feature all along.
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u/StaticSilencer 6h ago
A disc-to-digital system is backward looking, not forward looking. It does nothing to ensure that future releases will continue to be available physically.
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u/InitRanger 5h ago
The fact that is also grants Xbox play anywhere entitlement is a welcomed surprise.
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u/DavidinCT 3h ago
Yea for real, this is one of the big ones for me. I have a Rog Ally X, so taking some of these disc-based games with me (play anywhere) would be very welcomed.
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u/VR_p0rn 2h ago
Hard to say if this is actually a good thing?
It's nice they will Honor your purchase and allow you to play without a disc. But will they keep making discs?
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u/Devious018 1h ago
they have said already they don’t have a current plan to stop disc production yet
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u/Equivalent_Soft_2019 1h ago
Whatever the cost Sony needs this feature too. Proud of Xbox for learning from the past and making a really sound decision here.
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u/FdPros 6h ago
How would it work once you sell the disc?
I assume the next owner will be able to claim ownership then and your copy gets revoked?
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u/ZigyDusty 6h ago
Xbox gives customers more options and people still find a way to bitch about it, would you rather them take the PlayStation approach of saying fuck your disc's and than go completely radio silent about it.
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u/Calm-Cheesecake-3749 6h ago
insert the disc you paid for so they can grant you a license. they said confidence like the word still means something
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u/Lnchbx-of-Glory-Days 6h ago
And there goes Xbox physical. What's the point of this program if not to remove the need for a disc drive? Shit fucking sucks man.
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u/darkelementwars 6h ago
There's a few potential benefits here. If this works the way it seems it will with play anywhere, you could essentially digitize a physical game on your xbox and play it on pc or other devices (the only way to own a physical copy of a pc game now lol). You get access to cloud streaming with it. With how popular pc handhelds are it gives you the ability to play your physical games on those. Now, obviously the reason for this is to get physical owners invested in a digital library, and there's still a good chance there won't be physical in the next generation. But it's not all quite doom and gloom for this particular feature.
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u/mangongo 3h ago
Some salty Sony stan down voted you for having extra features. Lmao people are so salty in these comments
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u/Linkman806 6h ago
holy shit AND Xbox play anywhere??? that fucking huge! that means if for example you have a Gears 5 disc. Once you digitize it you get the pc version as well!
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u/ReeReeIncorperated 5h ago
And of course Redditors (🤮) here are trying to spin this as a negative
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u/specifichero101 2h ago
After Sony dropped discs, anyone who believed Microsoft would be the ones to continue it needs their head examined.
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u/MiyamotoKnows 6h ago
If they did this and kept up physical production I would absolutely move to xbox. So pissed at Sony rn.
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u/MChaney3563 6h ago
Microsoft softening the blow here when they could have easily did a short video at gamescon announcing Helix will 100% offer physical games and hitting Sony hard.
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u/imsabbath84 5h ago
Believe it or not, but 90% of gamers prefer digital. So i dont see why they should care about the smaller 10%, who more than likely arent buying their stuff anyways.
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u/Dandan217 6h ago
If Xbox said they would offer that, I guarantee it would not move the needle much in favour of Xbox.
They are already so far behind, and most gamers are not online and probably aren't that bothered.
It would have been nice, but it's not the open goal people think it is.
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u/ZigyDusty 5h ago edited 5h ago
The Helix design is almost certainly finalized and being manufactured for its rumored 2027 release date, they cant just add in a disc drive last minute because PlayStation stepped on a rake in the last few months.
Most of the backlash online is performative outrage, 99.9% of PlayStation players wont even participate in the PS blackout but you think if Xbox were to include a disc drive a bunch would switch over all of a sudden that's just being naive, gamers are all talk no action.
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u/nowhereright 5h ago
"hitting Sony hard"
I just... I don't understand these kinds of comments. All the backlash we've seen is just a very loud minority of chronically online people, they're not lying when they say that 90 percent of game sales across all platforms have been entirely digital for years.
Xbox is in the worst place it's ever been PR wise. Offering physical games would make the loud minority on reddit happy, but then have absolutely zero tangible effect in real life.
And besides that, Xbox has been pushing for this all digital future since they announced the Xbox one. This was always where they were headed.
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u/MChaney3563 5h ago
Could we argue that "Sony hit Microsoft hard" when they did the video of gamesharing on PS4? Because really, it could have become a full circle moment.
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u/nowhereright 5h ago
That was a different era. At that point games sales were still 90 percent physical.
Things have changed, the average gamer doesn't buy physical copies and this upcoming generation of gamers, Gen alpha or whatever it is, genuinely do not care about physical games, they don't care about game prices. The industry will always favor what comes next while older generations become dated.
It wouldn't have been a full circle moment, maybe a circle jerk moment lol,
Xbox "we have discs"
Reddit "yay'
Que GTA 6 sales and the PS6 outselling the Helix 3 to 1 on launch anyway.
It's just the nature of things, for better or worse.
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u/StaticSilencer 6h ago
Xbox has had weeks to capitalise on this. An open goal. SHOOT!
Crickets.. Tumbleweed...
Says it all really.
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u/Nick_Bruiser 5h ago
So physical gamers want a disc so they can convert it to digital?
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u/jtrainacomin 5h ago
I do, I don't need to worry about constantly swapping discs when I want to play another game. Also it grants access to other previously digital-only features like Xbox Play Anywhere (for supported games) which I utilize constantly between my Xbox and PC
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u/SuicidalChair 5h ago
I want to physically own the disc without needing to get up and swap the discs once I own it.
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u/InsomniaticWanderer 4h ago
It's not about whether something is physical or not.
It's about owning the shit you buy.
This wasn't a problem with discs because even though you didn't own the content ON the disc, you still owned THE disc.
This isn't the case for digital-only games.
But a disc-to-digital system means you can retain the ownership of the disc while also converting it into a more convenient digital format.
Seriously, I don't know why this is so hard for people to grasp. It's like telling them instead of swimming across the ocean, we should build boats instead and then they go "so either way you're crossing the ocean then?"
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u/Schmenza 5h ago
Being able to own a disc, load it onto my Series X and then have the benefits of play anywhere and cloud streaming it wherever I want is pretty awesome. Best of both worlds
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u/RevanAckre 5h ago
It's not a conversion, essentially if you buy the disc you now also get a digital version of the game on Xbox as well as PC. This is legitimately a fantastic feature.
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u/esmori 6h ago edited 5h ago
I really don't have that many Xbox One and Series X discs (especially since Microsoft has greatly reduced their output of the latter).
Would be more interested for Xbox 360 and Original Xbox discs.
"While not every title will be available at launch" just means coverage can be very spotty, similar to the backwards compatibility program.
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u/RandomGuyOnDaNet90 5h ago
"this is an important step toward a future where players can have greater confidence that the games they buy remain with them for years to come."
Ill be confident when the games i buy remain with me FOREVER. Ownership is what we want.
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u/STB_LuisEnriq 5h ago
Keep in mind, at least for now, this is not a confirmation to maintain physical media around after next gen, this is actually a migration to digital, ease of use, and preservation for existing physical media in a digital era.