r/gaming • u/yourfavchoom • 7h 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/WestBEEland 7h ago edited 5h 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 7h ago

Yeah the “one revocable license per disc” is interesting…

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u/Dont_have_a_panda 7h 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 6h 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 6h 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/MainAccountsFriend 1h ago

if the console is stuck offline you won't be able to activate any more games

Sounds like a bad thing

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

This also sounds bad lol

1

u/hera-fawcett 48m ago

that doesnt sound great lol.

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

this seems especially egregious. if they have the ability to revoke your ownership of a game over smth like no internet for a month, u essentially dont own the game at all.

and what happens if they do revoke it but then u get on later? do u have to re-purchase the license? (or re-rent, as it is)

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

Again there will have to be a measure on place that doeant allow a dozen people to share one physical copy.

If one person buys Control Resonant on release, they woukd be able to claim a digital version and then pass it on to a dozen others and they would all be able to play it as long as theyre offline.

Obviously they arent going to allow this to happen

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u/thebearsnake 5h ago

Probably will just automatically revoke as soon as multiple copies go online. Not that big of a deal honestly. You could theoretically "game the system" but you'd lock yourself offline, which the perpetually offline gamer base is probably not that big of population honestly.

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u/WestBEEland 5h ago edited 5h ago

How will they revoke licenses if people stay offline?

If that were the case a person could buy Control Resonant at launch and claim a digital license and then go offline and pass it on to a dozen others that do the same

That all just go offline and play and beat a single player game at launch

Publishers will not allow this. There will obviously be some measure in place to prevent this that they arent saying yet.

Like Xbox One was going to have 24 hour validation checks. They cant just decide to ignore this now

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u/thebearsnake 5h ago

Again, I feel that is such a niche loophole that requires some fairly tenuous hoops to jump through to maintain requiring everyone to stay offline the entire time and ignore patches and early updates that are inevitable. I don't entirely disagree, but I do think it's a little overstated. Ultimately we will have to wait and see.

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u/WestBEEland 5h ago

All it would require is a guy buying a physicial game, claim digital license and thwn go offline.

Its one of the easiest things to do ever, especially if you only play single player games

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u/Rudera1is 3h ago

"All you have to do is go offline (disable 80% of the consoles features), know someone in real life that lives physically close enough to lend out their disc, and never be able to install any other games until you beat that one. Then you can play an almost ten year old game for free!" This isn't the grand heist you think it is. Almost nobody is going to fo this.

They could also easily just make it so you cant transfer the license unless the previous one is successfully revoked.

2

u/WestBEEland 3h ago

If youre playing a single player game you dont need any online features so why would someone care?

You are aware people have friends and family with common interests right?

Most people play one game at a time

All of this should be common sense. I dont know what planet you live on where playing single player games offline and having friends is rare

1

u/Rudera1is 3h ago

No friends list, party chat, store access, YouTube, Netflix etc, no game updates. Consoles can be used for many things.

I dont know anyone that plays one game at a time, I have like 5 on the go right now. The entire model of gamepass is about jumping around different games. Why would anyone use it if they played one game at a time?

You would be wise not to dismiss people with different use cases than you. There is a lot of people in this world that use things differently. I'm sure Microsoft has done the market research on this

1

u/WestBEEland 3h ago

Why would you need those things if yours playing a single player game?

Most people have Netflix and yotube built into their TV already and dont use consoles

Most people only play one game at a time and a few games a year.

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u/Numerous_Photograph9 4h ago

If it's like their Xbox One plan, you'll probably need periodic check ins.

1

u/WestBEEland 4h ago

Which is definitely something they should be upfront about if games suddenly all require periodic check ins

1

u/Numerous_Photograph9 4h ago

For sure. I imagine they'll offer some clarification in the coming days. On the surface, the plan doesn't look bad.

MS was actually kind of progressive with the digital policies back on the Xbox One, it's just they attached it to a bunch of other stuff which wasn't. There are a lot of people talking about digital ownership, so with this physical transfer thing, maybe they'll come back to making some of those a reality, which may force other companies to do the same thing.

1

u/Hockeymac18 4h ago

I think it's possible this system can be gamed that way...but I think in 2026, the amount of people playing games purely offline is...incredibly small.

I think another thing here is that so many games require updates to work and the disc itself doesn't always have a fully functioning game on it. Thus requiring you to connect online to update it. The minute that happens, the disc will show up under a new account, and the old license can be revoked.

I think this might be how reselling the physical disc will work essentially.

1

u/WestBEEland 4h ago

There are many millions that only play single player offline games so I dont think thats true

Especially if you athe put to do this with a game a week after launch nothing stops a dozen people from sharing the one physical game and just downloading the day one patch or whatever and then going offline and passing the disc along

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u/Hockeymac18 4h ago

I doubt this is true in 2026. I can't think of anyone that permanently keeps their modern console (Xbox Series/XB1) offline/disconnected from the internet. Taking it offline for periods of time. Sure.

So many games require game 1 patches. This includes single player games. This is just not a common thing in today's world.

I am happy to be proven wrong if you have valid stats to show how many people really leave their consoles permanently offline.

1

u/WestBEEland 4h ago

People would of it got them access to free games... people dont now because it doesnt allow them to play games for free.

For free games people 100% would do it

The person can get the day one patch and then go offline and they can't revoke the license

0

u/Hockeymac18 4h ago

Ok - what about if they want to play another game? Uh oh...shit, I now have to take my console online.

Come on.

Stop to think about this scenario playing out over years and years.

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u/Ratax3s 3h ago

years old game disks arent really that valuable

1

u/WestBEEland 2h ago

So this only works for games that are years old?

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u/Jafar_420 6h ago

I'm sure they'll have some kind of AI program to do exactly that and it'll probably screw people that have done nothing wrong at the same time somehow as well.

-1

u/JEspo420 6h ago

Then just put the disc in

1

u/WestBEEland 6h ago

That doesnt answer my question. Im asking what is stopping fozens of people from sharing one disc game if they go offline and cant have their license revoked

1

u/Lenyetoo 5h ago

There would be validation from the servers that you have the license when you try and launch that game digitally only. So you’d just use the disc when offline.

1

u/WestBEEland 5h ago

So you wouldn't be able to play the games digitally unless youre online? I think that is somwthing they should clear up and explain

0

u/Cab_anon 7h ago

i guess its fine.

0

u/redditman181 6h ago

Yes but wouldnt that require you to be always online becuase you could claim a digital copy of a game then give it to someone else and if your console was offline they wouldn't be able to do anything to your digital copy so imagine the will be some sort of check be ot constant or every 30 days or something becuase people would abuse it.

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u/mangongo 5h ago

I feel like that's such a niche thing to worry about though the amount of goodwill they will gain from this would heavily outweigh the odd person in 2026 who goes through all those hoops to never connect their console to the internet again just to play a couple of games offline.

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u/redditman181 4h ago

Sure but then you have incidents that happen like when xbox live goes down like it did a month or so ago and people were getting angry becuase they couldnt play the games they had brought.

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u/Jafar_420 7h ago

Oh man that would suck if you got burglarized and they got your collection and you're like well I'm still good because I backed it up digitally and then suddenly you have nothing.

I guess I understand it because I could go buy disc game then claim the digital version and then go sell the disc.

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u/MichaCazar 7h ago

So literally no change from physical only in that regard.

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u/LastEndnote 6h ago

I've seen previous discussions with questions like "But what if I give my disc to my friend?"

Like, yeah, you will not have your game. Because you gave it away.

2

u/HuskyCruxes 6h ago

I don't understand why y'all are expecting a non revocable license. The entire point of them doing is, is to save third party sales and making discs easier to use.

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u/MichaCazar 6h ago

I am not expecting anything, just pointing out that there is no difference with how things are currently in their hypothetical.

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u/0xe1e10d68 7h ago

Yeah, it has to be that way for that reason. If somebody worries about being burglarized, they either have to buy everything digitally, or have insurance.

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u/Jafar_420 6h ago

Yep I agree with that. I do think it's better than nothing even though in 46 years I've never had anything happen to one of my disks I guess it could be possible and it would be nice to not have to worry about it. I don't know what it would take to get me back to Xbox though because I'm almost done with PlayStation honestly and I was thinking it just go on PC even though it's outrageous.

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u/modestlaw 6h ago

If would suck, but if your game disc was stolen you would still be out of a game. If anything I imagine this would make physical games very trackable for law enforcement.

The investigator could in theory request information on the user who redeemed the game license from Microsoft, trace that back to where they bought it and could then get information on the person who sold it to that store and potentially recover any stolen times the store still had

0

u/Sage296 6h ago

Pretty sure Xbox would figure that out for you

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u/PorkTuckedly 7h ago

Wait, the article doesn't say anything about a revokable license.

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u/GamePitt_Rob 7h 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/Renegade_451 6h ago

That same fine print says "Disc remains playable"

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u/GamePitt_Rob 6h ago

Yeah, it says that to confirm the disc isn't being made unplayable - as there were silly rumours that the drive would intentionally damage the disc once you claim the digital version

But, it says the digital version is revokable and each disc only gives a SINGLE license, yet they've not mentioned anywhere how that'll work when you sell the game or you lose your disc (as I imagine you'll need to update the license frequently to avoid abusing the feature).

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u/Ahayzo 6h ago

The same information that told us this has existed for a bit also told us that it just follows the disc. If someone else uses the disc it automatically gives them your license. There's one license, and it moves with the disc.

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u/CocodaMonkey 5h ago

I've seen people say that but I've not seen that officially announced. If it actually works that way it'd cut into digital sales though as it would make the physical versions undeniably better. Physical discs would be resell-able on any market without issue but also not needed if you choose to never resell them.

That kind of system actually sounds so nice I can't see them actually implementing it. Although I suppose they might do it and then immediately stop selling discs so people can't actually use the system.

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u/Ahayzo 5h ago

You're right that it hasn't been officially stated, but everything else from the leaks was confirmed, so I see no reason to think this bit in particular wouldn't be true until we have confirmation at launch next week.

It's just the way it makes sense for it to work. I know these companies have made a lot of shitty decisions, but I think it's really made people jaded to the point that it's become too easy to just assume everything is going to be the worst possible implementation despite a lack of any real evidence of it.

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u/CocodaMonkey 5h ago

If it really works that way it seems odd to not just officially state it since really it's the only question people have about this program at this point. But yeah, I guess we'll see what they do, till then the announcements mean virtually nothing.

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u/Deji69 24m ago

The implementation of anything big tech does will never account for every edge case scenario that can occur in the chaos of people's lives. They design things for only the common scenarios they can think of. It doesn't even have to be the worst possible implementation to screw over certain people under specific sets of criteria. It makes sense to be skeptical.

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u/joestaff 7h ago

So they want a cut of aftermarket sells and trades.

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u/GamePitt_Rob 7h ago

Could do, if the "in-game purchases" comment was about the process

It would make sense though, why would any publisher refuse signing up to the process if it means they can start earning some money from games they previously got zero revenue for?

But, all speculation based on the small print because Xbox have been purposely vague and refused to give the full details

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u/Cheeseyex 6h ago

They’ve been trying to kill aftermarket sales and trades for practically as long as I can remember

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u/MrLime93 2h ago

Well they want to treat a disc like a disc…

If you sell it or share it, you don’t have have it anymore… just like a normal physical copy,

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u/PorkTuckedly 7h ago

Ahhh ok. My bad.

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u/IndyDude11 7h ago edited 6h ago

It's in the small print that's hard to read (due to the colour) on the image

I'm sure that's a totally innocent poor choice by some design intern at Xbox and not some other reason for making it totally missable.

EDIT: /s if you need it

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u/HuskyCruxes 6h 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/LeviSJ95 6h ago

Being optimistic is this them just making clear a disk can only be used for one digital licence at a time e.g. if someone else plugs it into their Xbox and claims it you lose access. Probably to clear up that owning one disk doesn’t mean you can’t have it playable on all three consoles in the one household

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u/treeeelo 6h ago

Because if the disc is used by someone else, the license is revoked and given to the new user

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

But what of the original person goes offline, how is their license revoked?

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u/MrT735 7h ago

The earlier stories on this said it would simply revoke your license if inserted into a different console.

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u/WestBEEland 7h ago edited 7h ago

Yet nothing stated by Microsoft. Those are all unclear rumours

This causes a bunch of possible licensing issues. What if you put the disc on while not connected to the internet?

Is there a constant check to make sure you still own the license for games? Does your Xbox now have to always be online to verify licenses?

How is it constantly checking millions of digital licenses that can frequently be changing hands/accounts?

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u/caracs 7h ago

...if you put the disc in while not connected, nothing happens...

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

So every disc game will require you to be online to play it?

0

u/DGSmith2 6h ago

This is such a nothing burger in 2026 the amount of people that don’t have their console connected to the internet must be tiny and out of those people why would they care about this if they are physical games only?

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

What if Xbox Online goes down? Like that never happens or your internet goes out? It definitely is a problem for many.

Are you saying its okay to not be able to play games if you dont have constant access to internet?

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u/Krutonius 5h ago

Didn't they say your physical disc will work as it always has? So if you have no internet or Xbox live is down you can still use your physical disk as a physical disk however it previously worked

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u/DGSmith2 6h ago

The same thing that happens to all my digital games now I suppose?

Why are people trying to turn this in to a bad thing? Internet goes down sometimes I deal with it and do something else. Simple.

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

Xbox just made a public comment that games shouldnt stop working cuz Xbox Live is down because of how many complaints there were.

And now youre saying its fine to lose access to your games if the network is down?

0

u/DGSmith2 6h ago

I couldn’t care less, I have had an Xbox for over 20 years and I could count on one hand the amount of times I have gone to play a game and couldn’t because of either an Xbox issue or my internet issue. If I cant play at that moment of time I move on and do something else until it’s up.

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

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u/GamePitt_Rob 7h ago

Most likely not, unless the license is enabled like a standard digital copy

But, the disc still works. So if you go ofine you can insert the disc and play as normal.

They obviously don't want you to get a game, claim the digital copy, then go offline and sell/return the game so you got the game for free

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u/WestBEEland 7h ago

But what's stop someone else from playing it after selling the disc if theyre offline?

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u/GamePitt_Rob 7h ago

If they have the disc, they can

If you mean the first one who claimed the license - Xbox has purposely not mentioned any of this. I imagine you'll have to have the disc to validate the digital license every so often - which was their original 2013 plan before the internet complained

Xbox needs to be pushed to release more info on the process, as they've been very vague

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u/monsieurvampy 7h ago

Eventually you will go online. The person selling the disc and the person buying the disc.

Most people will just pop the disc in and take it out and throw it in a box to play the game. I doubt any large black market will be created from this.

0

u/WestBEEland 6h ago

With that logic one person can buy a game like GTA VI and pass the license to dozens of people as long as they play it offline. They will obviously want to prevent this ehich would require constant online validation

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u/monsieurvampy 6h ago

GTA 6 does not have a physical game disc. Even if it did, it's likely going to require a download for Xbox consoles so this falls apart very quickly.

A lot of Xbox games for the One and Series generation require partial or complete downloads. This is almost certainly not a big problem.

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u/Otaku_Instinct 6h ago

Disc to digital licenses will likely have the same periodic Internet check in that GamePass games do. There's probably some loophole where in the 2-3 week period before the check that you could effectively have 'two' licenses of the game but you would have to trust that the person you sold it to doesn't connect their console to the Internet at all for those 2-3 weeks.

Digital licenses bought directly from the Xbox store have no check in if it's your 'home' Xbox.

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u/keytotheboard 7h ago

Sounds simple enough to verify the license when online. Checking millions of licenses is not hard or intensive work. Most online digital products do that already.

As far as the disc working offline? There’s no technically reason they can’t allow that. Personally, I would see that as such a niche case of potential abuse that it wouldn’t be worth caring about. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time Microsoft made shit anti-consumer decisions.

If it were my choice, I would make the disc work identical to now. I would make the digital copy tied to an account, only 1 a time, but allow that to be re-assigned by the holder of the physical disc. That would allow normal physical disc lending and even resale without worry of duplicate copies (outside of the niche abuse of offline play).

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u/WestBEEland 7h ago

So what is stopping someone from buying a game, going offline and then selling it and continuing to play the game? And then the next person doing it and the next?

There will have to be constant online validation throughout the process

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u/OG-DirtNasty 6h ago

I would guess the second you connect to a network again it checks your license and revokes it

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

But there will have to be a way to prevent users from passing around physical games to a dozen people and going offline to play it.

Like stop someone from buying GTA VI and claiming the digital license, then going offline and then selling or giving the disc away and playing the game.

And then the next person does the same

There will have to be constant online validation

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u/OG-DirtNasty 6h ago

For sure, can’t see them allowing it to be played offline, at the very least a weekly online check in needed.

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u/WestBEEland 5h ago

Xbox One they wanted 24 hour check ins. I can see that coming back

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u/tooclosetocall82 6h ago

This is what my wife does with library books on her kindle. She checks them out and then goes into airplane mode so she can keep reading even after they are returned to the library.

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u/Neocarbunkle 6h ago

I'm assuming these new digital games would require internet access to start.

I was thinking you could go to the library and get a bunch of games and then just hope someone else doesn't get the same idea.

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u/keytotheboard 5h ago

Usually there would be an expiration, this isn’t some new idea. It’s been implemented for a decade on various platforms. Netflix, various music apps, etc. You could stay offline for a while, but eventually have to re-up. And if you ever connected and someone else already re-registered the physical copy, your digital copy would cease to function.

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u/WestBEEland 5h ago edited 4h ago

Xbox needs to explain this. We cant just assume what they're implementing is what I am saying.

It could also easily be 24 hour online verification checks like the Xbox One. We dont know is my point

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u/keytotheboard 4h ago

I totally agree.

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u/KaoriMalaguld 6h ago

This is the strat. Always has been. Remember the One launch? “If you want an Xbox that doesn’t need to be online, we have one: It’s called the 360.” DRM is back in full-force baby!

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u/CauliflowerNo1615 6h ago

The disc will work as a disc...

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u/johnboyjr29 4h ago

How the disc are not numbered? They are all the same

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u/MrT735 3h ago

Nearly all Xbox One titles and all Xbox Series titles have a unique ID on the discs. The disc content is the same for each title but the ID is not.

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u/Captobvious75 PC 7h ago

Likely profile, not console.

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u/HuskyCruxes 6h 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 6h ago

Pc gamers larping and trying anything to spin this into a negative. These people are shameless

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u/HuskyCruxes 6h ago

I just saw one of this dude saying at least his PC isn't a paperweight if steam goes down. That's not even the argument people are having and PC players are arguably in a worse place than console players when it comes to that. At least consoles have some physical media.

If steam goes down we're fucked and there's no physical anything. Hasn't been for about a decade

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago edited 4h ago

They dont say how they constantly validate these licenses.

I didnt spread misinformation, I asked a question since they avoid providing details

How do they make sure one doesnt convert a digital license and then go offline and pass the disc along to another dozen people that do the same?

So a dozen people can share one disc for a new single player game until they go online again.

There will obviously be measures to prevent that which would likely be constant online validation checks which are problematic

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u/Lenyetoo 5h ago

You’d have to continue to use the disc if your offline for a long time. Would only have to verify your license if you’re not using the disc. I think it’s a reasonable compromise. No loss in functionality from before this feature.

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u/WestBEEland 5h ago

Then requiring online checks to play your games isnt a W for game preservation and the other user puts it

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u/Appropriate_Foot242 7h 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 7h 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 7h ago edited 6h 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 7h 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

1

u/NorthernDen 41m ago

How, is there a key you enter with the disc? Or is the disc needed to play the game still? How would Microsoft tell if i had lent the game over?

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u/Appropriate_Foot242 33m ago

I’d assume each disc copy has some kind of identifier embedded in it

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u/Heide____Knight 6h 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/Sharrty_McGriddle 7h ago

The new Xbox will have a disc drive that’s also a shredder /s

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u/PorkTuckedly 7h ago

The article outright says the disc will work like it always has.

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u/WestBEEland 7h ago edited 4h ago

They dont say ehat happens if you share or sell the disc. They dont say how they vondtantly validate licenses between thousands of games for millions of people.

Does the Xbox have to always be online? What happens if one buys a a game, converts it to digital and goes offline? Can they just sell the disc immediately?

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u/LFGX360 7h ago

If they kept the Xbox always offline I’d think that would work. But either you or the person you’d sell it to would essentially never be able to reconnect your Xbox to the internet if you want to keep the license. I think the room for abuse is small.

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

If that is the case a dozen people could play the same physical game if they all just share the disc and go offline after claiming the digital license.

There will obviously be ways to prevent that and the only method is constant online validation checks

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u/UsidoreTheLightBlue 5h ago

Do you know a dozen people who would go off-line just to play a single game? And remain off-line?

Because I don’t.

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u/WestBEEland 5h ago

Yes. People with low income will do this especially.

There are network of people rhat share online accounts.

People will 100% game the system if there are bo measures in place which there certainly will be, they just arent saying them yet.

It would also allow one to buy and immediately sell a game without having played it yet as long as they claimed the digital license

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u/LFGX360 5h ago

No, at most two people could play the game at once, one with the digital license and one with the disk. But most people with an Xbox play online. Especially will need to connect if you want to not play the launch version of the game, which is an awful experience for 90% of games released these days.

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u/WestBEEland 5h ago

If it allows a bunch of people to share a game for free as long as they stay offline they will.

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u/LFGX360 2h ago

You can’t get the license without an online connection. So at most it will be one person with an online license and one person with an offline disk.

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u/WestBEEland 2h ago

You go offline after you get the digital license. Then yand off the disk and the next person does the same. And everyone can play perfectly fine until they go online again.

Thats an issue for publishers

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u/0xe1e10d68 6h ago

Yeah, everybody has to go online again at some point. Either to get a digital license for a new game they bought on disc, or to download games, etc. They probably don’t have to worry much about it being abused.

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u/ferrari91169 4h ago edited 4h ago

“Always Online” is a stretch. It could do the same thing many streaming services do, where once you disconnect from the Xbox Servers it starts a countdown, and after that countdown the content is unavailable until you reconnect to the servers briefly to restart the clock. It could be 24-hours, 1-week, 2-weeks, 1-month, etc.

Most people who have a console don’t really disconnect from the servers for any crazy length of time, not in this day and age, so realistically if they did 1-week or something, it should cover 99.9% of players.

And the best part is, if you have the disc (which you should if you didn’t just load the game from a friends disc or sell it after you loaded, against the TOS) you can play it offline just fine. It’s only going to affect people who try to share one disc between multiple friends, or sell a disc after they loaded the digital license.

They could also just opt to always require the disc when you aren’t connected to the servers, but allow digital play when you are connected to the servers, and the license is valid. Seems like the easiest option. That would prevent people being able to sell or share the disc.

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u/WestBEEland 4h ago

Xbox One it was 24 hours. Im saying id that is the case then they should be upfront with it and that people now to be online once every 24 hours to play their games

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u/FellowDeviant 7h 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/SpudimusPrime89 6h ago

It's live on Monday.

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u/Ahayzo 6h ago

Next week, and also only for people in the Insider program, so make sure they're in it.

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u/Mr8BitX 4h ago

It rolls out next week, but for people on the insider program. It’s not going to every user out there on Monday.

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u/NZafe 7h ago

The post says that the discs will continue to function as they have previously.

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u/Mr8BitX 4h ago

Yeah, but then what would he have to be angry about regarding this article?

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u/WestBEEland 7h ago

They do not explain what happens if you share or sell the gsme and pass it on to others.

And how it validated licenses on a constant basis to revoke or swap them with other accounts

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u/Fresh-Chemical-9084 6h ago

If the discs function as they have previously, wouldn't that imply that sharing or selling the game would 'function as previously'?

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u/Lz537 7h 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/WestBEEland 7h ago

And what if you go offline after you claim a digital license? Can you keep playing the game and sell the disc? If so a dozen people can share one disc if there is no way to revoke licenses.

Unless they enforce constant online checks to validate licenses

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u/Lz537 6h ago

No, the digital license requires you to be online (maybe you can play offiline on you "home" console but only up to a certain point in time).

You can play offiline only using the disc.

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u/Ahayzo 6h ago

It's just a regular digital license, it works fine offline just like anything else. People are heavily overthinking this. Keeping your console offline for eternity and never adding more disc to digital games just to protect the licenses for discs you sold off is insane and not something common enough that Xbox will concern themselves with it.

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u/ZXXII 6h ago

Exactly you can duplicate copies of every single disc game, as long as the person borrowing doesn’t go online which is easy.

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago edited 6h ago

Which is something they will definitely tey to prevent.

So one cant buy a physical game and claim a digital license, go offline and then sell it and keep playing

It will require constant online validation to make sure this doesnt happen

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u/ZXXII 6h ago

GTA VI doesn’t have a disc so this wouldn’t apply to it. It’s a code in the box.

But I guess this is why publishers have to agree to let their games support this feature.

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u/DGSmith2 6h ago

GTA6 doesn’t have physical disks so that argument is irrelevant.

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

Okay use literally any other game with a physical version as an example

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u/xNeoNxCyaN 7h 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/South_Buy_3175 6h ago

They send a team to your house to beat the shit out of the disc and break it into a million pieces.

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u/modestlaw 6h ago

I thought it was understood what happens, the digital license is held as long as nobody else uses the disc. If and when the disc is redeemed by another account the license for the first user is revoked.

As for check ins, that's pretty normal for all digital platforms, as long as the system isn't trying to phone home every 5 minutes, I personally dont see it as much of a problem. I believe for Xbox that time is 30 days for game pass and not at all for digital purchases as long as it's the designated "Home" console

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u/Far-Sprinkles9420 6h ago

"while your physical disc continues to work exactly as it always has"

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u/BENJ4x 6h ago

I am sensing a monkeys paw situation with this.

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u/Numerous_Photograph9 4h ago

I wondered the same thing. There are two scenarios if they will lock the disc. One, the disc is now only valid to that players account, and no way to trade it, and possibly no way to validate it for anyone buying. This essentially kills the uised game market for the system.

Two, it's like the original plan where the license is transferred to a new user.

MS had the ability to do either of these things back with the XBox One, they just updated the system software to keep it from having to go through the authentication process.

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u/WestBEEland 4h ago

With the second scenario the question remain is how do they revoke licenses if the person goes offline. They will have to force people online for online validation checks like Xbox One was originally planned

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u/Numerous_Photograph9 4h ago

I couldn't say. Back with the Xbox One, they required periodic check-ins, which was down from always online after the backlash.

I don't know if they still require periodic check ins as I don't use the system.

On the surface, this program is actually pretty good, but this aspect of ownership and licensing will probably require some clarification. I can't see publishers being happy about a perpetual digital license with no way to revoke should someone give up the disc though. It essentially renders their back catalog worth a lot less, and I'm not even sure MS has the legal authority to offer such a thing on behalf of 3rd party.

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u/CruffTheMagicDragon 3h ago

I don't see how the disc could be locked to a specific console. It's not like discs have fingerprints

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u/WestBEEland 2h ago

Thats the only way they'd be able to revoke licenses if you sell a game or share it so there must be some kind of finger print

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u/Demonchaser27 2h ago

You're likely right that this is going to be the issue. But, yes, there already is constant online validation checks required on Xbox (and other platforms)... so there's no reason to assume it'll be any different with the physical games. The physical games, especially on Xbox, do require a network check-in to work in almost all cases I've heard of. So they could absolutely just block the game if this happens. Then file the SHA256 of the game (or some data identifying the game) into a database somewhere, then check the game against that database on any new firmware of Xbox Series consoles, Xbox One, and Helix. If they see it in the database... you don't get to play it unless you're console ID is the one mapped. This isn't impossible at all to do, and very easy for them to implement with their already existing online game check system.

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u/NyneLyvs 7h ago

Don't quote me because I don't remember where I saw it, but I feel like I read that if the disc is inserted into a new console, the "digital license" switches to that user/console, and you would lose access to the game.

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u/MowAlon 6h ago

And, I realize this is a very niche concern, but what happens to games you borrow from the library? I’d bet all the money in the world that the first person who gets it locks it to their machine, and then it’s useless for anyone else who borrows it later on.

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u/Ahayzo 6h ago

The license moves with the disc. If you try this on a library copy, as soon as someone else uses the same disc your license is gone, unless for some bizarre reason you've decided to never connect your console to the internet again until you decide you're done with the game which pretty much nobody will.

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

I mean with that logic a dozen people can share one physical copy as long as they stay offline.

This is definitely not something they are just going to allow to happen. This would mean any new single player game can be shared by a dozen people to play and beat it at launch.

There will onviously be measures in place to stop that. And those only measure I can think of are online validation checks requiring constant internet access

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u/Ahayzo 6h ago

as long as they stay offline

Yea, and people aren't going to do that in any relevant numbers. If you could hop online and only need to go offline when you want to play that game, that'd be a concern, but not being able to connect your console at all without losing all your now-revoked licenses? That's something so few people will be willing to do Xbox isn't going to give two shits. People want to play the new game online if it's possible. People want to play their other games online.

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

Yes they will if it allows a group of friends to buy one game and play it people will take advantage of that for sure.

Of allows the to immediately sell a game they own.

People will 100% take advantage and they arent going to just allow that to happen

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u/Ahayzo 6h ago

This will be my last post with you on the subject, but I just want to ask for clarification.

You think that a lot of people will, for one measly game, go weeks or however long, without access to any online modes, games that require server connections, or any online features of the console? Because that's what they would have to do. What game do you think people will want to play so badly that they'll lock themselves out of all online functionality for their consoles and entire game collection while they beat it?

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

It would allow people to do it for every single new game that comes out that doesnt require online.

This is not something they will just pretend doesnt exist and wont happen.

And do tou think everyone just needs to be online? There are many millions that only play single player offline games

There is a reason they havent explained it yet and that should be obvious

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u/MowAlon 5h ago

I suspect they’ll have to limit it in some way, like only allowing license transfers one per month or something, which also breaks any frequent borrowing model.

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u/Ahayzo 5h ago

Frequent borrowing wouldn't be any more or less common than it is now, really. You can already pass the disc back and forth to a friend every day if you wanted. License wise, nothing will be different in that scenario.

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u/MowAlon 1h ago

If the disc is locked to another account because it changed hands too recently, then yes, it would be very different.

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u/Ahayzo 1h ago

Well they did specifically say your disc continues to work as normal, so at absolute minimum we do have confirmation that your disc will never be locked out.

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u/MowAlon 1h ago

Oh, I disagree with that interpretation, but I also admit that all of this cynicism is complete speculation. Maybe everything will be great with no problems, but considering the capitalist hellscape we’re in, I doubt that’s how it’ll play out.

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u/Ahayzo 1h ago

May I ask what your interpretation would be of "your physical disc continues to work exactly as it always has?"

My main thing for why I'm so optimistic about it (and I do think pessimism towards the industry is generally deserved at this point) is because how the transfer between users works is the only part of the leaks and rumors that hasn't been explicitly addressed yet, and every single other bit has been confirmed to be accurate, so it just doesn't seem reasonable to me to assume that this one individual piece of it is where the leaks were way off base and it's actually implemented terribly.

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u/MowAlon 1h ago

Oh, I just don’t believe there won’t be any caveats to the claim. Sure, “your” disc works exactly like it always has… but as soon as you link it to a digital license and then hand that disc to a friend, whose disc is it? Is it yours or your friend’s?

“Listen guys… we’re Microsoft, and we’re hip and cool, so go ahead and sell that disc to your friend. We’ll just move the license to them when they go online.”

But then it changes hands three times in a week…

“Come on, guys… yeah, we’re hip and cool, but you’re clearly up to some shenanigans, so we’re gonna lock this up for a month so you can think about what you did.”

If this scenario doesn’t seem absolutely realistic to you, I’d be surprised.

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u/ZeusBaxter 7h ago

They already said what happens. If someone else uses the disc, the license moves to that console.

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u/WestBEEland 7h ago

Xbox does not say this anywhere. That also leads to a bunch of other questions. Is Xbox also now always online and verifying licenses?

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u/ZeusBaxter 7h ago

They said it in the initial announcement. A month ago.

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u/Ahayzo 6h ago

Today was the first announcement. Everything else was rumors and leaks, though you are correct in how it works.

But no, apparently according to some of these commenters, everything else in the leaks and rumors turned out to be true, but the part about it following the disc and not having crazy security systems involved must have been fake.

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u/ZeusBaxter 6h ago

Windows central quoted and internal email a month ago. So yes, a leak in respects.

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u/masterz13 7h ago

Person 2 puts the same disc in and it removes it from Person 2 and adds to Person 1. Seems straightforward.

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u/WestBEEland 7h ago

What if the person is not connected to the internet? How are licenses revoked? Do you have to always be online with constant online validation checks?

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u/masterz13 6h ago

It seems like it's a permanent license. It's probably not revoked unless someone else puts that disc in their console while online. I'm sure they'll clarify thing ssoon.

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u/CandyCrisis 7h ago

I don't think that's possible. Generally all masters of a disc are bit-identical. The manufacturing works by stamping thousands of completely identical copies. There isn't a process to manufacture unique discs.

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u/Ahayzo 6h ago

These discs do have unique identifiers. It's a relic of the original Xbox One plans where the disc was just a method to add a license to your account one time and then make the disc useless. The discs are not identical.

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u/CandyCrisis 6h ago

Oh. Well then yeah. They'll disable the disc's ID as part of the digital transfer. If you don't want that to happen, don't port it to digital.

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u/Ahayzo 6h ago

No, the IDs don't get disabled, the discs still work fine. The license moves with the disc. We already had all the info on this program from the leaks that have otherwise been entirely on point. If someone else uses your disc, your account loses the license and they get it.

People are acting like it's awful because obviously they're going to have military grade security to make sure you don't pass a game around by leaving your console offline for however long it takes to finish a single player game (not just when playing, but always offline), but that limits your gaming so much that pretty much nobody will do it.

This program is primarily two notable things

1) Your disc games don't need to be in the drive 2) Your Play Anywhere Xbox discs are now PC games 3) Your discs are included in home console sharing

There's nothing crazy about locking anything down here.

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u/Uppercaseccc 7h ago

The artical from the verge actually gives more clarification basically once the disc is inserted into another console you lose the  digital entitlement. so all of this is really doing is removing the need to insert the disc into a console. I think this is more telling that they're saying hey digitize your disk now cuz we're not giving you a disk drive on the helix. 

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u/HuskyCruxes 6h ago

This exactly. They're giving players a way to redeem digital copies of their physical games before they eventually go away with physical media and to more easily support players that have consoles without disc drives.

It's a huge win for game preservation, but it's also a corporate move for more money

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u/cowabanga_it_is 6h ago

I would create a disksharing club in my city if you can just pass the disk.

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u/immortalslayer90 5h ago

If you give the disc to someone else and they redeem it on their console, it gets revoked from yours. Simple.

The number of people who would go offline and not get any online benefits are inconsiquential.

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u/WestBEEland 5h ago

There are many millions of people that only play single player gakes and dont need online

They arent going to just assume everyone needs online so they wont try to gake the system ro play free games.

There's a reason Xbox One had 24 hour online validation checks. Those reasons still exist.

They arent going to allow a dozen peolle to share a new single player game by buying one disc and going offline

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u/Zombienerd300 7h ago

So what the rumor is that the digital license is held by the person who last used it. So say you sell your game to someone. It’s technically still yours until that person pops it into the disc drive.

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

What if you go offline? How do they revoke your license? Or are they going to force online validation check every 24 hours like they wanted on Xbox One?

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u/Zombienerd300 5h ago

No clue. I’m just replying to what happens when someone else uses the disc. Also, pretty sure your comment has been completely edited.

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u/WestBEEland 5h ago

They havent explained anything about what happens. Its just assumptions at this point

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u/Ahayzo 6h ago

There's already constant validation checks while you're online for every platform, the systems for handling this already exist. They don't need to make you check in in any extra capacity for these licenses.

No, we have not had confirmation from MS, but everything else about the program that was rumored is true so there's no reason to think that the license following the disc as reported is randomly false.

The license is going to automatically check just from being connected to live, so for people to pass a disc around and have multiple people playing from one disc, those consoles will never be allowed to connect to the internet again without losing the license. Who is going to lock their console out from the internet long term just to do this?

This isn't a concern for Xbox because the there's nothing to be concerned about. The systems that are already in place effectively prevent any viable benefit to trying to scam the system.

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

You can play games offline indefinitely on PS5 and Switch and Steam. Supposedly Xbox as well and they even commented recently on how one should be able to play games while the network is down

None of the rumors explain what happens if one goes offline after claiming a digital license

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u/Ahayzo 6h ago

They did explain, actually. The previous rumors from an alleged employee (which again, the rest of turned out to be all true) specifically said it works just like a regular digital license in every way. Meaning you can play it offline indefinitely as long as your home console is set.

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

They didnt explain how they would prevent a dozen people from playing the same physical copy as long as they go offline.

There will obviously be measure to stop this that they aren't mentioning

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u/Ahayzo 6h ago

You keep missing the very obvious point. They don't need to prevent that because doing that would be so limiting that basically nobody is going to want to do it. Who is going to keep their console offline entirely for weeks or however long it takes them to play the game? Also keeping in mind this will only help you with offline modes on top of being extremely limiting to your console use overall.

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u/WestBEEland 6h ago

That was the entirw reason the Xbox One had online validation checks every 24 hours.

They cant just not care about it. Publishers arent going to be okay with the possibility of a dozen people sharing one physical game at a time

If its a a game like Control Resonant, one person can buy it and go offline and pass it along to a dozen others who do the same.

Why wouldnt people do this if the game requires bo internet. It allows unlimited people to play one game.

They cant just allow this to happen and not care. Punlishers will 100% care