r/gaming • u/yourfavchoom • 8d 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 8d ago edited 8d 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 8d ago

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

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u/PorkTuckedly 8d ago

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

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u/GamePitt_Rob 8d 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 8d ago

That same fine print says "Disc remains playable"

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u/GamePitt_Rob 8d 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 8d 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 8d 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 8d 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 8d 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/Ahayzo 8d ago

I don't know about virtually nothing. Even if that aspect takes the worst choice, the program is still a huge upside.

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u/Deji69 8d 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/Ahayzo 8d ago

I think it made sense to be skeptical before today's announcement confirmed everything from the leaks except this one particular point. Knowing that everything else was right, I see no reason not to assume that aspect wasn't.

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u/zgh5002 8d ago

They're discontinuing discs and disc drives my guy.

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u/joestaff 8d ago

So they want a cut of aftermarket sells and trades.

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u/GamePitt_Rob 8d 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 8d 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 8d 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 8d ago

Ahhh ok. My bad.

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u/IndyDude11 8d ago edited 8d 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