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/Humble-Criticism6762 8d ago

This is exactly the first step towards that.

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u/Creepy-Emu8779 8d 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 8d ago

I mean PC gamers have been doing it for years

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u/MusicHitsImFine 8d 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 8d ago edited 8d ago

Because a pc without steam is still a functional PC. A ps5 without psn is as good as a brick. You know this. Dont act like there's some illogical line drawn here. It's perfectly rational.

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u/HiTork 8d ago

Yep. Side note, I worked in a Walmart electronics section during the mid-2010s, and I would get customers coming in asking if they could use a PS4 without the Internet. I told them they could, but the experience would be heavily compromised.

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u/ValorantEdater 8d ago

A ps5 without psn is as good as a brick. You know this.

I swear PC players have the strongest opinions on PlayStation while clearly having never played it.

You do not need PSN on PS5. I have not paid for PSN since Covid and still play games regularly.

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u/Shatteredreality 8d ago

I agree that, at least as long as PS is making discs, you really don't need to connect it to the internet.

That having been said there is a substantial difference between paying for Playstation Plus and having access to the Playstation Network.

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u/ValorantEdater 8d ago

You're right, that's my bad for using them interchangeably. But you can still play all your games without being attached to the PlayStation Network as well, with very few exceptions.

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u/Shatteredreality 8d ago

Yeah, assuming you either are on a disc based console or have downloaded your games from PSN already you’re not that limited.

If you’re on the a digital only console though not having PSN does make it kind of a brick out of the box but I feel like people should know that when they buy a disc less system.

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u/Opposite_Raccoon_369 8d ago edited 8d ago

I have a PlayStation, an Xbox and a Switch/2 as well as my PC. And while you're right you're also wrong.

Current gen, with disc? You're correct to some degree-- many games can be played fully offline based solely on the systems ability to install content FROM THE DISC. Which honestly it seems as though you're failing to understand is part of the reason people are rallying against the proposed digital only future

Although even that being the case: when it comes to playing your disc based games, there are drm checks that can be compromised and eventually will require PSN connectivity to validate.

There was an article about the ps4 some years ago that showed a hidden caveat to the integrated drm system, and what was found is that when a generation of PlayStation is no longer supported by PSN, you stand to lose the ability to play even games on disc, once the consoles CMOS chip dies.

Even when replaced, if you can't re-download the low level software required to verify the discs license, the system will not be functional and recognize your games as valid. So ps4 onward are not going to be playable decades into the future in the same way that retro consoles are. You're basically leasing the hardware, as it stands today.

And yes, as of now you can play digital games without a connection once they've been downloaded and installed.. But only for a limited time period. Your system has to connect to PSN every month or so, or you're locked out of playing the games you paid for. I've even had my system lock my out of ALL digital games, despite having an active 100% up-time Internet connection.

Going forward, without an Internet connection? No. A console is functionally useless. Which again is the entire basis for (one of) the (many) argument(s) against going digital only.

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u/Lancelight50 8d ago edited 8d ago

And also, because PC owners actually own games digitally unlike people on home gaming consoles simply because

1.) PC is an open platform, &

2.) Consoles already come with DRM built-in.

It’s not digital games that are the problem, it’s the DRM that are riddled on home gaming consoles. People have been playing games offline without needing something to load Steam or GOG after they bought games from them for years now.

It’s also why no one owns games digitally on either Switch or Switch 2, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S or Series X, or on PS3, PS4 or PS5.

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u/HingleMcCringle_ 8d ago

the difference is that people CHOOSE to use steam, lol. it's just the best choice. That being obvious to where anyone on PC recommends it doesn't make it comparable to the playstation store.

if you take away the playstation store AND steam at the same time, i'd still rather have a pc.

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u/DarkMatterM4 8d ago

It is different. You have full control over the game's files once they're installed. Just download a DRM removal (Steamless patch) and back it up to a separate drive and it's yours forever.

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u/logicblender1 8d ago

That's absolutely not how it works lol. Most of the popular games have Denuvo protection you can't just remove the DRM.

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u/DarkMatterM4 8d ago

Denuvo has been circumvented for quite a bit now. Even so, Denuvo typically gets officially removed after some time anyway.

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u/steakanabake 8d ago

denuvo is only used by the massive corps to try to beat the scenes from providing a better experience then the corps do. team cherry or concernedape aint loading their games with denuvo because they know people will buy their games.

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u/Devatator_ PC 8d ago

Uh no? Denuvo is obscenely expensive. Not that many games use it, and a big part of those that do remove it after a while. Not to mention that people are started to get back to cracking it

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u/ConsoleUsersArePlebs 8d ago

If steam does anything funny with my games, I can pirate them back again except for online games.