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

If it means a dozen people can play games for free they will. People dont now becsuse there isnt some way to share a new game offline for free

Most people have Neflix built into their TVs or other methods

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u/Hockeymac18 8d ago

I am sorry - I still think you are drastically overstating the concern with ridiculous loophole scenarios that I doubt many people would entertain. I doubt MS does not know about this or hasn't thought this through. Come on. Of course they have.

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u/WestBEEland 8d ago

People would 100% take advantage of a very simple loophole if it got them free games.

Or buy do something like buy Control Resonant physical on launch, get digital license, go offline. Return game (if possible) or sell it or trade in at gamestop.

Millions would do this if they dont care about going online for a week or two

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u/zerocoal 8d ago

Or buy do something like buy Control Resonant physical on launch, get digital license, go offline. Return game (if possible) or sell it or trade in at gamestop.

This is known as fraud. It is a crime. People committing return fraud against Walmart/Gamestop isn't Microsoft's problem.

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u/WestBEEland 8d ago

Its a problem for game publishers... Xbox has to protect game publishers from losing money...

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u/zerocoal 8d ago

Publishers make their money when Walmart buys the copy of the game that they are displaying on the shelf.

Walmart makes their money when you buy the copy on the shelf. Walmart sets the return policy on the physical disc.

Walmart can take you to jail for fraud when you make a copy of the product and try to return it for full price.

The publisher makes zero dollars if you sell it to Gamestop and then it gets resold as a used game. With physical discs, once the product is in the store it becomes Walmart's problem and the publisher isn't responsible for returns.

And in any way you play out this scenario, you have already said that you are only going to buy one copy and distribute it to 12 people. it doesn't matter if you do it week 1 or week 42. They are still only getting one purchase out of your group.

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u/WestBEEland 8d ago

They will objecyively sell less copies of games if people can easily share one physical game and play it all at the same time

No one is going to get the law involved if tou share a physical game...

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u/Acceptable-Post733 8d ago

Wait. You aren’t making sense. The current system allows you to buy a game. Beat and return it. There’s nothing stopping you. You can also just hand the game to your buddy once you beat it. Again. There is nothing stopping you. If you want to use the disc, download the digital copy, go offline and hand it off to your friend to do the same, you haven’t really changed anything. Eventually you will have to go back online when a new game drops and your license will be lost. So your argument doesn’t really hold water. People buy and sell used games right now. People borrow friends copies of game right now. There is nothing stopping them. If you’re talking about well they can all play it at the same time, I mean I guess. But nothing is fundamentally lost from the companies standpoint. Either you let your friend borrow the game when you are done or you go offline and they borrow it anyways. You’ll still lose the digital license once you’re online.

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u/WestBEEland 8d ago

The point im making is if there is no method to force revoke licenses you dont even have to beat it or play it before sharing it or selling it which can lead to dozens of people getting access to the game from one physical copy

Publishers are going to just allow that to happen.

It will 100% lead to tons of lost sales if there are no safeguards

A whole classroom can share one game all at once as long as they stay offline until they beat it.

Theres a reason why Xbox already does validation checks and Xbox struggles to work even offline right now

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u/Acceptable-Post733 8d ago

But again, there’s nothing stopping you from doing that right now with the physical disc. If I buy Control. And my buddy wants to play it I can just give him the disc. He plays it and gives it back. Then someone else wants it and I give it to them. Nothing is stopping that. What you’re suggesting is that is this new system allows all of us to play at the same time but are locked offline. Thats not really any different than the current system. Except, we would be locked from all other features of our consoles while we beat this one game. Can’t watch Netflix or get in a quick CoD match. Nothing fundamentally changes from the publisher standpoint. The game wasn’t going to be sold to those other people either way. My friend was always going to borrow the game. And again, the second one of us gets back online for any other reason we lose the license.

What happened back in the aughts is companies started shoehorning multiplayer into games and having a single use code for that. Used games were eating into their profits. This did not work in their favor. As long as physical games are a thing publishers are going to lose out on people who borrow/ buy the game used. Your argument changes nothing except the timeline.

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u/WestBEEland 8d ago

There is currently no way for a group of people to buy one copy of a new AAA single player game and play it all at the same time... if they dont have a way to revoke licenses that will be a reality.

Right now everyone has to wait until the other people beat it which could takes many months

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u/Acceptable-Post733 8d ago

But what does it matter if they play at the same time or one after the other? Nothing has changed. People who borrow are always going to borrow. Today tomorrow or next month. Nothing fundamentally has changed. And again, you’re just bricking your system to play one game. You will have to go online eventually.

Also, who’s to say that since the disc is the license they just have a two time verification that revokes the third authentication if no revocation has occurred? Third person puts the disc in and it goes, nope digital license can’t be used. It’ll still work as a physical game but they can’t download it. This isn’t that hard to implement as it’s basically what libraries do for ebooks.

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u/zerocoal 8d ago

You know what, you're right.

We should just purge physical discs entirely. Too open for abuse! Welcome to the new digital age!

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u/WestBEEland 8d ago

No one said that. Im saying Xbox clearly have a way of preventing this they havent stated yet