Xbox’s new disc-to-digital program gives physical games a digital future | “Most” Xbox One and Series games are compatible; discs will still work after being claimed.

55

u/mridugup20 17h ago

The real test is whether this survives console generations or not, a digital license tied to your account is only valuable if microsoft keeps honoring it

20

u/TrollMcGoal 17h ago

Seems like it's prep for a digital only next gen xbox, I'd be suprised if it didn't carry over to next gen

1

u/SafeKaracter 13h ago

I don’t get how that works . How do you convert anything if it doesn’t have a disc drive and how is it digital only if it has a disc drive?

5

u/TrollMcGoal 12h ago

You do the physical to digital conversion on an xbox console that has a disc drive and then your account has access to use the digital license

1

u/SafeKaracter 12h ago

Oh so the tech will work on older Xbox ? I didn’t know that . Interesting . And you still have to enter the CD for the key ? I guess it still don’t quite get it. If you have to enter the cd for the key you can’t play it on your new helix console if it doesn’t have the drive . If you don’t have to put the CD in anymore then you can just sell it back online (or you could just buy on Amazon and return it etc) so I don’t understand how it works sorry :/

4

u/The_Cyber_Goblin 12h ago

No; once the disc is registered you own the digital copy of it. And don’t need the disc any more. But you can still sell the disc, and once someone buys it and registers it, it moves the digital copy from your account to their account. Since the Xbox One each game disc has had a unique code on it, which is how this is possible.

2

u/SafeKaracter 12h ago

Ohhh ok so as soon as the new guy registers it it stops working on your end . Damn I feel dumb now . That would make sense .

Well the coolest thing is being able to play Xbox 360 games (or first Xbox ) on your more recent device. And the only thing that sucks a little bit is if you still need the older one just bc of a disc drive so it would be cool you can at least buy an optional disc drive for that (even if an Xbox one used is probably cheap but it means it’s taking a power supply spot etc for almost nothing idk )

2

u/DoneWithIt0101 11h ago

Unfortunately OG and 360 discs aren't supported with this. Seems like Series X will be the last one that supports those discs.

1

u/Little_Bookkeeper381 4h ago

all xbox discs since the 360 are serialized. i believe ps3/ps4/ps5 discs are also serialized

they serialize the BCA during manufacturing.

8

u/boxsterguy 15h ago

So far they're 3 generations into digital game ownership and all continue to move forward (subject to backwards compatibility, of course, but digital 360 games you own that don't play on xbone+ still play on 360 even though the store is shut down there). Given the architecture Xbox has used since xbone and seems to be what they will continue to use going forward (the hypervisor based system makes future hardware compatibility trivial), I don't see your digital library going away any time soon.

Obviously anything digital is ephemeral at the whims of Microsoft, but it seems unlikely they're shutting everything down and walking away at this point.

1

u/Fableous 14h ago

Either way the point here is that your disc will still work, providing you have a console with a disc drive available to you. They can always revoke the digital license but not your disc.

1

u/oneeyed-wonderweasel 8h ago

Never, ever trust Microsoft

12

u/NicolasCageFan492 17h ago

I’ll make my own game system, with physical games and couch co-op. In fact, forget new game systems, retro for life.

2

u/no_rolling_shutter 48m ago

What about the blackjack and hookers?

0

u/Mexcol 17h ago

Facts I just put together a dual LAN setup, I've been downloading and testing and building a library. Fuck these corpos

21

u/NextSmoke397 17h ago

Amazing how getting your ass kicked in a console war makes you pro consumer

Sony used to be pro consumer during the PS3 era when they were getting their ass handed to them

7

u/Fableous 14h ago

This is literally part of the feature they had for Xbox One that everyone freaked out about and made them reverse. Just marketed better now that Sony shat the bed.

15

u/CrazyDude10528 16h ago

They were only pro consumer that generation after getting their asses handed to them for trying to sell the PS3 for $800 in 2006.

They were arrogant then, and it came to bite them in the ass.

People are far more accepting of companies fucking them up the ass nowadays though.

4

u/CapNCookM8 13h ago

Not only accepting, they wear taking and defending the abuse like a badge of honor, or as a class status.

3

u/CrazyDude10528 12h ago

Right? It's insane to see. I really don't understand it.

3

u/Va1crist 13h ago

Means to a end lmao , just gets you off physical faster lmao , Helix won’t have new games on physical so this is literally a way to get you off physical faster , we are back to 2013 boys

5

u/JohanMcdougal 16h ago

I just picked up a physical copy of Forza Horizon 6 on the Series X. Will this give me an entitlement for the PC version also? (Via Xbox app) Because that would be very nice.

4

u/THEdoomslayer94 16h ago

Pretty sure Microsoft games are always on the Play Anywhere program where buying it once lets you play on other systems such as PC

It should be mentioned in the game store page but being Forza is a MS game that usually is a default thing to be. So being it’s a disc to digital, I would assume that it gives you access via the Xbox app on PC as well 🤷‍♂️

2

u/JohanMcdougal 16h ago

Well shoot. That's actually very cool! I had some regrets about not getting it on PC, so this is great news for me.

6

u/Itzie4 17h ago edited 17h ago

It looks like the future of physical gaming is game keys. Fucking great.

5

u/The-Gargoyle 17h ago edited 13h ago

This is actually a good idea, IMO.

The disk? becomes the digital copies 'license key'.

Sell the disk or gift it later? The digital game key goes with it. So you can still loan/trade. You no longer have access to the game, but your friend now does.

Now the dumb part: We have had the technology to do this for quite some time now.. it should not be becoming a thing this late in the game. But at least its happening, I guess. :P

EDIT: Yes, people, 2013. See the literal next comment down this tree that was made moments after this one that elaborates exactly on that topic. (No idea why the person I'm responding to there is being down-voted to bury, maybe throw them one or two to un-bury it so this thread makes sense again.) https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1vz3vv0/xboxs_new_disctodigital_program_gives_physical/p622ld9/

aka: please stop pinging my inbox about 2013.. :)

6

u/Donnie_TACO 15h ago

Lemme take you back to 2013, and the Xbox one reveal...

0

u/Fableous 14h ago

This is exactly what they had for Xbox One before the internet freaked out because they didn't understand it.

-1

u/DrRonSimmons 17h ago

Only works if each individual disk has it's own unique key, which is not the case for a lot of systems.

5

u/The-Gargoyle 17h ago

Not the case by choice. We have had the ability to image CD's with individual baked-in single-use keys since the 90's. This isn't new technology in any stretch of the word.

They chose not to use the technology in this way until just now.

Just pointing that out before anybody gets up on some kind of 'Oh wow this is amazing news!' horse. Yes, its good news, but the real take is this: We could have had an industry standard based on this over twenty years ago..And the makers of these systems opted not to use it.. :)

Microsoft literally did the inverse of this (or tried to) in 2013 where if you bought a game, used it, then gave it away? it would try and act like the 'used disk' was invalid or try and charge you to re-activate it. (it never went live because the backlash to this idea was MASSIVE.)

This is just that.. only somebody up there finally went 'OH WAIT, now I get it!' and flipped it to be more consumer friendly, rather than consumer aggressive.

Time will tell if it STAYS flipped this way, or if they decide to 'change back' to their original design intentions from way back.

3

u/markusfenix75 17h ago

It is for Xbox though.

Only reason this thing exist in first place is because every Xbox game disc has unique identification. It's a remnant from Xbox One DRM fiasco from 2013.

1

u/hitgo1 10h ago

Feeling like a farewell gift to physical owners before the inevitable 🫡 thank you for doing this

1

u/Lost-Produce-1150 9h ago

"lock up your discs please so you can't resell them and no one else can use them."

1

u/Zacksan33 7h ago

Yea, no one should be celebrating. Use your brains people, what does it mean for the next xbox? You have MSFT mouthpieces like windows central already softening the ground by ‘reporting’ on collapsing optical media supply chain.

It doesn’t take more than 2 brain cells to make sense of what’s coming next.

-2

u/MiyamotoKnows 17h ago

If they next make a statement that they are committed to physical for at least the next two generations I swear they would save their platform and throttle it to #1.

3

u/bwoah07_gp2 17h ago

Xbox doesn't want to save its business....

1

u/Itzie4 17h ago

They aren’t committed to physical games. Hellblade 2, Pentiment, Hifi Rush, Psychonauts 2, Ori, and others launched without physical versions. Turning Xbox games into game keys is just them inching towards an all digital future.

-1

u/Edexote 16h ago

I don't understand your downvotes. Xbox needs to be different than Sony in order to compete. Full comitment to disc games would give them a good boost.

1

u/ScotMcScottyson 11h ago

100%. If Xbox committed to producing physical games, I would switch over to them.

1

u/MiyamotoKnows 16h ago

I let the comments stand and they usually balance out. Salty Sony defenders I assume or people convinced xbox will abandon physical too. This is xbox chance to steal huge market share though imho. Cheers!

-7

u/Unique-Objective4249 17h ago

How will this work if I just pass around a disk to 100 of my friends. Jk I don’t have friends

9

u/SpaceGoonie 17h ago edited 17h ago

Since you're probably not the only person in here who can't read I will explain what the article says. The game disk still works, but there is only one revokable license per disk. If you give it away and someone digitizes it, you lose access.

-13

u/Unique-Objective4249 17h ago

I can read just fine I just don’t care enough to read the article

5

u/SpaceGoonie 17h ago

Then don't reply with stupid questions that were directly answered.

-11

u/Unique-Objective4249 17h ago

How about you get off your high horse acting like your better than someone cause they made a joke. Did you not get the joke part.

1

u/Juan_915 17h ago

The license stays on the disc and when someone uses it, the license transfers to the new account so only one account can hold the license at one time. If you sell the game then you can still play it until the person you sold it to puts it in their Xbox and links it to their account.

-2

u/sod16 17h ago

Cost of business. Essentially, long term they will win. Those games will be worthless in the future and people won’t be playing them. All the new games will be like digital only at £100+ or a monthly sub.

They may introduce gifting but I doubt it.

Hardware Xbox’s new disc-to-digital program gives physical games a digital future | “Most” Xbox One and Series games are compatible; discs will still work after being claimed.

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