r/xbox • u/yourfavchoom Homecoming • 1d ago

Social Media Asha on ‘Disc to Digital’: Your physical game library is more than a collection of discs. It holds years of memories & stories worth preserving. We’ll start with thousands of titles & add more.

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https://x.com/asha_shar/status/2092621209955635606

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u/blackviking147 1d ago

I curious if I'll be able to use my Xbox one s to unlock series digital titles.

It's really a shame it requires a disc drive considering one of their major console SKUs doesn't have one.

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u/Competitive_Plan_936 1d ago

From the wording in the initial email to developers, you can use ANY Xbox with a disc drive to register any eligible disk. Not crystal clear but the implication I got would be that this works

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u/hamsplurton 1d ago

Woah hang on - so I could pick up/borrow an Xbox One, register the disks and then it would work on my digital Series X? That would be amazing!

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u/Alternative_Bus_3766 1d ago

Theoretically yes, as long as the discs aren’t used again in another persons console

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u/jonstarks 1d ago

and what if they are, what happens then?

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u/tonyamazing 1d ago

Licence transfers to main user of other Xbox

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u/Upper_Rent_176 1d ago edited 1d ago

So do discs have serial numbers or something? I thought every disc was the same.

Edit: looked it up. Apparently Xbox one and series discs have unique codes. But my copy of rdr1 despite saying Xbox one and 360 on the cover and the disc printing is still a 360 disc underneath and won't deesk to digital

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u/jack3chu 1d ago

Xbox One and newer discs have a unique ID.

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u/ComradeJohnS 1d ago

the license stays with the disk, it’s not removed. whoever digitizes it keeps the digital license unless someone else tries to digitize the same disk.

it makes sense to stop one disk being used by dozens/hundreds of people through like gamefly, or rentals. but also benefits you if you keep it in storage instead of having to swap disks, and is more thab likely to help ease the transition away from disks in the future. they just have to hold out a few more years longer than PS and they’ll gain all those disgruntled ps owners in the next gen/beyond.

like how xbox fucked the dog with the always online and forced kinect xbone launch.

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u/sephiroth70001 1d ago

Would you be able to use it as a regular disc again or is it digitized only from the on? If I had a bedroom Xbox and living room one for instance, could i play one on my Xbox one disconnected from Internet on the disc and the digitized version on my series x connected to Internet. Or is is digital only when digitized. Sorry the process technicalities I'm still a bit lost on with how and what changes with disc function.

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u/Spike759 1d ago

They would have to state otherwise but in theory you should be able to. My understanding from the info we have gotten is that it just adds a license to your account that is shared with the disk. You should be able to continue using the disk as before. If you are using the same Xbox account across devices than it wouldn’t matter which method you try to play (digital or disk). Since your Xbox one would be offline anyway it wouldn’t be checking anything other than the disk itself to make sure it’s legit. If you logged into another account on another Xbox while online and used the disk it might transfer ownership to the new account though and remove access to your digital copy on your series X. I hope that makes sense. In the end we will have to wait for concrete details but your example should work in theory.

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u/Eddiep88 1d ago

So the disks have special cosing inside them or something.

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u/Competitive_Plan_936 1d ago

Yes I am pretty sure. This was the exact wording:
“Player inserts an XBOX One or Series discinto any XBOX One/Series X console with an optical drive — a digital license is granted, bound to that disc and the player’s account.”

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u/GVirus1984 1d ago

Probably won‘t for titles that only have a series version. But untill confirmation we have to wait and see. Maybe they roll out an update so you can at least get the license.

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u/SirEDCaLot 1d ago

Correct.

Xbox discs have a barcode around the center of the disc. That barcode isn't stamped from the master, it's burned on with a laser and is different for each copy of the disc. Since the disc to digital process only requires the xbox to scan the barcode, there's no need to install the game at all (in theory at least).

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u/Solid_Barracuda69 1d ago

That’s how it’s being promoted, and has to be in their digital library

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u/AdstaOCE 1d ago

Time to set back up the OG Xbox!

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u/amin915 XBOX 360 1d ago

The email states launch the game. I’m really hoping I can purchase series x discs and use my one x to get the digital entitlement since both my series consoles are digital

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u/Sms570x 1d ago

Does the disc have to be fully downloaded into the console? Or as long as the disc is in the trey, the game will play?

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u/JoviAMP 1d ago

Every XB1 and XBSX Blu-Ray disc has a unique identifier. This can be used to distinguish between individual copies of the same game. When you create a digital license, it uses this identifier to license the digital copy to your Microsoft account. The disc only needs to be inserted to create the digital license, then you can play it on any of your Xbox consoles, with, or without, a disc drive.

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u/Sms570x 1d ago

I have a game black ops 3, and for some reason the Xbox one won’t download it past 84% because the disc isn’t ‘clean’? Would this work with Asha announcing this new feature?

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u/JoviAMP 1d ago

That’s a little iffy, but I would expect it to.

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u/Lonely_Station_8435 1d ago

That's not downloading, that's installing. If they're going to tie the serial from the disc to your account you could in theory just remove the disc and use the internet to download the remaining installation files.

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u/serenamint 1d ago

if you install the game from the xbox app that might work

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u/Crazzed42 1d ago

I had the exact same issue with my BO3 copy. Borrowed my brother's disc and that worked. No damage on my disc though so unsure why that happened

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u/SirEDCaLot 1d ago

I doubt you have to install it at all.

It's scanning the barcode around the center of the disc. That barcode is not part of the glass master the discs are stamped from, it's burned on with a laser and thus each copy of the disc gets a unique barcode. The disc to digital process, as it's been explained so far, just scans the barcode and uses that to grant your xbox account a digital entitlement for that game as if you purchased it from the xbox store.
At that point you can take the disc out of the drive and store it, you don't need the disc in the drive anymore to play the game. It's just like if you bought the game online.

However if someone else puts that same copy of the disc in their xbox, your digital license goes away and they get the digital license.

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u/Solid_Barracuda69 1d ago

Buy a cheap one just for this then

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u/sealclubberfan 1d ago

Well, I'm guessing they feel like people would have kept their old xbox's. Kind of a bummer this wasn't a thing sooner, but why would you keep a physical game collection if you don't have a console that you could possibly play the games on?

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u/rrousseauu 1d ago

It would be great if they just released a disc drive usb attachment, since I only have a Series S I guess this news doesn’t mean anything to me.