Xbox announces new disc-to-digital feature for physical media — lets players claim digital versions of their games, with support for Play Anywhere and Cloud Gaming
"Our goal is to make it easier for those libraries to move forward with players."
Xbox has unveiled its long-rumored new disc-to-digital service, which will let players who own physical copies of games claim digital entitlements, playing them as if they own digital copies. In an announcement, Microsoft confirmed support will include digital benefits such as Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
"Players have spent decades building their XBOX libraries. Some games were purchased on disc. Some were purchased digitally. Many span multiple generations of hardware," the company stated in a blog post on Xbox Wire. Microsoft says the new feature "brings the benefits of digital to physical discs." Xbox Insiders can test the feature from August 31.
The company says that "most" disc-based games for Xbox One and Series X support the new feature. If you insert a game disc into your Xbox One or Series X, you can claim a "digital entitlement" by launching the game.
That means that games you own on disc will be accessible through your digital library, including support for Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Cloud Gaming "where supported."
You can also keep using your physical copy as normal. Microsoft says that "thousands" of titles are supported, with more being added over time, but confirms that not every title will be available at launch.
The news will be of some comfort to fans of physical media, especially given recent developments in the gaming sphere, notably Sony's decision to end physical media with its next console. While the move does give physical media a new lease of life in some regards, it still marks a shift away from physical media towards online, digital libraries, encouraging users to transition from physical to digital.
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Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games.
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ezst036 They are leaning a little too hard into the "to-digital" concept. Overall its a good idea.Reply
However it increases my skepticism that the upcoming Xbox is going to contain a disc drive. Xbox also will go all-digital.
The days of discs are over. -
thrus So if I put the disc in and claim my digital copy of it, then I sell the physical copy of it and you put the disc in what happens?Reply -
txfeinbergs Reply
They probably don't care. It isn't like they were getting any money anyway from second hand sales.thrus said:So if I put the disc in and claim my digital copy of it, then I sell the physical copy of it and you put the disc in what happens? -
TerryLaze Reply
The way they explained it the digital copy "travels" with the physical disc, if they see a different console running that game you will lose the digital copy and the new console will have the right to claim it, so as long as you play the disc completely off line and keep your console off line so it can't tell MS that you put the disc in it should work.thrus said:So if I put the disc in and claim my digital copy of it, then I sell the physical copy of it and you put the disc in what happens?
But since nobody will keep a (second) console completely off line just to play the occasional disc... -
russell_john What they really need to do is make it so your digital games can be saved to a disc and then installed that way in the future. That would make the game preservationists happy while saving Microsoft/Sony the cost of making a disc version themselves which they don't want to do anymore.Reply -
GoldenBullet Reply
I don't know about this I seriously doubt that each physical copy of the disc has a unique serial number, but maybeTerryLaze said:The way they explained it the digital copy "travels" with the physical disc, if they see a different console running that game you will lose the digital copy and the new console will have the right to claim it, so as long as you play the disc completely off line and keep your console off line so it can't tell MS that you put the disc in it should work.
But since nobody will keep a (second) console completely off line just to play the occasional disc... -
TerryLaze Reply
That's why it only works on newer discs xbox one and up and not even on all of those only those that are new enough for them to have that unique thing.GoldenBullet said:I don't know about this I seriously doubt that each physical copy of the disc has a unique serial number, but maybe -
TerryLaze Reply
No it wouldn't make anybody happy, that already is what they do, you download the games to your disk and have them there, having another copy of that isn't helping in anything, you are still at their mercy in if you will be able to install it again in the future and on future consoles.russell_john said:What they really need to do is make it so your digital games can be saved to a disc and then installed that way in the future. That would make the game preservationists happy while saving Microsoft/Sony the cost of making a disc version themselves which they don't want to do anymore.
Take a clone of your console ssd, you can already do that, you can put in an expansion ssd and have your games on that. -
thestryker The thing I found most interesting about this announcement is the inclusion of Play Anywhere (for titles that have it on the digital release). That means for any physical Xbox releases that come with extras one could buy that and play the game on PC (if you have the requisite Xbox of course).Reply