“Thousands” of Xbox One and Series X titles will support the new feature.
The future of physical video games has been a hot topic in recent months, largely fueled by Sony’s highly controversial and unexpected announcement that it would no longer make disc-based PS5 games after January 2028. We don’t yet know what Xbox’s future plans are in this department, but Microsoft has at least now officially revealed a new scanning feature that effectively allows players to create digital copies of their physical games.
Details about this were first revealed in a report from The edge earlier this summer, and it will enter its testing phase on August 31 for Xbox Insiders. Microsoft hasn’t shared too many details about how it will all work, but did say that “thousands of titles” will be supported at launch, including “most” disc-based Xbox One and Series X games.
“Players can claim a digital right by inserting a supported disc into an Xbox One or Xbox Series X console and launching the game,” Microsoft wrote on Xbox Wire. “Once you’ve claimed the right, you’ll be able to enjoy 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.”
As indicated in the Edge report in July, it appears that the Xbox 360 and original Xbox games will not be part of this program, at least at launch. This report also states that you will not need to keep the disc in your console once you have established your digital copy, but that the disc is linked to this digital license, so if someone with another Xbox account puts it in their console, the license will still transfer to that account.
This ensures that people can’t install the digital version of the game on their console and then pass the disc on to a friend without needing to purchase their own copy. This also means you can always trade in your physical games and lend them to friends when you’re done with them.
It seems unlikely that the next Xbox (codenamed Project Helix) will have a disc drive, so this would give current Xbox owners plenty of time to digitize their physical libraries so they can keep up with them on that console if they decide to upgrade. It’s unclear if Sony will offer something similar.
