This is an approach to preserving physical game purchases in an increasingly digital future.
Very shortly after Sony announced plans to remove PlayStation game discs, it was reported that Xbox was working on a way to allow its players to play digital copies of their physical games. According to The edgeXbox recently began testing this disc-to-digital program for Xbox One and Xbox Series X titles. Unfortunately, the project apparently won’t cover games for the original Xbox or Xbox 360. It may not support all Xbox One games either, according to the report.
It appears that this approach means that you won’t need to keep a disc in your Xbox to play the affected game. The program would link a digital version of a game to its physical disc. Put the disc in another Xbox and the digital copy will follow to an account linked to that system.
This would prevent players from installing a game and then passing the disc to a friend so they could both play the same title from a single physical copy. Crucially, this would also mean that players can still swap their games.
You’ll apparently be able to stream a game through this program (as you already can with digital game purchases) if it’s compatible with Xbox Cloud Gaming and you’re a Game Pass member. The program would also support Xbox Play Anywhere for PC and handhelds.
It may still be a while before Xbox publicly talks about the disc-to-digital program, especially if its employees (who certainly have other things on their minds with mass layoffs expected imminently) have only just started testing it. The edge suggests that Xbox could officially announce it in the coming months.
Xbox hasn’t exactly been terrible at preserving games. Xbox Series X/S systems support backwards compatibility for every game running on Xbox One (except those requiring Kinect), going back to titles on the brand’s original console. As it stands, the disc-to-digital program would ensure that Xbox owners could still access at least some of their physical game purchases on future hardware. It could also alleviate the scourge of disc rot.
It’s not yet clear whether the next Xbox, aka Project Helix, will have a disc drive. However, like the PlayStation, the Xbox has laid the foundation for an entirely digital future. The Xbox Series S doesn’t have a disc drive, and there’s an all-digital version of the Series Xbox will embrace any possible positive sentiment ahead of the division’s expected restructuring.
