It has been quite a rough ride recently for physical game collectors. The announcement that physical games will cease production on PlayStation from 2028, Nintendo’s production of highly divisive Game-Key Cards and general bad practices from producers has led to an extreme feeling of deflation by passionate collectors like myself.
Fortunately, there is a ray of light with XBOX. At their gamescom broadcast day one, Jason Ronald, XBOX VP Next Generation announced that the long rumoured disc to digital programme will be rolled out soon, allowing XBOX platform players to obtain a digital license for physical XBOX One and Series X|S games.
The process is incredibly simple. XBOX players simply need to put their disc into an XBOX with a disc drive and it will create a digital license for your game. The digital license affords the owner all the benefits of owning a digital version of the game including the ability to use XBOX Play Anywhere and Cloud play services.
Obtaining the digital license does nothing to your disc, it remains your property and will work as normal so long as you play logged in to the account associated with the digital license.
The programme will begin for XBOX Insiders – public testers of platform updates – next week. It will begin with thousands of titles and will continually be expanded in due course.
What is still not clear is whether the XBOX Helix, the next generation console, will include a disc drive. It is widely expected to be excluded, and the launch of this programme heavily suggests one will not be present.
There is more about the programme on the official XBOX Wire post. If any more key developments emerge, we will update the article accordingly.
What’s your thoughts on the XBOX disc to digital programme? Will you be collecting more XBOX games ahead of the next generation? Come and join the active and friendly Gamer Social Club Discord to chat about all your other favourite games.
