Last week, XBOX announced that it’s long rumored disk to digital program was real, and that it would be available to test soon. Well, they weren’t lying about the soon part, as the new feature was soft launched for testing for XBOX players in the Insider program. Buzz quickly started gaining traction across social media throughout the day, and for quite a good reason.

What is the Disk to Digital Feature?

The disk to digital program is as simple as it sounds: you put an eligible disk into your system, and you are able to claim a digital license of the game, allowing you access to play the game without the need of having the disk in the drive. This is huge for preservation, because since Project Helix was announced, the XBOX community has been wondering how their library of games will carry forward to the new system. For fans with big physical collections, this was a pressing issue, as there is a good chance that the next XBOX and PlayStation will not have physical disk drives.

What Games Are Eligible?

While the disk to digital feature is still in testing, there has been roughly 900 games that have been confirmed compatible and will grant you the digital license. The community has started a very great list over at https://xct.live/disc2digital that is constantly being updated if you’d like to check it out.

While I haven’t had to chance to go through my whole collection (I have roughly 500 physical titles between XBOX One and Series) I have tested roughly 70 titles and can confirm over 60 of them were eligible for the digital license. There are plenty of heavy hitters here too. Baldur’s Gate 3, The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Zero Company, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are just a handful of the titles that are available here, with many others that I haven’t had a chance to try yet.

As of right now, there are four major publishers that are not apart of the program, namely Square Enix, Sega, Ubisoft, and Bandai Namco. Hopefully this will change in the future, as those 4 publishers cover a large list of series and games that would be wonderful to have digital versions of, especially if you supported their physical releases. Sega is the big surprise for me here, seeing as they have been huge supporters of Xbox Game Pass and the Play Anywhere feature.

Another nice surprise is the fact that digital licenses are also valid for delisted games. Not every delisted game is supported, but there are some big ones, notably Marvel’s Deadpool from High Moon Studios and Activision, as well as Rock Band 4 from Harmonix, which was delisted back in October last year.

Why Is This Feature Beneficial?

Outside of not having to get up to swap out disks when you want to play a new game, the disk to digital feature has an incredible array of benefits. The biggest benefit is any game that typically features play anywhere digitally, will now be available to you. That means if you own the disk versions of games such as Halo Campaign Evolved, Lunar Remastered Collection, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will now grant you digital versions that are now playable across your console, PC and handheld devices. Likewise, any games that are cloud compatible and playable to stream will be available in that capacity. Opening up the ways for gamers to access their games is incredible.

The digital licenses also extend to game sharing. As long as you are the primary user, any other system set as your home console, those users are able to play these digitally licensed games as well. This is a wonderful benefit for multi console owners. I was able to claim my digital license for Street Fighter 6 on my Series X, and it is now available for me to play on my Series S hooked up in the living room.

GSC Hands On

I wasn’t the only one that was fortunate enough to be able to test out the disk to digital feature. Lead News Editor Adam “Addy” was also able to get hands on with it, with the below to say:

“I really liked how quick and easy it is to claim your digital licence for a title. It’s a bit of a guessing game at the moment if you’re game is included in the programme and I was surprised to see that some Microsoft first party titles not currently working. I know it’s still early days, but you’d expect they’d prioritise their own titles. Definitely head to your settings and disable auto-play of discs, or your console will try install every disc you put in, which is a bit more time consuming!“

My Overall Thoughts

This to me has been a huge win for XBOX, and it’s still only in the testing phase. At a time in the game industry where companies are pushing digital only, with the Switch 2 getting code in a box releases and lots of Game-Key Cards, and Sony announcing that they’re ending physical game production in 2028, there’s been a lot of uncertainty around the future of physical games.

In a time when XBOX is being skipped by a lot of physical games that are available on the other platforms, I’m hopeful that publishers and developers are paying attention to all the positive buzz and noise this is making on socials, that physical copies will see a renewed interest and will be around for at least a little more time.

This could ultimately lead to nothing changing, and both Project Helix and PlayStation 6 abandoning physical collectors and launching as digital only consoles, but for the first time in a long while, I feel wonderful about the future of being a physical game collector.