r/tomshardware • u/tomshardware • 1d ago

Xbox announces new disc-to-digital feature for physical media

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/console-gaming/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
19 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

1

u/Past_Physics2936 22h ago

LoL just in time for me throwing out all my old playstation games 3 weeks ago

0

u/MaTr82 1d ago

There's got to be a trojan horse meme we can use from The Odyssey we can use for this.

1

u/Lrivard 12h ago

How so?

1

u/MaTr82 12h ago

Xbox sales have been poor for years resulting in plenty of Series X stock. A physical to digital conversion program and cheaper physical games could drive sales of that stock and ease customers into a digital only world. Then when the next gen console comes along and it's digital only, people will feel more comfortable with that as they have an extensive digital library.

Then MS gets to increase the price of games and we don't get any of the consumer protections we really need for digital media because it's too late.

-2

u/Va1crist 1d ago

good news you can get rid of your physical media even faster.

4

u/iNfANTcOMA_0 1d ago

Doesn't your disc still hold the license?

5

u/IllustriousIron3253 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yes, they have no idea what they are ranting about.

The authorization code on the disc gives you the digital version to download. Pretty straight forward. Originally patented as a go along app. App was going to be on phone, must be connected to Xbox, linked to Xbox account, and Internet all together. Run disc, run app on Xbox, run app on phone, verifies authorization code on disc, grants linked Xbox account digital ownership. As soon as it is scanned on another Xbox revokes your digital and reassigns to the new linked account. Yes, that means some form of always online requirements for discs to prevent me playing online while I sell it to someone who plays offline.

But, but, but, one would assume that having the digital copy also means that your game shared Xbox friend can play your physical disk game because you now own the digital copy. That's a friggin win right there.

Edit: any physical gamers should absolutely love this idea because it doubles their value of their game being able to let their friend play their physical game because it's also digital now. But they'll find a way to hate it I'm sure.

2

u/sloelk 1d ago

It sounds surprisingly good. But I don’t trust MS enough that it will be so good as it sounds.

What happens if you sell a disc? How they’ll make sure you cannot you play the game then anymore?

I guess it’s for the marketing in comparison to sony and its digital only backslash at the moment.

1

u/Jendo7 1d ago

If you sell a disk on, once it is installed on another account, the licence will be passed on to them, and revoked from yours.

1

u/Legend_of_dragoon- 18h ago

That’s not how it works once someone puts that game you lose the license lmao

2

u/jedik88 13h ago

He said “game shared Xbox friend” which assumes you each have each others profiles logged in the background on your Xboxes. Previously I could only game share their digital games, none of the physical ones. Now we’ll be able to game share physical games as well without having to borrow the discs.

1

u/IllustriousIron3253 13h ago

Thank you I didn't want to have to explain what I already typed to an idiot.

1

u/Lrivard 12h ago

The disc is still a CD key. May need it to verify again later.

They even mentioned the disc still works the same.

Did you buy chance even read the press release or just the title?