TL;DR: A YouTuber found that Microsoft’s disc-to-digital program lets users insert current-gen Xbox Series X discs into last-gen Xbox One consoles to authenticate and unlock free digital copies; not all titles qualify (Ubisoft and many older or early Xbox One “year-one” discs are excluded), and Microsoft hasn’t confirmed future disc support.
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Gamers can use last-gen Xbox One consoles to authenticate current-gen game discs in the new disc-to-digital program.
YouTuber Austin Evans found an interesting quirk in Microsoft’s new disc-to-digital initiative. The program essentially allows users to put a game disc into their console and unlock a free digital version of the game. It’s a big deal right now, and reflective of the times, as Project Helix and PS6 are poised to be disc-less, digital-only consoles.
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Gamers have favored the plan, seeing it as an extension of Microsoft’s Play Anywhere–another initiative that seems primed for a digital-dominant landscape. Xbox consoles are now being used as authentication machines to digitize game libraries, and Evans discovered that gamers can put in current-gen Xbox Series X games into a last-gen Xbox One to unlock the entitlement.
- Read more: Xbox is testing a disc-to-digital feature that solves the problem with the next Xbox
- Read more: Report: Sourcing disc drives becoming ‘problematic’ for Xbox amid diminishing disc supply chain
- Read more: Xbox to convert discs to digital games for Project Helix, new reports indicate
It’s these small things that highlight the ways that Microsoft’s engineers think about Xbox as a kind of timeless platform that moves through generations. At the same time, the disc-to-digital program does indeed feel like the beginning of the end for physical game discs, offering a transition point between a mostly-digital Gen 9 and a potentially all-digital Gen 10.
Not every Xbox One and/or Xbox Series game will get a digital version unlock–Ubisoft games skip the program, for example. Some games simply don’t work for various reasons, and games from earlier Xbox and Xbox 360 generations don’t work at all. It’s also believed that so-called “year-one” discs don’t convert, or games from the Xbox One’s launch through around November 2014.
Which Xbox One and Xbox One X consoles can be used to authenticate Xbox Series discs for the disc-to-digital program?
Do all Xbox Series X and Xbox Series discs unlock a digital copy, or are there specific publisher or game restrictions?
Why do Ubisoft games skip Xbox’s disc-to-digital program?
Can Xbox One and Xbox 360 discs be converted to digital through this program at all?
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Microsoft has yet to confirm whether or not its upcoming Project Helix console will have a disc drive, but given the current economics involved, and the scarcity of optical disc drives, it seems unlikely.
