With Xbox having kicked off the testing period for its disc-to-digital program for Insiders, Ubisoft and Square Enix have seemingly opted out of including their games in the service. According to Xbox users on social media platforms (via Insider Gaming), inserting a disc for one of Ubisoft’s or Square Enix’s games doesn’t provide the option to convert them into digital licenses. Instead, players are met with a message stating “Digital license unavailable” and that “this game is not participating in digital licensing”.
Neither of the companies has made any statement regarding their participation in the disc-to-digital program on Xbox. However, since the program is still in its testing phase, it is also possible that both companies might join in once it is fully released to the general public, and have simply opted out during the testing phase to see how it plays out.
Microsoft had kicked off Insider testing for the disc-to-digital program for Alpha Skip, Alpha, and Beta channels earlier this month, and noted in its FAQs that users might be required to keep access to the physical copies of their games to provide evidence that they still qualify for the digital license.
“A disc-to-digital license is associated with the qualifying game disc. To maintain access to certain disc-to-digital licensing benefits, you may be required to demonstrate continued possession of the qualifying disc. For example, if you lose, sell, give away, or otherwise no longer possess a qualifying disc, access to associated disc-to-digital licenses may be limited or revoked.”
To help players keep track of which games are available through the disc-to-digital program, community-based efforts have been kicked off, with the stat-tracking website Xbox Collection Tracker having an entire page dedicated to keeping track of which games are supported.
Microsoft has also noted that discs will continue to work just fine even after they are used to get a digital license through the program. This means that players can potentially share physical copies of their Xbox One and Xbox Series X games with their friends and continue playing through their own digital license.
It is also worth noting that, at least for now, the disc-to-digital program doesn’t support Xbox and Xbox 360 games. However, considering the company’s emphasis on backwards compatibility over the last few years, support for older console games is likely just a matter of time.
There have been quite a few conversations happening in recent times on the subject of physical versus digital, especially thanks to Sony’s announcement that it would be ending production of new PlayStation discs in 2028. While Microsoft hasn’t made any such announcement itself, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma had spoken about wanting to offer a choice to its users.
“I know players love physical media, and I know there are a lot of benefits in digital media, and I want to make sure people have a choice. There are stacks of games on everybody’s shelves. We’re announcing the ability for players for 1,000 titles with physical discs to be able to have a digital entitlement. We’ve long pioneered backwards compatibility, and so you’ll continue to see that as we go forward in the generations.”
