Xbox’s new Disc-to-Digital program is now live for Insiders across the Alpha Skip, Alpha, and Beta channels. The company has also opened up a new FAQ page that clears up any questions that users might have before they commit to digitizing their libraries of physical Xbox One and Xbox Series X games. However, as the FAQ also reiterates, not all games across the two console generations are supported yet, with titles not being available due to technical, licensing, publishing, manufacturing, and other possible reasons.
Since Microsoft itself hasn’t yet offered an official list of all supported games for Disc-to-Digital, the community has taken it upon itself. Stat-tracking website Xbox Collection Tracker has set up a brand-new page where users can check out a crowd-sourced list of games that support the physical-to-digital transition. There are also plenty of filtering options, including Game Pass availability, publishers, and developers.
As for users who might decide to get rid of their physical game discs after getting a digital license linked to their account, Microsoft has noted that it might ask for evidence of continued ownership of the disc in the future.
“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.”
In the meantime, discs are going to continue to work just fine even after they are used to get a digital license. This means that, at the very least, Xbox users can lend their games to friends as long as they get them back at a later date. Players with gaming PCs might also appreciate the ability to play their Xbox Play Anywhere titles across the various platforms.
There is currently also no word on whether or not Microsoft has any plans to expand support of its Disc-to-Digital program to also include Xbox and Xbox 360 games.
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma had recently spoken about the future of gaming hardware and even physical game media. In an interview, she noted that “players love physical media”, and that Xbox wants to continue to offer choices to its users.
“I know players love physical media, and I know there’s 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.”
When it comes to Project Helix, Sharma didn’t commit one way or another about whether its support of discs will continue. Rather, she spoke about how the company plans to deal with ever-inflating component costs. Interestingly, she also spoke about how Microsoft’s next-generation gaming hardware – known as Project Helix – might end up being “a great family of devices” rather than a single home console.
