Microsoft Gives Physical Games a Soft Landing with Disc-to-Digital Conversion

Microsoft has launched a disc-to-digital conversion feature for Xbox consoles, allowing players to insert physical discs and receive the corresponding digital license. This move is seen as a dignified exit path for existing players and the second-hand market amid declining physical game sales.

The feature will support most Xbox One and Xbox Series X physical disc games, with thousands of titles available at launch. According to Jason Ronald, Vice President of Next Generation Devices and Ecosystem at Xbox, 'We're going to start with thousands of games and continue to add more over time.' The digital license is tied to the physical disc itself, rather than an account.

This means that if a player lends their disc to a friend or logs in with a different Xbox account, the corresponding digital license will transfer. Once converted, players can also play on other devices via PC or cloud gaming as long as the game supports Xbox Play Anywhere.