Xbox will let you digitize your physical games, says preserving access to games you own matters
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‘Preserving access to the games people own matters’. This is what Xbox’s latest blog post says while announcing a new feature that will let you claim a digital entitlement for supported physical games. This means you can get some of the benefits normally associated with digital games and still get to keep your physical disc playable. Now at a time when debate over the importance of physical discs keeps making headlines every now and then, this seems to be a smart move on behalf of Microsoft. Read on to know more.
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You can digitize your physical Xbox discs
As mentioned already, the announcement was made in the form of a blog post which confirmed that Xbox will let players digitize the games they own physically. All you need to do is insert the physical disc into an Xbox One or Xbox Series X console and launch the game.
Once the digital entitlement has been claimed, players can access supported digital features such as Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Cloud Gaming. This could make it easier to play games across Microsoft’s wider ecosystem, rather than being tied to the console where the physical copy is being used.
The important part here is that once you avail this feature, your physical disc will not stop working. It will continue to work as it normally does even if you digitize it.
The new feature will work with supported Xbox One and Xbox Series X disc-based games. The company has not yet revealed if this feature will support original Xbox or Xbox 360 discs.
When will the feature be available?
Microsoft will begin testing the feature with Xbox Insiders on August 31. It has not yet announced when the feature will become available to all Xbox users.
The company also said that feedback from Xbox Insiders will help shape the feature as more games are added. For now, as mentioned already, the focus is on Xbox One and Xbox Series X disc-based games. That said, other titles are expected to be available once the feature rolls out.
‘We’re starting with thousands of titles, and we’ll continue to add more over time. While not every title will be available at launch, this is an important step toward a future where players can have greater confidence that the games they buy remain with them for years to come,’ the blog post reads.
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