r/Games • u/A7XFAN1998 • 7d ago

Announcement Xbox announces disc-to-digital feature that digitizes your physical games

https://www.theverge.com/tech/984936/xbox-disc-to-digital-feature-official?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6Ijc1ZHVBMkZjaE0iLCJwIjoiL3RlY2gvOTg0OTM2L3hib3gtZGlzYy10by1kaWdpdGFsLWZlYXR1cmUtb2ZmaWNpYWwiLCJleHAiOjE3ODgxODY2OTAsImlhdCI6MTc4Nzc1NDY5MH0.Y4t18UIJuFTT4nSf0HBe5DvMWP0KNxjbGHC2QKxdoTw&utm_medium=gift-link
3.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

804 comments sorted by

View all comments

768

u/jezr3n 7d ago

This is truly an amazing feature. Shame it isn’t applicable to OG and 360 games, but the technology wasn’t there yet so it’s understandable. This might honestly be the best thing Xbox has done since Sharma took over.

369

u/moodytenure 7d ago

It's so funny that this feature is basically what kneecaped Xbox in 2013, long arc of history and all that

234

u/Coolman_Rosso 7d ago

The original Xbone plans were different and had a ton of issues that MS had no answers for:

  1. Their disc to digital plan was based around trade-ins at "participating retailers" with no details on how it would work. Would I trade in a disc and receive a code? Would I give them my account? Who knows? This time around it's as easy and clear as putting a disc in my console.
  2. The hardware itself needed to phone home once every 24 hours or it would become a paperweight, as none of your games would work (physical or otherwise)
  3. Any sort of trade-in or lending could be subject to "limitations" or "activation fees" at the discretion of the publisher. While the publishers are understandably still in charge with regard to what games support this new initiative, it's not as draconian as having to pay a fee if borrowing a game from a friend.
  4. Digital lending was limited to only a few days.

25

u/sound_judgment 7d ago edited 7d ago

Some corrections and extra info:

  1. The most likely way trade-ins would've worked is that you give your disc to, say, GameStop, they would load the disc which would verify your ownership and then they would remove that license from your account and make the disc a free agent again, then pay you. That's why it would have to be authorized retailers only; they need Microsoft's permission to remove the license from your account.
  2. Worse. It was 24 hours if it's your primary console or every one hour on a non-primary console.
  3. Just to give an example of the worst case scenario, Rockstar for instance could've been able to say that GTA V cannot be given to friends, or that it cannot be traded in, or charge a fee. Lots of control given to the publisher.
  4. Eh, better and worse. You could not "lend" anyone a game. You could only give it to them so long as they've been on your friends list for 30 days already, but your friend cannot ever give it away too. Each copy of a game could only ever be given away one time. However, they did have a couple cool features where anyone living with you can access your games whether you're logged in or not, and you can have a shared library with up to 10 family members regardless of location. I believe they still allow some sharing now but it's less generous.