After about a month in testing, Xbox’s disc-to-digital feature has officially launched for all owners of Xbox consoles. The feature allows users to turn Xbox One and Xbox Series X discs into digital copies.
Microsoft said disc-to-digital works with “most” physical games across the two Xbox generations, but that not all games are eligible. This criteria may also change over time due to “technical, licensing, publishing, manufacturing, and other factors”, according to Xbox’s official support page.
If you’re unfamiliar, here’s how disc-to-digital works: when you insert a compatible Xbox One or Xbox Series X disc into your console, you’ll have the option to turn that game into a digital copy. Doing so ties the game to your account, removing the need for the disc to be inserted for authentication each time you want to play.
That digital license also moves with the disc, meaning the original owner can later sell or give away their copy. The disc’s new owner can utilise the same process to receive their own digital copy, revoking the original owner’s license. In other words, the feature theoretically offers the best of both digital and physical.
Games that support Xbox Play Anywhere will be available to download and play on PC through the Xbox app, too. An easy way to check supported games is to filter your library by Play Anywhere support and see which have the disc-to-digital badge.
The release version of the disc-to-digital feature also includes an option to prevent discs from automatically starting the installation process. This is useful when you’re converting multiple discs in a row and only want the console to recognise the disc for digitisation without installing the game.
If you intend on digitising your collection, it’s worth skimming through the disc-to-digital Xbox support page to familiarise yourself with error codes and other problems that may arise.
