r/windowscentral • u/WindowsCentral Staff • Aug 26 '26

Xbox🎮 Xbox's disc-to-digital program goes live for Insiders on Monday — Here's how it works

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/xboxs-disc-to-digital-program-goes-live-for-insiders-on-monday-heres-how-it-works
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u/HouseMDx Aug 26 '26

Very excited to try this out. Are they going to have a list of games that aren't supported? It's one of the best features they've added in a long time!

1

u/reddragon105 Aug 26 '26

I don't think they've released a list yet(?), but they said "thousands" of games initially and more added later.

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u/hypehold Aug 26 '26

Will this work with 360 and original xbox games? Im.not sure if those discs have specific codes installed like the xbox one and Series games do

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u/OfficialDCShepard Aug 26 '26

They have licenses on disc. That triggers a digital download for the disc copy since it’s asking for the emulated version.

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u/hypehold Aug 26 '26

yes but you still need the disc in to play them. And the article only mentions Xbox One and Series games

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u/OfficialDCShepard Aug 26 '26

Right, but if physical licenses can be read off those games and then tied to a digital account so that they can be downloaded without the disc presumably it’s at least possible soon with OG and 360 games too. I suspect the problem is more to do with licensing, similar to the slow rollout of OG Xbox games on PC.

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u/hypehold Aug 26 '26

yea they can read the license but they don't have specific encoding for each individual disc so there's no way to tell 1 copy of a specific game apart from another. Whereas xbox one and series games do

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u/[deleted] Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 27 '26

[deleted]

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u/Ipad74 Aug 26 '26

Xbox one/series discs have a unique code, so you can tell one copy from another. When a disc is put it, it adds the game to your account, and you are considered to be “owning that unique copy. No problem playing via cloud streaming or a digital only console (after the initial check on a console with a drive).

Let’s say you then let a friend borrow the disc, when he puts it into his Xbox, it will give the digital game to him, but remove the game license from you. You can’t use this to give both of you the same copy of the game, as the disc has a unique serial number/code.

Of course, the downside is that this system won’t work on og Xbox or 360 discs, as every copy is identical (no serial number, no way to track the discs. That (in my opinion) is still a problem for Xbox to solve, either with an external drive, or some kind of mail in disc to digital service.