In 2013, Xbox made a small but important change to how it printed discs to allow them to be digitally tracked. This change was part of a larger plan that involved the Xbox One and DRM for used game discs, but that was all scrapped due to backlash. Thirteen years later, that failed initiative is paying off for players who can now turn their discs into digital copies using a method Sony seemingly can’t copy.
On September 17, The Verge reported that as far back as 2011, the company was exploring ways to expand digital ownership. It had plans for digital gifting and even letting players swap a used game for a digital version at a store. To facilitate those plans, it began essentially embedding a unique serial number into every printed disc for the Xbox One generation. And despite the immediate backlash to the Xbox One’s always-online digital future (remember the infamous used-games video from Sony?) killing off all of those plans, Microsoft has continued to print discs that can be tracked, and that’s what’s powering its new disc-to-digital feature.
This is how Xbox can now let users insert an Xbox disc into their consoles and get a digital copy that can be played without the disc. The company is using those serial numbers to track which discs are inserted and who has grabbed a digital copy.
This might also explain why some discs won’t work with the program, as The Verge reports that some very early Xbox One discs were printed without the tracking data. Interestingly, this also means that, as far as we know, PlayStation can’t offer a similar disc-to-digital feature unless it has been secretly embedding tracking information on every printed PS4 and PS5 disc. That seems unlikely.
It is incredibly ironic that Xbox’s pitch for the future back in 2013, which flopped hard and basically doomed the Xbox One, is now the reason people can transfer their physical games into digital games as we move towards an all-digital future that Xbox predicted and planned for 15 years ago. And even more ironic is that the timing has worked out so that this is all happening right as Sony announces the end of physical PlayStation games.
Now the question is what happens to our digital games as we move towards an increasingly digital future. Do you actually own those digital games? What happens to them when you die? Can you play them offline without having to check in with a server?
These and many other questions are going to become very important as Sony kills discs in 2028 and gaming moves closer to a future where there ain’t any new discs. And while Xbox has figured out a cool way to let you transfer physical games into digital ones, there’s a lot that needs to be figured out and likely legislated to ensure you get to actually keep and own those games.