What if owning physical games entitled you to their digital versions? It’s apparently a feature Microsoft is currently testing ahead of the launch of its next-gen Project Helix console. The idea is to let Xbox players continue accessing their physical games by granting them licenses for the digital versions. It could be a game changer for the upcoming shift away from discs.
According to a new report by The Verge, Xbox recently began testing this technology, and the way it works is pretty straightforward. All people have to do is insert the game disc into their console, play it for a bit, and the Xbox uses certain data on the disc to unlock a digital version of the game. The feature only works for Xbox Series X/S discs and many, but not all, Xbox One discs. If you give the game away or sell it, you’d lose the digital version the second someone else started using the disc.
It sounds so simple and obvious, it’s not clear why companies haven’t been doing this all along. While OG Xbox and Xbox 360 games won’t be part of the program, the disc-to-digital transformation will include giving players access to features like cloud gaming and Play Anywhere that have historically been only for the digital versions of Xbox games.
Analysts are predicting that it’s all but assured that Project Helix will ditch physical discs along with Sony’s PS6. According to Windows Central, that’s the way Microsoft is leaning at this point, though The Verge reports that no final decision on whether to ditch discs in the next generation has been made yet, unlike Sony, which announced the move earlier today.
Being able to digitize physical game libraries won’t solve the problems of an all-digital future, but it will address one of the main hiccups facing such a transition: the loss of backward compatibility for physical game collectors. Even if new consoles support digital versions of older games, they can’t play physical ones without a disc drive. If Xbox’s new initiative works out, it could at least ease that transition for existing fans.
