The fate of physical media has been an increasingly hot topic in the world of gaming following Sony’s announcement that they would no longer support disc production for any games following January 2028, and prior to this there was already ongoing worry about DRM and what it meant for game ownership. Addressing these present anxieties among the gaming world, Xbox recently announced back in August the “disc-to-digital” program which would allow Xbox users to digitize their physical games, or as they put it in a message on their website for the reveal of the disc-to-digital program, “Players can claim a digital entitlement by inserting a supported disc into an XBOX One or XBOX Series X console and launching the game. Once the entitlement is claimed, you can experience the benefits of digital, including XBOX Play Anywhere and XBOX Cloud Gaming where supported, while your physical disc continues to work exactly as it always has”; they even reference “game preservation” in their message, although this isn’t entirely aligned with movements such as Stop Killing Games given it only provides players a license for their physical games. 

This news has been exciting regardless for those across the gaming sphere, as for many it feels at the very least like a step in the right direction. Another issue has reared its head however, that being that four major publishers, i.e. Sega, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and Bandai Namco, do not appear to have any games that are compatible with this program. Players have attempted to add their physical games to their digital libraries, only to be hit with messages such as that the game is “not participating in digital licensing”. However, this shouldn’t immediately concern you- Xbox mentioned that more games will be added over time, so there’s a chance that many of these publishers’ titles are on the roster and will appear in due time. As it says on the Xbox website, “We’re starting with thousands of titles, and we’ll continue to add more over time. While not every title will be available at launch, this is an important step toward a future where players can have greater confidence that the games they buy remain with them for years to come”.