Despite mixed messages when it comes to when we can expect the next PlayStation and Xbox, one aspect about the next generation seems to be clearer than ever: Discs are going away. Earlier this year, Sony announced that it would be ending physical disc production for all PlayStation games launching after January 2028, confirming that the company’s next console will almost certainly be digital-only. Microsoft hasn’t made as strong a statement yet, instead opting to introduce a program allowing Xbox owners to convert some of their physical games into perpetual digital licenses. But it’s a program that would not need to exist if the next Xbox was being designed with a disc drive in mind.
Despite some confusion around the initial reveal, Xbox’s disc-to-digital program is simple on the surface. Instead of requiring a disc to be in your console to play (since all games are downloaded or streamed now regardless), the program will let you register this disc to your account and allow you to access it across all supported platforms, no longer needing the disc to do so. This means you’ll have digital access to supported games across Xbox, PC, and Xbox Cloud Gaming, and presumably whatever Microsoft’s Project Helix turns out to be. If you sell the disc or hand it off to a friend, that digital license gets removed from your account and added to theirs once they pop it into their console, meaning you can’t just give your friend the physical game and continue playing on your own account.
Its simplicity masks what has likely been a complicated process for Microsoft. At some point following the Xbox One’s launch, Microsoft began adding unique identifiers to discs, likely a decision made to support its similar digital-redemption program that was ultimately scrapped. It could be why the program isn’t automatically supporting every Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S game when it rolls out, and likely why it will exclude original Xbox and Xbox 360 discs entirely–an Xbox spokesperson tells us they aren’t “currently supported.” But even with that hurdle out of the way, it surely took some smart engineering to allow for such precise digital game license registration and migration.
That’s all to say that this initiative hasn’t been trivial, which would make it rather wasteful if its next console will support discs anyway. Whether it’s offered as a standard option, like the Xbox Series X, or as an add-on, like Sony does with the PlayStation 5 Slim and Pro, a disc drive would allow you to enjoy your physical library in the exact same way as you can today: via a full installation that requires the disc in the console to authenticate and play. This disc-to-digital program allows you to swap between digital versions of your disc-based games without having to physically swap discs, which was only ever a convenience issue. It does, however, allow you to play your supported physical games on both PC and via cloud streaming neither of which is possible today. Even so, it’s unlikely the demand for that functionality alone was high enough to convince Microsoft to go down this route, especially when it could have at any point over the last two generations..
Losing access to a physical library in its entirety is a problem that would motivate such an undertaking, made even more obvious by the reception Sony has received for not providing such a solution. Sony is sticking to its plans and ceasing production of discs but hasn’t yet detailed a way for current owners of libraries of PS4 and PS5 discs to continue playing their games on what will almost certainly now be a discless PlayStation 6.
In a similar way, Sony would not choose to stop disc production if it planned to offer a disc drive on its next console, and Microsoft’s disc-to-digital program strongly signals the same intent, albeit while solving the biggest issue Sony has now created for itself. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma was recently asked about whether or not Project Helix will support discs, and her response didn’t provide a clear answer. “I want to make sure people have a choice. There are stacks of games on everybody’s shelves.” It’s true that many Xbox gamers might have stacks of games they will want to continue playing into the future, but also true that physical sales now account for less than 5% of all software sales on Xbox. This program allows those physical collections to become digital ones, letting Xbox make the same logical business move while also keeping legacy Xbox owners happy.
Will it be enough for disgruntled PlayStation consumers to make the jump to Xbox? Maybe for a few, but the previous generation of consoles was where most people started building up their digital libraries, locking them into one platform or the other at the risk of losing years of collecting (and spending). It’s likely why, given how dominant the PlayStation 4 was, that Sony feels emboldened to make as big of a move as it has without fear of consequence, and why Microsoft is trying all it can to claw back some consumer faith. Allowing people to convert their physical libraries into digital ones is possibly the best they can do, but it won’t save us entirely from a discless future.