Xbox's Disc-to-Digital feature lets you convert physical games to permanent digital copies

Microsoft is testing a new Xbox feature that converts physical game discs into permanent digital licenses — a move that puts it on a very different path from Sony, which announced it will stop producing physical PlayStation games entirely by January 2028. The feature, called Disc-to-Digital, was spotted in Xbox PC app code back in May 2026 and is now in internal testing with Microsoft employees, reports The Verge.

How it works

The process is straightforward: insert a disc, install the game, and launch it once while signed into your Microsoft account. That one-time step generates a digital entitlement — a permanent license to download and play the game without the disc. Discs aren't made useless in the process; they keep working normally after conversion.

One detail stands out from Sony's digital model: the entitlement is tied to the disc itself, not locked to a single account forever. If you loan the disc to a friend or sell it, the digital license moves with it. That preserves the kind of lending and resale behavior that disappears entirely when a platform goes download-only.

The feature supports Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S discs, including multi-disc editions and games that were bundled with consoles. Xbox 360 and original Xbox discs are not supported. Some older Xbox One titles may also fail conversion — whether it works depends on metadata baked in during manufacturing, which varies by when and how a disc was pressed.

The bigger picture

Disc-to-Digital connects to a broader Microsoft strategy around its next-generation hardware, Project Helix — a hybrid console-PC device announced in March 2026 that runs Steam and GOG alongside Xbox Game Pass. Whether Project Helix will ship with a physical disc drive at all remains undecided. Microsoft hasn't finalized that choice, according to The Verge's Tom Warren.

That ambiguity is telling. If Helix launches without a drive, Disc-to-Digital could serve as the transition tool — a way for existing physical collectors to bring their libraries into a fully digital system without simply losing what they already own. No public launch date has been set for the feature.

For anyone who has spent years buying physical Xbox games, that's a more consumer-friendly proposition than what Sony is offering — and one worth watching as both platforms finalize their next hardware moves.