Xbox's Disc to Digital claim is now switched on for everyone
Microsoft has finished rolling out Disc to Digital, which turns a supported Xbox One or Xbox Series X disc into a digital licence tied to your account. It left Insider testing on September 29.
Xbox owners no longer need to be in a test programme to convert their disc collection. Microsoft says Disc to Digital is now available to all players, roughly a month after the feature went to Xbox Insiders.
How it works
You put a supported disc in an Xbox One or Xbox Series X and either start the game or pick the claim option from its menu. The console then adds a digital entitlement for that title to your Microsoft account, so the game launches without the disc in the tray. The disc itself keeps working exactly as before.
Once a game is claimed, Microsoft says it picks up the digital benefits it would have had if you had bought it from the store, including Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Cloud Gaming where the title supports them. Xbox announced the programme on Xbox Wire in August, where Jason Ronald, VP of Next Generation, framed it as a preservation play: the goal, he said, is "to make it easier for those libraries to move forward with players."
What is not covered
Microsoft describes the eligible catalogue as most Xbox One and Xbox Series X disc games, with more being added over time, so this is not a blanket conversion of everything you own. Kotaku reports that Xbox 360 and original Xbox discs are out for now, that Sega and Ubisoft only recently signed up, and that Square Enix is still holding out. Kotaku also advises hanging on to the discs you claim rather than selling them on.
If the option has not appeared on your console yet, Kotaku notes that a manual restart from the power settings menu tends to shake it loose.
Why it matters
Physical Xbox libraries have been slowly stranded as disc drives disappear from new hardware, and this is the first time a platform holder has offered a broad, free path from a shelf of discs to an account-bound library.