Xbox is at least making it easier to transition to an all-digital future

Microsoft is making the shift towards digital Xbox games a little easier for people who still have a shelf full of discs. The new Disc-to-Digital feature lets you insert an eligible game disc into your Xbox One or Xbox Series X and claim a digital version without buying the game again.

The feature is due to start testing with Xbox Insiders on 31 August, with thousands of Xbox One and Series X titles expected to be supported. Publishers can decide whether their games are included, so this won't work with every disc in your collection.

There's an important catch to how the system works. The digital entitlement remains tied to the physical disc, so you can't simply turn a game into a permanent digital copy and then sell the disc while keeping the game.

That does mean you can still lend or sell the disc, with the digital entitlement moving with it. It's a fairly smart way of dealing with physical games as Xbox moves towards a more digital future.

The bigger benefit comes if you eventually move to hardware without a disc drive. A supported game you've converted can be played digitally on Xbox, and some titles can also take advantage of Xbox Play Anywhere and cloud gaming, giving you more ways to play without having the disc in the console.

Microsoft hasn't confirmed whether its next-generation Project Helix console will include a disc drive. Xbox president Asha Sharma has said the company is thinking about affordability and efficiency, while Microsoft continues to push towards an ecosystem where Xbox games can work across consoles, PCs and other devices.

So this isn't really Microsoft saving physical games. It's more practical. If you've already spent years building a physical Xbox library, Disc-to-Digital gives you a way to carry at least some of it into what's increasingly looking like a disc-free future.