While Sony and PlayStation have been under fire from most of the gaming community due to major decisions regarding physical game ownership, it looks like industry rival Microsoft has taken the opportunity to strengthen its stance regarding backwards compatibility and game ownership. Part of the company’s official announcement reads:
Players have spent decades building their XBOX libraries. Some games were purchased on disc. Some were purchased digitally. Many span multiple generations of hardware.
Our goal is to make it easier for those libraries to move forward with players.
Today we are introducing a feature that brings the benefits of digital to physical discs, giving players more flexibility in how they access and play supported games across the XBOX ecosystem.
More specifically, XBOX confirmed that it was finally rolling out a new system that grants digital entitlements for physical games, giving players access to features like XBOX Play Anywhere and XBOX Cloud Gaming simply by inserting a supported disc into an XBOX One or XBOX Series X console. The rollout begins next week on August 31 for XBOX Insiders, starting with a library of thousands of compatible XBOX One and XBOX Series X titles.
Once a disc is validated and the digital copy is claimed, the physical disc continues to function normally, allowing players to seamlessly transition between physical media and digital streaming features. While the initial launch covers a vast catalog, Microsoft adds that it plans to add support for more titles over time as part of an ongoing effort toward long-term game preservation and account-bound software ownership.
