Video game players might soon be entering an all-digital era. Highly anticipated games, such as Grand Theft Auto 6, will no longer be available in disc form; those who get the physical version will receive nothing but a code inside a box. PlayStation confirmed that it will halt disc production completely in 2028, as the majority of the company’s sales are digital.
Many gamers are angry about the fact that they will no longer be able to own physical copies. That isn’t only because an empty box with a code doesn’t give them the same feeling as actually owning a disc, but also because it prevents them from lending games or reselling them in the future. The secondhand market has always been a major part of the video game industry, especially for retro game collectors, but it seems like its days are numbered.
Xbox has not commented on whether it plans to keep disc drives out of the equation when it comes to future consoles. All we know is that the company has been working on a program to digitize physical media while keeping the game’s license tied to the physical copy. This would allow players to easily access games without swapping discs while still letting owners resell physical copies in the future.
According to leaker eXtas1s, who has allegedly gotten their hands on an Xbox roadmap, the disc-to-digital program could be made available to Xbox One and Xbox Series X owners in August. Supposedly, insiders have had a month to test the program, and it is nearly ready to roll out.
They seem to think that some publishers might charge players to turn their physical games into digital copies. It is possible that this could exclusively be the case for games with no backward compatibility on recent consoles, such as The Simpsons: Hit & Run, an original Xbox title that does not work on Xbox Series X.
On the bright side, the leaker suggests that Xbox will continue working on backward compatibility. So, there is a chance that unavailable games may become playable on current-gen Xbox consoles. If this leak turns out to be true, players can expect to get a confirmation soon, as it is this month that the program will allegedly become available to the public.
