Microsoft has announced a new initiative to give greater value to your physical Xbox games, as it confirms the price of the 25th anniversary Xbox Series X.
Sony’s decision to stop producing PlayStation game discs after 2027 has been a PR landmine, leading to petitions and protests amongst players.
While Microsoft has its own problems, between mass layoffs and the uncertainty around its next generation console, they have secured some PR points with confirmation of a new disc-to-digital feature – something which was rumoured earlier this year.
As announced in an Xbox Wire blog post, the feature allows you to claim your ‘digital entitlement’ by inserting an Xbox One or Xbox Series X disc-based game into either console.
‘Once the entitlement is claimed, you can experience the benefits of digital, including Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Cloud Gaming where supported, while your physical disc continues to work exactly as it always has,’ the blog post reads.
The vague wording makes it unclear if you can play games with digital entitlement and without the disc, or if you can claim an entitlement twice using the same disc.
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The feature is described as being part of Microsoft’s ‘broader commitment to game preservation’, with their goal to ‘make it easier’ for Xbox game libraries to ‘move forward with players’.
Microsoft states that ‘most’ games will support the feature when it launches, but it will ‘continue to add more over time’. Those registered for the Xbox Insider programme will be able to test it from Monday, August 31. A general release date is yet to be announced, but it’s listed as ‘coming soon’.
While there are some questions around its functionality, it’s certainly a welcome feature to add greater value to physical games – even if it’s strange coming from Xbox, the platform which sells the least physical games right now because of Xbox Game Pass and which tried to go digital-only with the Xbox One, long before Sony’s current heel turn.
Elsewhere, Microsoft has confirmed the pee green Xbox Series X25 Limited Edition console will cost $899.99 in the US. It will come with a copy of Halo: Campaign Evolved, with pre-orders set to open on Thursday globally, at 3pm BST.
A UK price for the console is yet to be confirmed, but the limited edition controller will set you back £74.99. A prior leak claimed the console would cost €899.99 in Europe, so it’ll probably be around £750 in the UK.
The Xbox Series X25 console and controller will launch worldwide on November 13, 2026.
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