Some Publishers Are Opting Out of Xbox’s Disc to Digital Program

Some major publishers appear to be sitting out on Xbox‘s new Disc to Digital program, preventing players from claiming digital licenses for certain physical games. Xbox recently began testing the feature with Insiders, allowing supported Xbox One and Xbox Series X discs to provide digital entitlements that unlock some of the benefits normally associated with digital ownership.

Microsoft opened Disc to Digital testing to Xbox Insiders on August 31, describing the feature as a way to make physical libraries more flexible across the wider Xbox ecosystem. Most Xbox One and Xbox Series X disc-based games are supported, and Microsoft says thousands of titles are already eligible, with more to be added over time. Once a supported disc provides a digital entitlement, players can use features such as Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Cloud Gaming when the individual title supports them, potentially extending access to PC and other devices.

Xbox’s Disc to Digital Program Already Has Some Big Gaps

However, players testing Disc to Digital have found that Ubisoft and Square Enix games often can’t be converted to digital entitlements. Reddit user NoHeroes94 has tested roughly 50 to 60 Xbox One and Xbox Series X discs across multiple publishers and reported that only six initially failed to return a license, including Ubisoft’s Far Cry 4, Far Cry 5, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, and Watch Dogs Legion, alongside Square Enix’s Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Attempts produced a message saying the game was not participating in digital licensing. Other users have reported similar results with Assassin’s Creed Unity, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Just Cause 3, Just Cause 4, and the newer Tomb Raider games. Neither publisher has publicly explained why its tested games are currently unsupported.

Other independent user reports indicate the gaps may extend beyond Ubisoft and Square Enix. Additional community testing has found that games published by Sega and Bandai Namco are also unavailable, such as Yakuza or Elden Ring, with one Xbox user reporting that titles from all four publishers failed during tests of their collection. Some games from otherwise participating companies are also unsupported, as is currently the case with Black Ops 7, so not every failed conversion necessarily indicates a publisher-wide decision. Microsoft has already acknowledged that not every title will be available during the program’s initial rollout, making the current Insider period especially important for determining how broad support ultimately becomes.

Publisher participation could become one of the biggest limitations facing Disc to Digital if these catalogs remain unavailable. Ubisoft, Sega, Bandai Namco, and Square Enix have extensive Xbox back catalogs containing numerous physical releases across the last two generations. Therefore, a player with a large physical Xbox collection could run into major gaps depending on which publishers they have historically bought from. The Reddit reports are particularly notable because most tested games converted successfully, making the clusters of unsupported titles from certain companies stand out much more clearly.

That said, plenty of room remains for the situation to change before Disc to Digital receives a wider release. Microsoft says it plans to continue adding supported titles, and some users have already reported previously unsupported games such as Forza Horizon 4 beginning to work. That suggests the current catalog is still changing as testing continues. Like Xbox’s broader backward compatibility efforts, Disc to Digital could ultimately be judged by how much of players’ existing libraries it manages to preserve and carry forward. The bigger question is how many major third-party libraries will be represented by the time Microsoft rolls Disc to Digital out to the public, since even a technically polished feature could lose much of its appeal if large portions of players’ physical collections remain unsupported.