As Xbox’s disc-to-digital feature rolls out to Insiders, players are discovering it works for delisted games

Xbox’s ‘disc to digital’ feature has started rolling out to Insider members, and players have been testing various permutations to see if they work.

The feature lets players insert a compatible Xbox One or Xbox Series X disc and receive a digital licence for it, essentially turning it into a digital version that acts as if it had been bought on the Xbox Store (and therefore no longer needs to have the disc in the drive).

Players can continue to keep the disc, which will work as it always did, but will receive the extra benefits of having a digital version, including the ability to play it on multiple Xbox devices (including the Series S, which doesn’t have a disc drive).

The digital versions of certain Xbox games also include access to the PC version via Xbox’s Play Anywhere programme, and the ability to stream them using Xbox Cloud Gaming, meaning anyone who inserts discs for games which support these features will gain access to them too.

The feature started rolling out on Monday to Xbox owners who are subscribed to its Insider programme, where new features can be tested for issues before being rolled out to the entire Xbox userbase.

Xbox noted that while it’s “starting with thousands of titles”, not every disc results in a digital licence at this point. Players have been putting together their own lists on what does and doesn’t work at this stage. At the moment it appears that Ubisoft titles aren’t supported, for example.

One thing players have noticed, however, is that some games that are delisted from the digital store still support the disc-to-digital feature.

Some were concerned that – because the process involves putting in a disc and getting a newly generated licence for a digital game – delisted games may not be compatible, since it may not be possible to generate licences for them any more.

Instead, players have been confirming that a game’s delisted status appears to have no impact, with games like Deadpool (delisted in 2017), F1 2021 (delisted in 2023), Minecraft: Story Mode (delisted in 2019), Rock Band 4 (delisted in 2025) and Titanfall (delisted in 2021) confirmed as working.

As such, even though these games are no longer present on the Xbox store, putting in the disc will still result in a digital licence being granted, similar to the way players can still download delisted games if they had already previously purchased them.

Xbox says that more disc games will support disc-to-digital over time – the issue appears to lie with publishers, who have to opt into the programme. This is why, at this stage, players are reporting that Ubisoft and Square Enix games aren’t compatible.