Xbox Disc-To-Digital Could Pave The Way For Digital Second-Hand Market

Published Sep 2, 2026, 9:31 AM EDT James Lucas is an Executive Editor at TheGamer who has worked in professional journalism since 2018. A Newcastle University graduate with a degree in Journalism, Media, and Culture, they have written hundreds of guides, news stories, and original reports, with bylines in IGN, NME, GaymingMag, and VG247, sourcing interviews with studio heads, legendary industry figures, prominent actors, and more. An expert on FPS games, Soulslikes, RPGs, and survival horror, James has intimate knowledge of a wide variety of titles, providing in-depth coverage and exclusive profiles. Some of the games they have extensively covered include: Half-Life 3, Counter-Strike, Elden Ring, and Fallout. They pride themselves on their consistently thorough research, leveraging nearly a decade of industry experience. You can reach them at James.t@thegamer.com Sony is handling the whole disc controversy with the tact of a clicker: mindlessly screaming as it flails its arms about. While everyone scratches their head over the question of ownership and preservation, its response has essentially been, 'Only a dumb dumb would think you're buying a digital game.' The argument is a little confusing. Sony claims that it absolutely must license games because if one person owned a digital copy, nobody else could buy it. I have a laundry list of issues with that reasoning, but let's not get into the weeds. The headline here is that Xbox's new disc-to-digital initiative paves the way for a much more elegant solution to the question, one that could revolutionize digital gaming in the same way Steam did decades ago. I want to preface this by saying that Xbox hasn't said that this is the plan, nor is it something that the console giant is actively working towards, but the precedent with disc-to-digital is enormous and could feasibly lead to a digital second-hand market if Microsoft is willing. But let's dial back first. The new initiative means that when you insert a disc into your console, you can now license that game to play digitally on any platform logged into your account. That even extends to delisted games, like Deadpool. If you sell or give the disc to someone else, they can claim the digital license, removing it from your account in the process. The license effectively changes hands alongside the physical game. Ipso facto, you can still sell something you've licensed because that license isn't permanently welded to you. The next logical step for this system is to nix the disc part altogether and turn digital licenses into commodities that can be traded online. Think the Steam community marketplace, but you can sell games instead of just Team Fortress 2 hats or ludicrously expensive Counter-Strike knives. Your library would become an inventory, meaning that while you can't refund a game from three years ago, you could put it up for sale so that other people can buy it cheaper. The biggest roadblock to this idea isn't technical, either, it's publisher greed. Games being sold cheaper on a digital second-hand marketplace would naturally incentivize people to buy there instead of the storefront directly, but there's a crucial piece of the puzzle that, looking squarely into the camera at said publishers, I would want them to consider. Second-hand markets already exist. There are brick-and-mortar storefronts, online platforms like eBay, and stalls at local flea markets. Extending that philosophy to digital licenses would allow both the platform holder (i.e. Xbox) and the publisher to take a small cut, earning from a market that has always operated independently. The seller is shortchanged, sure, but have you traded at GameStop before? That happens anyway. Given that digital goods aren't bound by scarcity, there is a risk of repeating the key resale problem that Xbox would need to ensure guardrails for. Disc-to-digital ties a license to an account, rather than a platform holder. It can be revoked and given to others, which means that there is now a system in place for true ownership, even without physical copies. Xbox would be remiss not to take advantage of the huge gap that PlayStation is leaving, and its reluctance to address that very digital ownership question as physical gaming winds down. This kind of marketplace, allowing players to pawn their games, would only strengthen the Xbox ecosystem and solidify digital ownership in an increasingly volatile and unpredictable online world. Just imagine... delisted games resold for a premium, old duds you never play turned into a rainy day fund, and, crucially, proof that your licenses are yours to do with as you please. Yours. You could even lend them out to friends. That's what digital gaming needs if we're truly to leave physical behind. Brand Microsoft Original Release Date November 10, 2020 Original MSRP (USD) $499 Operating System Proprietary (Windows-based) Processor Custom AMD 8-core Zen 2 3.8 GHz Resolution 720p - 4K UHD