Xbox Officially Confirms New Replacement for Physical Media

1 week ago 15
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Published Sep 30, 2026, 11:07 PM EDT

Erielle Sudario is a Collider News and Feature Author from Australia and has worked in the journalism industry since 2018. She has a passion for entertainment and pop culture news and has interviewed YouTubers, voice actors, film directors, and musicians throughout her career. When she's not writing, you can see Erielle building keyboards, reading a good book, playing video games, and creating content on social media.

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As gamers fight for preservation and ownership, Xbox's newest feature offers the best of both worlds as companies increasingly shift towards a digital market. Recently, PlayStation received backlash after announcing it would discontinue disc production by 2028, claiming most purchases were made digitally. The same can be said for Nintendo, which announced Game-Key cards, where the cartridge does not contain the full game data but rather a license key to download it. But with this latest Xbox update, it has received praise among the gaming community.

This year, Xbox announced its new CEO, Asha Sharma, after Phil Spencer revealed his retirement. Since then, she has made several major changes that caught the gaming community's attention, from a significant structural overhaul across the company and its studios to changes in Game Pass pricing. Xbox also became the official publisher for Hideo Kojima's upcoming game, Physint, starring Bill Skarsgård, after his partnership with PlayStation abruptly ended. Xbox has had a mix of good and bad news as it tries to steer the brand toward success, and this latest update adds to that growing list.

Xbox has announced a new feature called "Disc to Digital Licensing", allowing gamers to claim digital versions of their physical games without having to pay. To claim the digital license, gamers would need an Xbox One or Xbox Series X console and would have to insert the disc. From there, in the game's menu, they will see an option to "Claim Digital License," and once it's claimed, they can play the title without needing the CD. The digital license is linked to the CD, so if you sell your CD to someone else, you also transfer the digital title, so it's best to keep the physical copy on your person. Xbox has a support page for people having trouble claiming their digital titles, as some discs may not grant a digital license because the CD is damaged, the content is "no longer available," or there are other technical limitations.

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.

💊The Matrix

🔥Mad Max

🌧️Blade Runner

🏜️Dune

🚀Star Wars

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

01

You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.

APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.

AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.

AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.

ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.

AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.

AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.

AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.

AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.

REVEAL MY WORLD →

Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

The Matrix

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things.

  • You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
  • You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare.
  • You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
  • The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.

Mad Max

The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you.

  • You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
  • You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three.
  • You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
  • In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.

Blade Runner

You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

  • You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
  • In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
  • You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either.
  • In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything.

Dune

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

  • Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools.
  • You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
  • Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect.
  • In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it.

Star Wars

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.

  • You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
  • You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken.
  • You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of.
  • In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Why Do Gamers Want To Preserve Their Games?

Back in the day, video games were playable because all the game data was on the cartridge or disc and didn't require servers or an internet connection. But as games became bigger, studios adopted live-service models, and digital marketplaces like Steam, the PlayStation Store, and the Nintendo eShop grew, raising concerns about people losing access to their games and the need for video game preservation.

One of the biggest consumer movements in video game preservation is "Stop Killing Games," started in 2024 by Ross Scott after Ubisoft shut down the servers for the 2014 game The Crew, which required an internet connection to play, including its single-player modes. Scott was a major critic of "online-only" games, so he started the movement, arguing that the video game industry has a "terrible track record" of maintaining its games and that governments worldwide lacked laws to address the issue.

Stop Killing Games gained widespread support, with its EU petition generating over a million signatures in 2025. Of course, some opposed the movement. In July 2026, a hearing in California discussed ways to keep games playable, with one suggestion being private servers. At the hearing, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) said private servers were "illegal" and a "black market for video games," comparing them to piracy.

The ESA used Minecraft as an example, prompting its creator, Markus Persson, also known as Notch, to respond that he disagreed and described the ESA's position as "scummy" and "borderline evil."

Minecraft 2025 Film Poster

Release Date April 4, 2025

Director Jared Hess

Writers Markus Persson, Allison Schroeder, Peter Sollett

Franchise(s) Minecraft

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