It's common knowledge that Xbox gamers overwhelmingly choose to buy their games digitally, a trend they embraced earlier than other platforms. This has also led Microsoft to launch several Xbox models without disc drives, including the Series S, as well as more affordable versions of the Series X.
We don't yet know what the next generation will bring, but it's easy to imagine that Microsoft would prefer not to have to worry about discs, especially since Project Helix is shaping up to be a sort of PC hybrid (and we already have ROG Xbox Ally)... and, as we all know, PCs haven't come with disc drives as standard for a very long time. For Microsoft's part, they may still need to offer some kind of solution, given that they're investing heavily in backward compatibility, and many older gamers and collectors have several crates of old Xbox games they'd like to be able to enjoy in the future as well.
Now, Windows Central reports that there may be a solution to this, which goes by the working name Codename Positron. The idea is to offer people the ability to transfer their discs to digital ownership. They don't have any details yet, but they do mention an obvious problem, namely that it would allow people to lend discs, after which they would suddenly own the games in question.
This means some kind of technology is needed to lock the games once they've been redeemed for a digital copy, and it remains to be seen how Microsoft envisions this working. We also suspect that a great many (if not virtually everyone) would be very reluctant to "trade in" their game collection if that's actually required.
We'll have to wait and see until Microsoft has more information on the matter, assuming the reports are even accurate.
