Ex-President of PlayStation Studios praises Xbox disc-to-digital feature

It is rare to see the gaming community praise Xbox for something. It feels like the brand has been on the receiving end of intense criticism, whether deserved or not, for years now. Xbox announcing the much-rumored disc-to-digital feature is one of those rare times when almost every voice online is praising Xbox for doing something good. One of these voices is Shuhei Yoshida, the ex-President of PlayStation Studios and one of the most prominent figures in PlayStation history.

Mr. Yoshida called Xbox’s disc-to-digital feature “a great move by team Xbox”. While this is high praise coming from one of PlayStation’s most pivotal figureheads, it also brings the discussion about digital rights and physical game discs full circle.

Gamers who are old enough would remember the intense backlash Xbox received when it introduced DRM for Xbox One games back in 2013. The community backlash was so strong that Sony capitalized on it and released a satirical commercial showing how you could give your PS games to your friends by simply handing over the game disc (linked at the end). The people staring in the commercial? Shuhei Yoshida and Adam Boyes.

Fast forward 13 years, and Xbox will allow you to transfer your physical games to others just by simply handing over the game disc, which you could use to get a digital license. This is something that PlayStation owners likely won’t be able to do come next gen, as the PS6 is highly unlikely to have a physical disc drive, and Sony has no disc-to-digital feature in the works.

We don’t know what the future holds when it comes to the next-gen Xbox Helix and Sony PS6. But we do know that Xbox needs to capitalize on this positive momentum and get alienated fans back to the platform. So far, Xbox seems to be doing just that by reintroducing console exclusivity, refocusing on original Xbox/Xbox 360 emulation, and so on.

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