Can retail Xbox One and PlayStation 4 game disks be “upgraded” to digital?
I have bought a bunch of Xbox One and PlayStation 4 games on retail disks. Big mistakes. They take up space and it a hassle to locate and swap the disks.
Can they be somehow “upgraded” to download-copies so I don’t need the disks anymore on either consoles?
Or do I need to pay full price for the games again?
Best Answer
As retail games are not purchased through the Xbox Live Marketplace, there is no way for Microsoft to know for sure that you are the original owner of the physical copy as physical copies can be sold secondhand. This, however, was possible via Microsoft's original DRM policies when they showcased the One on E3 in 2013. Due to huge outcry from the players for the excessive restrictions of the policies, MS decided to reverse the decision so that discs can now be sold secondhand, which means the 'upgrade' is no longer possible. The 'upgrade', as it was designed pre-2013 E3, consisted of buying a disc and registering it with your Xbox Live account so that it would appear in your list of purchased games.
Sony never offered this option with its PS4 to start with as far as I know. So not much to say here.
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Can you transfer digital games from Xbox to PlayStation?
The good news is that the latest versions of the consoles that have hit the market in the last year - the PlayStation 4 Pro and the Xbox One X - are still compatible with all the games you bought for the original PS4 and Xbox One. And you can move all your data from the old console to the new one.Can I use my PS4 digital games on PS5?
Transfer digital games from a PS4 console to a PS5 consoleYou can transfer digital games and game data from a PS4 console to a PS5 console using WiFi data transfer. You can access PS4 games and game data on a PS5 console directly from a compatible USB storage drive that you may already be using with a PS4.How do you install PS4 games on PS5?
If you have a PS4 game on disc, you just put the disc in your PS5 and go. Your install and update data won't transfer over in this case, however, so you might want to back up and redownload your save date if you're planning to pick up where you left off from one console to the next.Can you play PS3 games on PS4?
The short answer is that no, the PlayStation 4 is not backward-compatible with PlayStation 3 games. Inserting a PS3 disc into the PS4 will not work. And you cannot download digital versions of PS3 games from the PlayStation Store onto your PlayStation 4.More answers regarding can retail Xbox One and PlayStation 4 game disks be “upgraded” to digital?
Answer 2
As @deutschZuid said, there is no such thing as an upgrade from physical to digital copy, which means you'll have to pay full price again, unless you somehow got a lucky deal on a digital copy.
However, if you ever do choose to purchase the digital copy, your savegames will keep working. That is assuming both physical and digital copies were from the same region. If you bought an imported physical copy, then at a later time a regional digital copy, the saves might work, but they also might not. There is no guarantee they will. The same is true for any DLC you might've purchased; they will work on both the physical and the digital copy, assuming both were from the same region.*
*: The statement about savegames and DLCs is true for PS4 (and PS Vita). I haven't verified it on Xbox One yet, but I suppose it should be true there as well, at the very least for DLCs.
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