Game discs and cartridges have been a long-standing part of gaming. In the early days, all you had to do to play was make sure your game worked – usually by blowing into the cartridge or desperately trying to repair a scratched disc with a guide you found online. But, as consoles have moved away from physical to digital, playing your games isn’t so straightforward anymore.
The Xbox Series X is the latest and greatest in Microsoft’s consoles. It can connect to the internet, use Bluetooth, and accept discs just like its predecessors. However, when it comes to actually playing certain games, the consoles cannot escape the internet-focused digital right management (DRM) technology instituted by Microsoft.
The Xbox Series X is capable of playing Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X game discs. However, only the Xbox Series X game discs can be played truly offline. This is because while the Xbox Series X disc is native to the architecture of the console and directly readable, titles from other generations are being downloaded from the internet to the console – the discs only serve a physical license requirement. As a result, if you want to play a game offline – even from a disc – you’ll need to connect to the Xbox Network servers as part of a first-time “update” that prepares the game to be played. These updates are optional but nonetheless required to play the game offline, but afterwards the console can return to offline to play going forward.
To much of the world, being online isn’t a problem. However, military deployments, gaming on-the-go, and certain places around the world may not afford the opportunity to connect to the internet. Until another form of DRM is implemented, offline gamers will have to stick to current-gen discs or find internet access for a few minutes after each new game purchase.
