While it’s certainly a bargain, the Xbox Series S’ inability to play discs can cause a lot of frustration, especially if you own a bunch of old games. But a new patent from Microsoft shows that the “digital only” console could gain disc-playing abilities, sort of.

As discovered by Game Rant, a Microsoft patent describes how gamers could play discs on the Xbox Series S or Xbox One S. It’s a wonky plan, but it makes sense—use an external disc drive (an Xbox One in this example) to verify that you own a physical game. The Xbox servers then let your disc-less console download and play the game.

Obviously, Microsoft should just sell an add-on disc drive for its consoles. But the system described in this patent is better than nothing. It would certainly make the Xbox Series S experience a bit easier to swallow, so long as you have an Xbox One or another disc-enabled device laying around.

There’s just one major problem; what’s stopping me from buying a physical game, running it through this service, and returning or reselling it? Presumably, Microsoft will only give your Xbox Series S temporary access to whatever physical game you own. And if that’s the case, you may need to keep an Xbox One on standby to re-scan your discs.

Bear in mind that this is just a patent. It may never become a real service, and judging by its complexity, I doubt that Microsoft will go through with it. But it’s interesting to see Microsoft approach the Xbox Series X’s biggest problem—wait, just sell an add-on disc drive! It’s not that hard!

Source: Game Rant