why are some games disc only backwards compatible and have no digital options?

For instance, Doom 3 BFG Edition, I'd of picked that up day one when it was available on the Xbox One's backwards compatibility catalog. I mean, isn't that capitalist model? You know, publishers give us games we want, we willingly give our money over to
them, MS gets their cut, it's a win-win situation all around.

I've heard people say multi-disc games aren't backwards compatible because they weren't made to work off one ISO, that doesn't seem consistent though, as there are multi-disc games with digital options available digitally on the Xbox 360's digital store,
like Max Payne 3 for instance, or LA Noire. And obviously, there's an option for digital Mass Effect 2 and 3 through EA Access for the Xbox One.

Was it entirely a publisher decision, or did they not opt for the option of having games on the Xbox 360 digital store because of extra store certification costs? Or maybe, at the time, they were more interested in promoting physical copy sales, because
they have to front royalty costs on physical prints, and digital undermines clearing physical copy from retailer inventory, which means they have to partial refund retailers on unsold copies or MSRP price adjustments. If they opted out because of some kind
of obstacle for publishing on the Xbox 360, I feel Microsoft, in the interest of broadening the Xbox One backwards compatible catalog, should consider reaching out and making exceptions to publishers to re-release the Xbox 360 games digitally that weren't
available on the Xbox 360 digitally. Having games like Mass Effect 2 and 3 on EA Access is a nice benefit, maybe even EA calculated that in an effort to promote the subscriptions to EA Access. But, they could also benefit by continuing to sell the games digitally.

Shouldn't part of Microsoft's backwards compatibility efforts be to expand backwards compatibility to all customers, and not just those that retain their original Xbox 360 copies? Any copies still in circulation won't send additional revenues upstream to
the publishers as they're probably all out of print anyways. Promoting increased additional digital sales would be mutually beneficial to both MS and publishers, and heck even the consumers. Just an idea.

:)

 

Blazing Angels BC

Unfortunately only the disc version of the game is backwards compatible.

There is no bc digital version of the game & no word on whether that will change.

 

Xbox 360 games not working on XboxOne but are on the backwards capability listing

As long as the games are backwards compatible, they should work whether you have the disc or digital. To get the digital license you would basically have to rebuy the games digitally, which you shouldn't need to do. Double check that they are all on the
backwards compatible list - Xbox One Backward Compatibility List | Xbox

 

Hi, I think you have basically answered your own question. It is mainly due to the fact that the games were never released onto the games on demand catalogue on the Xbox 360 store. If you want these games to be available digitally, then make a post on
the feedback website xbox.uservoice.com

 

As Stuart said, these games never had digital versions on 360. When Xbox 360 launched, disc-based games never had digital copies in the store. It wasn't until a couple of years later that they started doing 'games on demand' which meant AAA studios could
release their games digitally, rather than just small XBLA titles.

Ones that never saw a digital release on 360 will never be available to purchase digitally for backwards compatability until the current publisher of the game decides they want to sell it on the Xbox 360 marketplace. And it's not as simple as flipping a
switch: they'd have to go through all the steps they would go through today to release a new game, even though the game already exists on disc.