Xbox One and Xbox 360 Digital Games Coming to Physical Retailers

Microsoft is introducing a new way to buy digital Xbox 360 and Xbox One games. The company announced today that beginning this month in the US and UK, you'll be able to buy download codes for select games and expansions at participating brick-and-mortar retailers.

The company is launching the program by offering download codes for Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and State of Decay, as well as "select" map and expansion packs for Halo and Forza games. The company will add more codes in the coming months from other publishers and also plans to extend the program to more countries.

Microsoft says this new program is all about giving gamers more options for how they can purchase digital content. Of course, you can still buy digital games and DLC through Xbox.com and on your console.

Buying digital content at a physical retailer might sound backwards, but it's already big business for retailer GameStop. In fact, more than half of GameStop's digital revenue comes from brick-and-mortar stores. One of the advantages to shopping for digital content in a physical store, according to GameStop, is that if you have a question, you can ask a store associate. If you're shopping online, you don't get that kind of customer service.

Another potentially compelling reason to buy digital games at retail is because you won't necessarily need cash or credit to do so. For retailers that accept trade-ins (like GameStop), you would be able to buy the digital games using your trade credit.

Microsoft's new digital purchasing option runs alongside the gift cards that it already sells at retailers that you can use to buy items from the Xbox Marketplace . Sony (PlayStation Network) and Valve (Steam Wallet) also sell marketplace gift cards at physical retailers like GameStop.

Do you buy digital content at physical retailers? Let us know in the comments below!