Microsoft considered releasing the Xbox One without a disk drive

One of the biggest changes that came with the new generation of gaming consoles was the focus on digital copies of games as opposed to physical disks. Both Microsoft and Sony have been trying to incentivize gamers to purchase digital copies of their games. However, Microsoft was going to take it a step further. According to early reports, the company entered into serious discussions over releasing the Xbox One without a disk drive, thus forcing users to purchase their games online.

As some early reports suggested, Microsoft did in fact consider releasing the Xbox One with no disc drive, making the company’s new console a purely digital system, Microsoft Game Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer told OXM. Perhaps more surprising is that this “purely disc-less console” was considered as late as mid-2013. “Obviously, after the announcement and E3, there was some feedback about what people wanted to change,” Spencer said. “There was a real discussion about whether we should have an optical disc drive in Xbox One or if we could get away with a purely disc-less console, but when you start looking at bandwidth and game size, it does create issues.”