Company reveals it had a “real discussion” about possibility of “purely disc-less console,” but decided against it to accommodate bandwidth and game size.
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.”
Spencer went on to explain why he believes offering a Blu-ray optical drive for the Xbox One was the “right decision.”