Aside from a few malfunctioning consoles, the next-generation of video games has transitioned smoothly into the homes of the masses, but one platform in particular had a less-than-stellar start after its reveal. It's no secret that gamers reacted poorly to news regarding Xbox One's initial DRM and always-online policies, but some new information has surfaced that could have made the recently released system even more controversial.

During a recent interview between Official Xbox Magazine and Microsoft Studios' Phil Spencer, the corporate head revealed that Microsoft originally considered launching the Xbox One without a disc drive. This would have meant that the platform would have to be all digital, but these plans were abandoned in favor of incorporating a Blu-ray drive — which Spencer firmly believes was the right decision.

"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."

"So we decided - which I think was the right decision - to go with the Blu-ray drive and give the people an easy way to install a lot of content. From some of those original thoughts, you saw a lot of us really focusing on the digital ecosystem you see on other devices - thinking of and building around that."

Given that Microsoft originally intended to launch the Xbox One as an all digital format, the policies that it had in place (prior to back-peddling on them) were remnants of an abandoned product design.

As Spencer correctly pointed out in his comments, there are some serious issues that would plague the launch of a console that's san disc drive, and that largely has to do with the limited space on the hard drive. Even the system's current 500 GB isn't much when stacked up to the file sizes of some Xbox One games, and it could have been problematic in homes around the world that don't have a solid Internet connection.

Would you have been interested in the Xbox One if it didn't have a disc drive?

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Source: OXM