Microsoft considered removing the Xbox One's disc drive after E3

Microsoft had a "real discussion" about whether it should even bother including a disc drive on the Xbox One following the console's second reveal at E3 2013.

Yes, after the reveal, because apparently Microsoft wasn't getting enough flack for its since-amended "always online" and DRM requirements.

"After the announcement and E3, there was some feedback about what people wanted to change," Microsoft Studios head Phil Spencer said in an interview with OXM. "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."

Obviously Spencer and co. decided to allow the disc-drive after all. "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," Spencer explained. "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."

Last time a console manufacturer released an all digital platform it was Sony with its handheld spin-off, the PSPGo, which was later dubbed "a complete flop." But was it simply ahead of its time? Digital media is going the way of the dodo on home computers and it's the standard for mobile platforms, so was Microsoft onto something with this all-digital alternate reality, or did it avoid a catastrophe of epic proportions?