Almost immediately following its announcement, the Xbox One’s online DRM-filled requirements were panned by critics and consumers alike. On top of that, try to imagine the idea of the console not having a disc drive and games being digital downloads only. Believe it or not, that almost happened.

“Obviously, after the announcement and E3, there was some feedback about what people wanted to change,” Microsoft Studios’ Phil Spencer told 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. 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.”

Prior to the Xbox One’s public reveal there had been several rumors that Microsoft’s new console would use an all digital setup. Although this never happened, considering the negative reaction to the idea of a daily online check-in, we’d have to say that Microsoft dodged a major bullet.

Several Xbox One game files are well over 20GB. While this might work for people with high-end internet connections, just try to imagine the countless hours of play time lost waiting for a game to download and finish installing.