might as well honestly it would cut alot of the bs

Xbone is already a digital only console. Even retail discs require internet authentication. The discs themselves are basically like the coupon or code retailers sell to you to get your digital games. Its a faster way of transfer for people who may have slow internet.

honestly at this point I think digital only x1 would only improve their mass appeal overall

I truly think that is on the way in a year or two. As well as a Flash only version simply to be a Media Device with ability y to hold 1 or 2 games.

The disk can be used to avoid downloading a very heavy game. Downloading a 13 GB game can take A LOT of time, so this is not that bad at all...except for the trading games thing...and the used games...but hey at least you can avoid the download.

Because then no one would buy it.

Two main issues, they've been mentioned above but dismissed too easily by some.

1. A fairly large chunk of the market doesn't have the internet cap and/or speeds to support digital only, this is particularly an issue with expanding into new markets. The sample on this site is very skewed towards people that have an interest in technology, generally speaking, and therefore have availed themselves of the best/fastest services in their area.

2. Traditionally retailers make next to nothing on hardware (several dollars only), they make the majority of their money on software. Try convincing retailers to carry a piece of hardware for which they are only guaranteed several dollars profit, it's a tough sell. Several major retailers in Australia simply refused to carry the PSP go.

Now both of these things can change but we aren't there yet for enough people. People's internet will get generally faster (+higher caps/unlimited), that is obviously just a matter of time. For my second point, retailers could be offered a significantly larger percentage of the hardware sale, this would obviously affect the hardware manufacturer's bottom line but they should be making large savings on software manufacture and distribution which could offset this.

People keep bringing up Steam but in some cases Steam charges the exact same price as retail. The only real advantage is developers can easily and at their own discretion have a sale on their software or change the price.
Check Steam when the next COD comes out and it'll be the same price as the retail versions for PS3/360

@hsrob

1: I think MS has made it fairly clear that these aren't the people that MS is targeting for the X1
2. It seems MS doesn't really care about the retailers either...

@osed125
You still have to install the game to play it regardless of the medium purchased

That would have been a much better solution. Almost the same deal as right now, but less bad PR that way.