Xbox allowed you to
With a bunch of caveats. You'd literally only be able to sell games at Microsoft approved retailers. My friend bought a game that he wanted to own digitally (ironic for this conversation) and I wanted a new physical disk. I gave him $60 for a fair transaction and he bought his on psn. You couldn't do that with Microsoft. He'd have to go to GameStop and get $20 for it. And maybe you'll correct me for how that was supposed to work but the point is, from start to finish you need to go through MS for every step of that transaction. Its still their game. Plus even steam doesn't have 24 internet checks and you can share games on it so it still would have been a better system. AND Microsoft uses a proprietary hard drive for all those digital games which is 3x the cost of a regular hard drive.
But honestly? Its Microsoft. I don't trust them. I know this isn't Linux circle jerk but I (in my humble opinion) think they are a shit company who makes shit and have shit policies. The 360 didn't start having egregious ads on the dash, they added that. I guess its a moot point cause the xb1 doesn't have bad ads but what else could MS change over the course the xb1's life if they have that much control? No part of it was good deal. The Xbox 1 we got was a good deal and so is the ps4. They gave into the will of the consumer when they go full digital they might do it again and give us a better deal than the original xb1
it doesn't matter what you think
Sadly, I know. Just look at the PCMR. They talk shit about console gamers but you couldn't even get refunds on steam until recently and pretend buying, selling, and sharing games don't matter. And they do it all on NSA/Windows 10. But there aren't many companies doing big digital only releases cause they need the sales from disks. I think its going to matter for a while. And just cause you say "digital only is around the corner" doesn't mean most of the world is ready for it. I live in America and pay $40 for 10mbs down and sketchy service. Americans buy a lot of games so its not I'm in some market that can be ignored. Everything going digital won't make my Internet service more reliable
don't judge a book by its cover
Lol. Its your username. I thought I gave a serious answer