Microsoft: Disc-based market 'really important' for Xbox One

All Xbox One games will be available digitally on day one, but that does not mean Microsoft is abandoning the traditional retail market anytime soon.

Speaking with GameSpot, Microsoft Game Studios executive Phil Spencer explained that the retail market will remain a major component of Microsoft's business strategy going forward.

"The retail market is really important to us," Spencer said. "Obviously, we sell consoles, we sell controllers, we sell physical devices, and we sell games. And retailers have been great partners for all us; for gamers as well. They're great places to go; talk to sales people about what they're playing. And we want to foster that environment and having a strong retail console business is really important to us."

Spencer further explained that constructing a policy that satisfies the four major players--gamers, retailers, publishers/creators, and Microsoft itself--will be vital for the health of the Xbox platform going forward.

"Building a policy and a plan that weighs the different interests and really landing on something that we think forward-looking will value the gamer and the creator and put them at the forefront [to] support a healthy retail ecosystem is vital," Spencer said.

The Xbox One launches this November for $500. The platform mandates users connect to the Internet once every 24 hours--something Spencer said can be done via a cell phone--and decisions about secondhand titles will be left up to individual publishers.