As much as I'm all about laughing at Xbox fans right now, I understand maxy's point. For people who really wanted an all-digital future, having multiple options to purchase a game was going to be beneficial. Just think of Steamworks games. If a game comes with a code that activates on Steam, it doesn't matter where I buy it, as I can still add it to my Steam library regardless. So, I log on to Steam, it's full price. I go over to GreenManGaming and it's $10 off and there's 20% off coupon. Boom, I'll buy it from there. Or maybe I've got a Target gift card. I'll use that and buy the retail disc and still activate it on Steam.
Now, there's nothing stopping Microsoft from still offering a digital SKU to retail partners, so I'm certainly not on board with the narrative that whining gamers ruined this awesome thing. However, if the status quo is maintained, we're back to Microsoft's shop being the only place in town to buy digital games. Best Buy running a gnarly sale on Titanfall, but you'd rather have the digital version and Microsoft's store is charging full price? Well, you've got a decision to make.