system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why does every Xbox One game need to download/install 1GB+ "updates" every time I buy a new game?

Why can't I just put the disc in like consoles used to be?
gpt
because games are more often than not being released before they are ready.  it takes a few months to manufacture and distribute all those game disks to meet a release date.  so they put whatever is ready at the time to manufacture the disks and then just release the remaining as a day 1 patch.  in some cases, the day 1 update have been basically the entire game that needs to be redownloaded.

in the past, there was no ability to issue online updates.  so what was ready at the time, had to be the final version.