Get up to 32GB of additional storage through those pesky USB ports on your 360.
Microsoft has confirmed earlier reports and announced that a system update will be pushed on April 6 to allow users to store Xbox 360 game data on USB devices, like flash drives. Hard drives will also work, but since it cuts off at a maximum of 16GB per device, that'd be a pretty good way to waste a hard drive.
Once connected and configured, you'll be able to use your USB devices much like your 360 hard drive or existing Memory Units, which means you can store your profile there. Hopefully this update will come with some tighter security on profiles, because putting them on devices that are easily read by a PC is really just inviting more of the achievement point and game-adding hacking that's been going on for months on the 360. If I run into any Microsoft-types at PAX this weekend, I'll be sure to ask.
This is really cool, I think I'll get a memory stick just for my profile, keep it plugged in to my 360 and then whenever I want to play on a friends 360 I'll just plug in into that. It will save so much time compared to recovering profiles, then re-recovering them on my own xbox, that can be such a pain ¬¬ Like Jeff said though I hope people don't find more ways to hack achievement points and stuff like that. Not cool.
i dont give a shit about achievement points getting hacked, but piracy and aim bot hacks......No good. I'm glad there doing this still because there hard drives are stupid overpriced. I'm still running with a 20 gig launch system. : ( I'm not to poor to afford it, just a matter of respect for myself. lol
@DarkPredatorUK: installing games to a flash drive is not a good idea for two reasons i can think off the bat 1. The speed would not be any faster, assuming xbox architecture is similar to that of a pc, flash drives will have a longer journey to get into ram so will result in slower speeds 2. Flash memory decays very fast, they are not built to withstand the number of read/write cycles such an action would lead to, and the drive would fail significantly faster
@hicks91: You don't have to state the obvious Hicks, when I say usb flash drives I mean damn good drives not just generic crap. I don't think installing to a flash drive would be worse than using a hard drive in fact I bet the read speeds on a good solid state drive/Usb stick would outperform the HDD even with the longer access times to the RAM.
I'm down for this. I've been using the shit out of my 256mb MU between my two boxes. I'll probably be using it mostly for profiles, saves, tiny DLC, as well as vids and music like before.
However, this makes me wonder if they are going to stop selling the 20GB hard drives. I mean, they will basically be worthless now, right? Also, I'm sure someone will find a way to make devices bigger than 16GB work on the console.
Sounds good at first, but the 16GB hard limit seems like a way to simply ensure the more expensive 360 hard drives are still selling. Protecting business interests I'm sure, but it's going to lead people closer to reaching this conclusion, at which point I can only hope they vote with their dollar and avoid the 360 hard disks all together.
I only have a 20 GB HDD for my 360. I want to upgrade, but I was kinda forced into saving up for the 120 GB HDD because of the transfer kit. With this update hopefully I can transfer my saves and DLC to a 60 GB HDD.
I love how they capped it at 16gb, just so their proprietary 20gb HDD's remain relevant. How many people are even buying those, anyways? Couldn't they have just capped it at, say, 100? No, because that would make sense.
" I love how they capped it at 16gb, just so their proprietary 20gb HDD's remain relevant. How many people are even buying those, anyways? Couldn't they have just capped it at, say, 100? No, because that would make sense. "
I just read that Microsoft are partnering with Sandisk to release branded Xbox 360 USB flash drives... Remember that Wii SD card, that was just a regular SD card with the word "Wii" on it, and sold for 5 times more than other SD cards that didn't have the word "Wii" on them. Yeah, that.
To be fair, they did say that the branded ones will be "pre-configured", and normal flash drives with have to be "manually configured". My guess is that "manual configuration" means pressing A to format once you plug in the drive, then choosing how much space you want to use. I don't know about you, but I'm shelling out for a pre-configured one, because I don't want to have to go through all that hassle!
Dammit why couldn't the have given out this news two weeks ago? I passed on a $129 XBox 360 Arcade sale because I had a problem shelling out another $80 for a HD. Now I can use my $10 USB Drive?
I always wondered why flash drives were compatable with the PS3 but not with the Xbox. I geuss the greedy bastards at M$ thought they could make more money by selling their own portable memory devices.
I for one am super excited to hear this news since i've been wanting to back up my save files on my PC but i didn't feel like buying that Xbox 360 backup kit.
Ha! are you serious, Microsoft sold proprietary flash drives?! Just how stupid can you be. Next thing you know they'll be selling proprietary hard drives for more than a mid range hooker!
" The PS3 already does this. Way to stay up to date on you're stuff Microsoft. =/ "
They aren't out of date buddy, this was probably just their business plan all along. I mean my explaination makes a lot of sense if you think about it.
Why do you think they make memory so scarce? Why do you think they stopped third-party hard drives from working in that semi-recent patch? Because they knew that further on down the line the sale of their own flash drives would be massively undercut by the cheaper third-party hard drives that're much bigger than anything Microsoft themselves have provided the consumer. Why would anyone need "a little extra storage space" from an extra flash drive if they have a 1TB or a 500GB hard drive provided to them at a cheaper price by third-party consumers? Short answer, they wouldn't.
Microsoft as a business knows what it's doing. And it does it VERY well.
Cheating definitely is what comes to mind automatically. This would just make game saves (for the sake of achievements) much, much easier. Although it already isn't that hard to do it, you just need some cash to spend and look in the right places.
Other than that, I'm kind of excited. Still rocking the 20GB HDD given to me over 3 years ago (I'd say it was my original, but my original was broken out of the box!), so if this means I can get more space out of it, then so be it.
Does anyone have official confirmation that you can install disc-based titles onto a USB drive? I refuse to pay for another Xbox 360 HDD (I've got the 20GB) but I want to have more than one game installed at any one time.
" hmm Will we be able to install games on flash-drives? If yes, than it's definitely good news. "
I doubt it. USB Read and write speeds are slower then DVD read speeds. It would pretty much defeat the purpose. "
Hopefully it won't have too much of an impact on XBLA games/demos, which is what I'd mainly use a USB for. There's also the question of how workable putting DLC on a stick would be; not that I'm a particularly techy guy, but I'm sorta half expecting a reply of 'not very'!
This is a potentially awesome thing, but I'm keeping my enthusiasm in check until we find out more about what we'll actually be able to DO with it.
Any USB drive will be formatted with the same MS proprietary FATX format they used for memory cards. It won't be readable on PC's without the proper programs, so the only real difference is no longer needing the proprietary memory card dongle. It isn't really making anything easier than it already was with memory cards.
" Since this update is out today, anyone going to take advantage of it? I'm having a hard time thinking of a reason to have a 16gb memory card. lol "
Well now we do - for our xboxes. I think I'll bite once I get the funds together for a decent USB stick, it'll be good for shifting old game data and bigger XBLA games. Might be worth holding back a couple of weeks though, it seems not every USB is working with the xbox. Seems to be an issue with devices with slower read rates. Someone'll put together a list of the best sticks soon enough, though.
I use a wired 360 pad (because they rock) a wifi adapter and I have an external HDD hooked up in the remaining port. So I guess I'll have to buy a USB hub or something.
Is there a list or something of the usb-drives that work with it? A friend tried several and they all didn't work, the requirements seem to be pretty steep when it comes to read/write-speed.
I wanted to buy a new drive today but now I want to wait till I know what I should get.
I'm a little disappointed with this. I wanted to be able to copy my Fallout 3 addons (from the GOTY disc, not bought off XBL) and send them to a friend. But when you put something on your USB drive, it segments it all up into different files.
Woah... "deletion suggestions"? Is that new? there seems to be a lot more memry management options to match. Y to Transfer Content looks handy.
But since the files remaining on the drive are gigs large, I'm just gonna keep using my memory unit for fear of my USB drive failing, since I can't back up my game saves to my PC so easily.
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