USB Drive Support Coming to Xbox 360

[Andy Chalk]

USB Drive Support Coming to Xbox 360

USB memory support will be coming to the Xbox 360 [http://www.xbox.com] by way of a new system update scheduled for release in April.

Microsoft's Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, revealed on his blog today that a system update scheduled for April 6 will enable USB memory support on the Xbox 360. Once the update is in place, 360 owners will be able to plug USB flash drives into their consoles, configure them via system settings and then use them to store profiles, game saves, demos and other information. Memory management functionality is also being updated to give users more control over data being copied or moved between devices.

Individual drives will be limited to 16 GB of storage but two separate devices can be connected simultaneously, allowing for a maximum of 32 GB of storage. USB hard drives "may" work, according to the Major, but they'll still be limited to 16 GB of storage and won't perform nearly as well. "Since performance on flash based USB storage is usually better, I highly recommend using flash based instead of spinning media like a hard drive," he wrote. "It's just going to give you a MUCH better experience."

majornelson.com [http://www.microsoft.com].


Permalink

 

[Aurora219]

I like it that Microsoft are already jumping on the opportunity to brand one of the most basic items on the IT market today in hopes that they'll make even more money from this. Still, it's nice to know they're willing to give up their memory card monopoly on the 360 to allow for some good old compatibility.

And to make more money, of course.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Good. All I got is the 20GB hard drive.

Now I won't have to spend a hundred bucks to upgrade, plus the transfer cable. I can just "supplement" my hard drive.

 

[Sir Ollie]

About damn time.

Screw paying ridiculous amounts of money for a 512MB memory card.

 

[Big Max]

Hmmmm this is surprising, it means that there will surely be a huge increase in modding considering we can now freely take save files without the use of an Xsata drive.

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

'Bout bloody time!!! This'll make it much, much easier to transfer saved games etc between systems. Good news, methinks!

 

[Distorted Stu]

Oh good, i was running otu of space! D:

 

[Baby Tea]

Sweet!
I'm pretty excited for this!
I can't wait to see how it works out in terms of speed.
You can install games to the USB drives, and I'm wondering how much faster that is compared to just running it off the CDs.
We'll find out!

 

[Irridium]

Its about goddamn time.

I still have the fucking launch hard drive. And all anyone has told me is to buy the bigger hard drives.

Well I would if they weren't stupidly overpriced.

The memory I have left right now is about 500 megabytes. Yes, 500 megabytes is all I have left in my tiny hard drive. And I will never buy one of the overpriced ones until the price goes down to reasonable levels. Its the principal of the matter and I still have some dignity left that I won't throw it away by accepting MS's shit.

*ahem*

Sorry, got off track there for a second...

Still, now I can finally download demos, and redownload my old South Park episodes I was forced to delete to make room for stuff.

 

[crotalidian]

this is great and a good step forward for consoles as now you can take your multiplayer game of choice to a friends placeand not have to cart your HD around just for your profile and saves!

I would really like to see a form of online storage where you can upload your saves to it and then they will be accessible anywhere to you and your password (in addition to them being on your HD). it would be like a Good version of EA's new 'it's not DRM trust us' idea, but for the console market

 

[xDHxD148L0]

Good to hear, I have the 120GB hard drive so i don't really have a problem but this will be good news to anyone who has the launch or arcade versions of the games.

 

[GonzoGamer]

'Bout bloody time!!! This'll make it much, much easier to transfer saved games etc between systems. Good news, methinks!

No kidding.
I can't believe it didn't already have this feature.
What the hell is the usb slot for?

 

[Abedeus]

So late and only 16GB per device? Wow. That's like, what, Mass Effect 2 + saved games?

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

If microsoft lets me install my own HD at street price instead of buying their overpriced crappiness I might consider getting an xbox.

 

[addeB]

Good. All I got is the 20GB hard drive.

Now I won't have to spend a hundred bucks to upgrade, plus the transfer cable. I can just "supplement" my hard drive.

I don't remember how big my HDD is but i know it's the smallest (that's 20GB right?) since i bought my 360 about a week after realise so I'm just as happy as you since i was just about to buy a 250GB HDD and transfer cable xD

 

[300lb. Samoan]

Now...if they can only sell their users an HDD for less than a 100% mark-up, 360 owners will be tickled pink.

That's no lie... still, I love the idea that I can get a 4 gig drive for $15 dollars and endlessly swap games-on-demand on it, with usb2.0 loading speeds! What I'm MORE excited about, though, is that I can now carry my Borderlands and Castle Crashers characters on my keychain! This will be SOOO much easier than taking my entire hard-drive off to take it to a friend's house, as that usually causes issues with his wireless and lots of confusion when switching games.

 

[The Rockerfly]

So I can just save games on a memory stick?

Awesome! I have been running out of room and I am not prepared to pay £100 for a new hard drive. I wonder why it took Microsoft so long though...