Xbox 360 USB Sticks Will Likely Be Overpriced

[300lb. Samoan]

My biggest beef is over the Wireless Network adaptors, which need to be special made for the XBox because it lacks support for DLLs and therefore isn't compatible with the same PC product.

The Xbox doesn't run Windows, and wireless networking devices don't have a single input standard like flash drives or keyboards. You can't really expect MS to create and load custom drivers for a bunch of different devices onto their game console.

You can work around the issue easily enough with any generic wireless access point. I used a Linksys Wireless-N access point for a while, until I switched to an ethernet-over-power set, which gives a more reliable connection for streaming video in my house.

This is Microsoft we're talking about, last time I checked every copy of Windows comes with thousands of generic drivers. It wouldn't have been beyond the XBox design team to include a driver set on a DVD that users could install to the hard-drive or flash memory on a need-to-have basis. But instead they purposefully left DLL and generic driver support out of the design in favor of locking the features for their own benefit. I know this is one of the most basic tenets of the console business model, but I still don't appreciate when companies impede good technical design for the sake of higher profits.

 

[sephiroth1991]

It's Microsoft what you expect

 

[GonzoGamer]

Ah, all companies do this. I bought a second PS3 controller, and found it didn't come with a cable. I could have spent $10 on an Official Sony Brand Charge Cable Accessory, or perhaps about $2 on a USB-to-Smaller-USB cable in Radio Shack. As it turned out, I had such a cable lying around.

It beats Nintendo's tendency to give each rechargeable handheld a different-sized and uniquely-sized charging port. Remember the GBA and the GBA Micro? The Micro had a smaller link cable port than the GBA. They only made female-Micro-to-male-regular adapters. If you owned a Micro (which wasn't too popular), you'd need to buy a special Micro link cable and adapters for every regular GBA with which you wanted to connect.

I have a micro, I didn't even know you could link them. GBAs get an automatic pass as they're the most sturdy gaming devises ever made.

I can't say I'm very surprised by the news either: a game company trying to rip off the consumer? How would that surprise me. What would be surprising is if I learned that you didn't have to use the MS USB "stick" on the 360.
Could I use my Darth Vader 8GB stick?

 

[kwfang]

I wouldn't be a bit suprised if they sold their own USB's for an outrageous price but since you can use your own it doesn't matter.

Unless Microsoft are A-Holes and make it to where you can only use X-box USB's and sell them for like $80 for a 1 Gigabyte then it would suck.

 

[Radelaide]

So I assume that this is going to require an update or something?

Yeah - it's a system update that's supposed to roll out next month.

Welp, time to take the xbox to my friend's house then Thanks, Virgil