Our buddies over at Joystiq uncovered some juicy documentation regarding Microsoft's Spring 2010 update to the Xbox 360 Dashboard, specifically that the console would now support external USB hard drives. Yup, you'll soon be able to store DLC, saved games and Arcade titles on an external, USB HDD of your choosing.
Don't get all that excited, however. Microsoft is too smart to pass up on the lucrative profit margins that current 360 hard drives provide and have put some limitations on how the drives work. Drives used with the 360 will have its write-capable space limited to 16 GB. Anyone who bought an early 360 Pro with a 20 GB drive will be able to tell you how much good that is for any serious gamer.
This seems to be more like an expansion/replacement of 360 memory cards, which are probably a product MS doesn't sell a ton of anyway. That, or Microsoft figured out that they may be losing Live Marketplace business on Arcade owners who refuse to pay the exorbitant price for a 360 HDD.
Ultimately, this isn't the earth-shattering news I was hoping for, but I'm sure there are people out there happy to hear it.
Xbox 360 gaining USB storage support in 2010 update [Joystiq via Engaget]
Conrad Zimmerman is Destructoid's News Editor and home to the busiest mustache in the gaming press. An amateur historian and pop culture fanatic, Conrad possesses a nearly limitless wealth of videogame factoids and a passion for the power of games to teach, inspire and entertain. He enjoys reading, writing and turning things which should be fun into work.
Likes
Mega Man 2, Arcade Games, Books about games, Board games, Having cultural interests that aren't games
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
75 comments | showing # 1 to 50
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
12:50 PM on 03.18.2010
| 
A "serious gamer" makes do.
You can have more memory , but not much more, hardly any in fact BHA HA HA HA.
I use a cable to backup my hard drive to my PC every few months. This will make things considerably easier and less time consuming. I really only care about the save files, but I back up the rest just for the hell of it. It takes a few hours to transfer 120GB of data over USB 2.0. :)
What's offensive is the degree to which MS has gone out of their way to fuck with their consumers' use of the products they own in order to grab that sweet after-purchase cash.
2: put a 500gb hdd in it
3: plug any old portable hdd into it.
4: laugh at xboxers paying through the nose for storage.
Seriously, where do ms get off with the whole "you don't really own your console" bullshit?
Haven't they made it impossible to have inter-connectivity? I mean, aren't their hard drives set up to be a proprietary monopoly?
The story doesn't note the fact that you can't attach "any" HD to an XBox360. You have to buy a Microsoft HD that is 3 or 4 times the price of a normal HD.
16 GB is the size of a USB flash Drive, not a hard drive. So this isn't a replacement for a 'memory card' (your term). It is a memory card.
Here's one for 40 dollars below.
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Flash-Voyager-Drive-CMFUSB2-0-16GB/dp/B000LXTUT8
Then again, my 360 lets me plug in my 500 gig external drive filled with MP3s and play them during any game I want, which my PS3 doesn't, so it's not like either system is perfect.
That's why I own both.
You could, conceivably, keep all your saves across multiple platforms on one device. Which, actually, might be kinda awesome apart from having to switch them all the time.
Weak.
Wake me up when they increase it beyond the 120 GB I invested in/was extorted into long ago.