News Xbox 360 to get USB storage

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/03/19/xbox-360-to-get-usb-storage/1

Microsoft will be bringing USB storage support to the Xbox 360, according to rumours.

 

There is always a bitter after-taste whenever Microsoft announces anything, this time is no different. Any connected storage device will have an arbitrary 16GB limit regardless of the actual storage capacity.

 

That might tip me over the edge and tempt me into buying a 360. An arcade is fantastic value, but the cost of storage is hellish.

[edit] That sucks... What a wasted opportunity! I'm sure there are loads of folks who would love to use a 320+GB external HD on their 360 and turn it into a proper media centre.

 

What's to stop me from just adding a 2TB hard drive in an external enclosure to an xbox and saving money on the offical hard drives?

 

Because up to now, you CAN'T add an external hard drive. And with this fantastic "update" you can. But you can only use 16GB of it. Even if it is a 1TB drive

 

If it's just media you care about, you can absolutely do that now without the system update. The only relevance this 'news' has it that they will allow you to use it for system data, such as profile, demo's, dlc etc.

I'm almost positive this is related to the new 'Xbox slim' rumours, as it seems likely Microsoft will ditch the current HDD form factor (top of console, running from front to back) in favour of an external device. The current HDD attachment dictates the the size of both the depth and height of the console, two things I assume Microsoft will want to reduce for a 'slim' console.

It won't allow you to. Currently any externally connected drives can only be used for media purposes, there is no functionality to use them to store system data.

You can, but it will only pick up media on that drive.

 

the 16GB limit seems odd. Wait and see, i guess.

 

its a bit odd in general, especially when games like forza want you to install 4gb+ content.

 

Will this allow any USB stick? Or will it be a microsoft one at a >100% mark up?

 

It's a start!! Couple of 16GB drivers will be great!

Can we use a USB HUB for more ports?

Even though who uses the space, not even used half my 20GB

 

I should've said use it for loads of games as well as media, but you're right, there isn't anything stopping us now.

 

What's to stop you creating several 16gb partitions on a 1TB drive?

 

I would assume that you will still need to have the disk in the drive to load any of the games from the HD? (Like you have to currently - or at least I do when I want to play TDU).

Whilst on the surface this does seem like a good move, I personally won't have any need for it currently. I am probably usig at most, 25GB of my 120GB elites drive.

My PS3 on the other hand needs a new HD pronto (my current 60gb is filled with top gear and Big bang theory episodes.... (oh and game demos / installs))

 

I would assume that the console can only 'see' 16gb of the drive regardless of its size or partition setup.

How this restriction is enforced I don't know. No doubt a way will found to circumnavigate the size limit.

 

MS are crap, why limit it to 16 GB? with my Ps3 i can go out and buy any 500 GB drive, works fine. I dont like how MS seems to try and force people to be suckerded into buying retarded accessorires like $100 HD's and wireless adapters.

 

To make money. They're not hiding the fact, they've said so numerous times.

First party accessories are a major money maker in the games industry. By limiting to 16GB it gives people another option but still leaves an incentive to buy one of their official HDDs.

 

Nothing, but it will only allow 2 devices like this at once.

I think this great.

1: Everyone has a USB stick lying around so it's an easy way to transport your profile without having to shell out for a memory card

2: It provides a cheap way for arcade console buyers to have lots of storage space. You probably won't be ripping any games to them but 32Gb is tons of space for save games, demos, arcade games, etc.

Sure it's not as good as it could be, but they didn't have to do this in the first place.

This does seem like it could be going hand in hand with a slim 360. The two memory card ports take up quite a lot of space, by allowing this, they no longer need memory card slots, thus cutting down on space required on a front panel and cutting stuff off the motherboard. I very much doubt it is a complete replacement for the hard drive though, I imagine they want the slim to replace the current models, otherwise they're just adding yet another version. So if this is a complete replacement for the current version, they would need to keep the hard drive support because otherwise why would people want to replace a dead 250Gb console to one that can only take 32?

 

They probably realised that they are not shifting many if any full 360 games from xbox live. Because one game can be over 4gb and with our tiny drives we are not going to be buying many. I will stick to arcade games from live. I did buy an original xbox game which is almost 4gb and I only have 15GB left on my 60GB drive. Im leaving my space for game addons and small arcade games.

 

Ive got a 250Gb Elite, the main reason was because of the lack of space MS 'gives' to us, The PS3 manages perfectly well with the HD being changed and i think its a shame MS has missed the boat with this, it could have been the answer to a problem that niggles so many xbox owners

 

I would imagine the reason why they wouldn't be selling many xbox 360 games on live is due to the price rather than anything else.