360 to support USB storage?

[Norse]

From Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/18/xbox-360-gaining-usb-storage-support-in-2010-update/):

Documentation obtained by Joystiq – and subsequently confirmed with two separate sources – reveals that "USB Mass Storage Device Support on Xbox 360" will soon be a reality. The document, authored by a senior software development engineer at Microsoft, states that due to "increased market penetration of high-capacity, high throughput USB mass storage devices, a 2010 Xbox 360 system update" will allow consumers to save and load game data from USB devices. The update is purportedly coming in Spring 2010.

Once the update occurs, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Xbox Live Arcade games, Xbox Live Indie games, Games on Demand, DLC and Title Updates to the storage device. "USB storage devices may, however, have far greater memory capacity than MUs (at the date of writing, the largest MU is 512 MB), and may therefore support previously infeasible operations-such as installation of a full disc-based title." That's right, you can also store disc-based games to the USB device; however, it will require the disc to be in the tray for authentication, identical to the current functionality.

According to Joystiq, the 360 will only make 16GB usable for this stuff. A bit disappointing, but there's hope...

[Gorvi]

That just seems highly unlikely, they'd be cutting off most of the revenue they see from HDD sales.

If they wanted to spur download game sales (which is the only reason I could see for this) it would make more sense to see them simply lower HDD prices instead of giving users a free option.

[Yeti2005]

Damn you Norse I just posted that myself :)

Gorvi you'd still be forced to buy a bigger HD if you wanted to have a lot of DLC or install games to your HD. We were wondering about how a rumored 360 slim would use the old HD. This might be the solution (i.e. don't use the old HD but at least you have some storage).

[Food Nipple]

If it's capped at 16 GB, this is a waste of time.

[Yeti2005]

If it's capped at 16 GB, this is a waste of time.

Technically you can get 32 GB if you use 2 devices. This seems to be a great feature for those without HDs and since the Arcade version is the best selling I'm assuming there's a lot of people out there.

[Codicier]

Good on Arcades, only marginally useful for the rest of us. They certainly aren't going to be replacing their proprietary hard drives any time soon.

[txshurricane]

From what I've read, it will be limited to 16GB per device, two devices connected at a time.

The prospect that I can get 16GB drives at Best Buy for $32 and use as many as I want interchangeably is pretty cool. I would buy more hi-def TV shows from the Marketplace in that case.

[Farsight]

Could be a great way to boost your storage w/o dropping a lot of money. For people w/ a 20GB drive, it essentially doubles (or triples) their available space. That's significant breathing room.

[Codicier]

Could be a great way to boost your storage w/o dropping a lot of money. For people w/ a 20GB drive, it essentially doubles (or triples) their available space. That's significant breathing room.

I've got a 20GB and I can't really see myself swapping out drives. Maybe I'd get a small 16GB drive to expand space but I'm certainly not going to subject myself to swapping a ton of drives because of a 100% artificial space limit.

[Food Nipple]

I take it back, I misread this initially and thought this was about external USB hard drives. Supporting usb flash drives isn't a bad idea.

[Talanvor]

Are we just assuming we can only hook up two thumb drives at a time? Could do something funny with a couple of hubs.

[johnperkins21]

I think this will be great for people who want to rock a second 360. I'm interested in putting a 360 in my game room in addition to the one I already have in the living room. Not having the ability to easily move my Rock Band downloads between the devices has been the biggest block for me. Having this, even with its limited capacity, makes purchasing an Arcade 360 as a second device more feasible.

[Kenzington4short]

Are we just assuming we can only hook up two thumb drives at a time? Could do something funny with a couple of hubs.

According to the article, two is the max the 360 will recognize. If you hook up more than two, only the first two will be recognized.

I think this is great for arcade and 20 gig owners who don't want to shell out a ton of money for those hard drives.

[txshurricane]

I think this will be great for people who want to rock a second 360. I'm interested in putting a 360 in my game room in addition to the one I already have in the living room. Not having the ability to easily move my Rock Band downloads between the devices has been the biggest block for me. Having this, even with its limited capacity, makes purchasing an Arcade 360 as a second device more feasible.
That's a good point. Taking a profile with you is one thing - taking DLC is another.

[OldJadedGamer]

If it's capped at 16 GB, this is a waste of time.

It's more space than the current 20gig HDD they have for it already since a lot of it is taken up with BC crap that cannot be removed. If I didn't want to install games, 16gigs would be way more than enough space.

I think this will be great for people who want to rock a second 360. I'm interested in putting a 360 in my game room in addition to the one I already have in the living room. Not having the ability to easily move my Rock Band downloads between the devices has been the biggest block for me. Having this, even with its limited capacity, makes purchasing an Arcade 360 as a second device more feasible.

I have a second 360 connected to another TV and use it just as a media center extender and it's annoying cause I can't watch Netflix on it since I need to be signed into my profile. So I got a 64meg memory card for dirt cheap on ebay and put my profile on that and then just swap out the memory card when I want to watch Netlfix on the second box. I would buy more 360's as just media extenders if I could sign into multiple boxes at once :(

[johnperkins21]

I have a second 360 connected to another TV and use it just as a media center extender and it's annoying cause I can't watch Netflix on it since I need to be signed into my profile. So I got a 64meg memory card for dirt cheap on ebay and put my profile on that and then just swap out the memory card when I want to watch Netlfix on the second box. I would buy more 360's as just media extenders if I could sign into multiple boxes at once :(

I don't think you need to sign on with a Gold account to access Netflix through PlayOn. So that might be a way to get around that limitation.