Rumoured third-party Xbox 360 memory expansion is an empty gesture

by Stevie Smith - Mar 19 2010, 15:00

Following on from this week’s rumour that a potentially smaller Xbox 360 is in development, it would appear fans of Microsoft’s popular home console might also soon receive easy access to data storage expansion without having to splash out on a branded hard drive.

More pointedly, screenshots and documentation acquired by gaming blog Joystiq suggest Redmond-based Microsoft is preparing a firmware update that will open its Xbox 360 console to third-party USB-based memory devices.

Citing a memo supposedly obtained from a senior software development engineer at Microsoft, the report claims “increased market penetration of high-capacity, high-throughput USB mass storage devices,” has rendered the support of USB memory solutions a necessity.  

While the prospect of data storage beyond the restriction of the Xbox 360’s first-party hard drive is tantalising, there is a fairly stringent caveat to the rumoured expansion insofar as compatible USB devices must be at least 1GB in size but no more than a paltry 16GBs. 

These parameters swiftly prevent console owners from buying a cheap freestanding USB solution equipped with storage beyond the 120GBs that presently come with the largest of Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 hard drives – which cost $150 USD. To put that into perspective, it’s not difficult these days to purchase a 1TB drive for around $100 USD.

Although unlikely to appease anyone left embittered by a half-hearted attempt at opening the Xbox 360 to USB solutions – something available without restriction to PlayStation 3 owners – Microsoft is supposedly on the verge of replacing its 120GB drive with a 250GB solution that will sell for $130 USD.

One possible reason for Microsoft’s seemingly hollow gesture – if the rumour is indeed true – could be that the software titan is presently fighting an antitrust lawsuit brought before it by third-party storage specialist Datel. In November of 2009, the two industry players clashed when Microsoft moved to lock out Datel’s Xbox 360 storage solutions.

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