You know, if Microsoft allowed owners of the XBox 360 to upgrade their own hard drives on the cheap (like on the PS3), this wouldn't be too much of an issue.

There is going to be a lot of upset 360 owners that have these cards and update there systems without being aware of this change.

Why are they doing this? Is it an anti-piracy measure? Are they trying to get people to only buy MS storage cards? Both?

The ends just don't seem like they justify the means no matter how I try and slice it.

At one point do we begin treating video game systems like computers? People would throw shitfits if Dell didn't allow non-Dell flash drives or if digital cameras only allowed a certain brand of memory cards. Why is this still okay?

@pz: Why would they do that when they can make lots of $$$ charging you ~$150 for a ~$40 hard drive.
Makes sense to me. Im surprised the big car manufacturers havent started charging extra to let you install a 3rd party stereo system. :D

doesn't this update have them focused on providing less options for people to "get the storage they want on our system????"

By not simply apologizing and stating it's a purposeful decision they come off as ignorant and condescending.

@rugman11: Sony is famous for this in their digital cameras, and more recently the PSP using only their duo or pro duo memory cards. When I got my first gen PSP a 1 gig card was roughly $100.

@Naame: The phrase anti-competitive business tactic comes to mind.

The thing I like about the Wii is the ability to save your games onto a SD card. Any SD card.
I am afraid that my 360's drive will fail, and I will loose all my saved games and such.

I don't own an Xbox, but I'd assume the third-party cards are cheaper too, right?

@Jon34511: I used to have a Sony camera several years ago, but even then I was able to get non-Sony memory sticks. I know SanDisk made them at least 2 or 3 years ago. I don't have an issue with companies creating proprietary storage systems, but banning other company's equivalent systems is just ludicrous.

Could this be considered monopolistic? It allow Microsoft to dominate the market and pricegouge it's customers, which, by the way, it certainly does.

This kinda made me mad. I'm getting the MW2 XBOX next month and saw that MaxMemory thing from Datel as a perfect tool to migrate ALL my data from the 20GB to the 250GB HDD w/o having to re-download everything.

Now what? eash. I wonder if MS still sells/gives away that transfer cable they used to have when the 120GB's came out.

@Jon34511: When the PSPs first hit the market, you could only get Sony-brand memory sticks, but Sandisk and other companies immediately started making their own brands.

@pz:]Why would a company that manufactures laptops use a laptop style hard-drive for their gaming console? The world will never know :P

@zentex: IF you get the right rep you can get it free if you ask properly. Most though want you to pay for them.

I too will be affected by this update. I can see Microsoft's justification for blocking the memory cards. The problem has been the manufacturer (Datel) provides software with the memory card that allows gamers to move the data from the card to their PC (the Datel card is just a Micro SDHC card reader) and thus manipulate that data once it is on a PC (like giving your gamer profile achievements that you haven't actually earned). Unfortunately the side-effect of this is that MS is treating us all like criminals and thus banning the Memory Units for those of us that are using them for a legitimate purpose.

I used my Datel MU for transferring my Gamer profile and all my Rock Band DLC between Xboxes when I play at friends' homes. If Microsoft offered a first party MU with more than a paltry 512MB I would have purchased it instead. I'm just angry because they are blocking a product that they FAILED to provide.

What Microsoft actually meant to say was "we are very focused on making sure people buy the storage options we want them to have on our system" of course, and it's interesting that the Microsoftie referred to customers' consoles as "ours."

@rugman11: Really? Apple has been doing this for years.

I always hear this justification of banning these cards because people can manipulate their gamerscores. All I can say to that is, who cares? I don't care if somebody has a higher GS than me. Anyone who does care should get a life!

I was considering buying either an XBOX or PS3 with my Christmas money this year, looks like I am now considering just a PS3.

I don't like this...I can't remember which computer manufacturer did this, but they changed the motherboard to where you had to buy memory FROM them, because regular memory wouldn't fit. They either stopped and went to regular motherboards or went out of business.

Olympus on their E-series SLRs will only activate the built in panoramic mode if you shoot JPGs on their Olympus branded xD cards. xD is of course, the worst memory format currently in use, and I think even Fuji stopped making cards for it. But it's not like you can't use another manufacturer...

I don't mind that - certain added features are unlocked with a branded card, but not banning non-OEM altogether.

Given the fact they are going out of their way to disable a feature that is already supported, they could be looking at a serious anti-trust issue. lol, I mean of course if American govt wasn't a complete whore for Big Business.

@rugman11: Yes, but San Disk got a license from Sony, so Sony still got paid.

@TCama: From what I've seen they appear to be the same price, but with *much* better capacity. $40 from MS gets you 512MB, $40 from the other companies gets you 2GB with the ability to expand to 32GB.

@MrEvil: If microsoft was really concerned about people editing saves, they would be able to lock that down. I'm not a crypto/security expert, but I'm sure there are ways.

Loverly. I was planning to pick up an aftermarket memory card in the next few weeks so when I visit my g/f (or vis-versa)saved games can come with.

Thanks MS, I'm almost as happy with this piece of news as I was when I discovered my "20GB" 360 came with only 13.3GB of usable disc space.

@temporaryscars:

Not really, they can be proprietary it just sucks.. Apple has been doing it for years..

@GearheadGeek: If people are able to modify their achievement points through 3rd party cards and software I can see why they are shutting it down, Achievements are their baby..

What good is a memory card anyway? (even the first party stuff) I never got the idea unless there was no hard drive. Still...MS needs to quit with the bullcrap updates they use to mask the emperor syndrome they have. "The xbox is my castle, you have the plague! No plague in my castle!"

@chrisclaus: Lots of cars don't even have real DIN slots anymore for radios. They're really integrated into the dash. So you can pay them $2000 for the DVD Video / GPS upgrade instead of $500 for one.

@Difdi:

The phrase anti-competitive business tactic comes to mind.

From MICROSOFT!?!?

@Pixel:

Part of that loss is due to manufacturer inflation. HDD companies measure drive capacity in base 10 numbers: 1,000 bytes = 1 kilobyte; 1,000 kilobytes = 1 megabyte; and 1,000 megabytes = one gigabyte. However, all computers that I know of (including the PS3 and XBOX 360) read the drive in base 2: 1,024 bytes = 1 kilobyte; 1,024 kilobytes = 1 megabyte; and 1,024 megabytes = 1 gigabyte. So, a 20,000,000,000 byte drive will be read as 20 GB by an HDD manufacturer and as ~18 GB by a computer. And, yes, this is very screwy, deceptive math. It would be equivalent to a TV maker selling a 37.2" TV as 40" by stating on the package "our inches are 93 hundredths of real inches (.93)".

@kcvaliant:
I am not really sure what you mean by 'Apple has been doing it for years'. There are very few truly proprietary items in Apple land, the iPod dock connector, and the MagSafe connector on their laptops. And, you can use all the third party hardware you want (barring driver limitations).

@temporaryscars: It's not market domination or monopolistic, when the PS3 and Wii are out there. As kcvaliant pointed out, it's just a proprietary system and it sucks.

@zentex:

you can use an ethernet cable iirc

@ARP:
And the standards organizations behind SD and CF don't get paid every time someone markets one of those cards?

Yes, Sony gets dings for going it alone with their own format, although I don't have any issues how they handled 3rd party peripherals and user upgrades with the PS3 console. Microsoft on the other hand released the 360 with a deliberate 3rd party lockout on an otherwise standard USB port. They also showed how much they cared about their customer base by steadfastly refusing to license 3rd party wireless peripherals for the longest time.

@flyingember: fewer options

@Wombatish: um microsoft makes laptops? i know they make the os, but never aware they were in hardware for pc/laptops

@Pixel:
I think some of them are adapters that let you use microSD cards for storage (on the 360)

@firemunkie: they don't xbox was MS' first real HW project other than keyboards and mice.

How abouts Microsoft releases an update that allows game saves and down-loadable content to be saved to flash drives!

@temporaryscars: Gamescore is proportional to how many games someone has played, and how often they are played. They hardly represents a score. More like an I-have-no-job rank.

@chrisclaus: new egg sells the hdd that is used inside the "adapter" for 65 dollars not 40. add include maybe 20 for the "adapter" and custom firmware that microsoft uses on the hdd and its a little closer to a correct figure of 85 vs 150. plus you can find the hdd for 125 at stores not just online. if it was apple selling it im sure it would be ok cus no one complains about apple tax except microsoft fanboys (which i am not).

@Naame: Both many people forget but this has been MS's policy ever since 360 launched. They said straight up, "unlicensed third party devices will not be allowed to be used on xbox 360". Only now they are enforcing it(they've been banning people for flashed HDDs for a while now).
It does two things for microsft
1)makes sure they get a cut fo whatever HW sells for their system.
2)keeps security holes filled so XBL stays relatively safe from cheaters and hackers.

As it's been said MS should really change their pricing on memory units.

@nstonep:
Like pixel said, it's a convenient way to carry your saved games and profiles and whatever else from console to console. Of course, you could carry your HDD, but it's so much less hassle to just carry around a memory module the size of a zippo lighter.

@sleze69: That's not true. While Apple DOES sell RAM, they don't make/brand the RAM themselves and they neither require the RAM to have come from Apple nor do they even prominently advertise that they sell it. You are free to buy from any manufacturer -PNY, Crucial, Kingston, etc. Apple does require that the RAM meet strict specifications and have been known to diagnose problems as due to non-spec third party RAM but they certainly don't block spec third party RAM by software... that's inane.

@rworne: They were witingf or their patent to go through.

@pz: tho i agree with you, MUs are pretty much usless for anything other then gamer profiles and saves. veryfew games use saves over a couple of megs, so i really dont get why everyone is crying.

@Naame: i never found a use for a MU. if you have gold you need an hdd anyways. and if you dont then ur prolly not gonna update anyways.