According to Joystiq, a documentation was obtained, which 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.
The update will allow Xbox 360 users to save and load game data from USB devices. This will include downloading Xbox LIVE Arcade games, Xbox LIVE Indie games, Games on Demand, DLC and Title Updates.
According to the document, the USB mass storage device must be at least 1GB and the system will do a compatibility check. “The system partition occupies 512 MB of space, and by default the consumer partition occupies the remainder of the device capacity, or 16 GB, whichever is smaller.
” Upon inserting a blank USB storage device, “consumers are offered two choices: ‘Configure now’ or ‘Customize’.” The “Configure now” option will use “the entire device capacity, up to the maximum of 512 MB plus 16 GB” meaning, regardless of the overall size of the device you’re using, the Xbox will only enable 16 GB of usable, non-system storage. The “Customize” option will allow you to “preserve some pre-existing, non-console data on the device” such as music.
Currently, if you want to hook your external hard drive up to your Xbox 360 you have to pass through some loop holes and do some hackery, but that’s no fun. There’s no telling exactly when the update will drop, presumably this Spring, but when it does drop gamers will be able to put things like Xbox Live Arcade games, Games on Demand games and DLC in general on external hard drives.
With USB storage available cheaply, the update would make the Xbox 360 Arcade model – no included hard drive – a more attractive option.
