Xbox Gaming in South Africa

Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox 360 will soon allow "USB flash drives [and USB hard drives] to be used for storing profiles, game saves, demos and more" thanks to a system update which will be released over Xbox LIVE on 6 April.

Microsoft's Larry Hryb provided a few details on what to expect when the update lands:

Once you take the system update on April 6th, you'll be able to connect your USB flash drives to your console and head over to the memory section to configure your new storage device. Once you do that, the system will conduct a one time performance and integrity check to confirm the drive is working properly. You will then be able to configure how much storage to use on the device, up to 16 GB. The remaining space on the flash drive will be accessible by your PC or Mac. USB Hard drives may work, but like flash memory, you'll only be able to use up to 16GB of space. Since performance on flash based USB storage is usually better, I highly recommend using flash based instead of spinning media like a hard drive... it's just going to give you a MUCH better experience.

To summarize, you can use a maximum of 16GB per USB device (it must be at least 1GB in size), with a limit of 2 USB storage devices connected at once, giving you a possible 32GB of usable space on your Xbox 360. The size limit is likely to be a soft cap by Microsoft, as not to divert sales from their bigger hard drives. Of course, it doesn't mean Microsoft won't look to sell you something, and so have partnered with SanDisc to cash in offer pre-configured Xbox 360 branded memory units for those who're interested.

The Xbox 360's storage space, or lack thereof, has always been a contentious issue for gamers debating which platform to use. This update will hopefully change that, and allow gamers who purchase the basic Xbox 360, the Arcade, to take advantage of many of the services previously unavailable to them due to the Arcade's limited storage offerings.

[via MajorNelson.com]