add me on xboxlive ‘vtequine’.
Just recently Major Nelson took to his blog and Twitter to warn Xbox 360 users that Microsoft is going to start banning un-authorized storage devices. Now, as many of you may know I along with a couple friends spent a weekend getting our own 120GB drives installed on our Xboxes, rather then paying the ridiculous fee for an “OFFICIAL” Microsoft drive…which is actually just a normal Western Digital drive. After trying to figure out if this is what Major Nelson was referring too, I couldn’t find a definitive answer. Most of the comments on his blog seemed to point to the Datel Memory cards which had me a little calmer.
After a few days of looking around on the web, it does appear the devices being blocked aren’t the home made 120GB drives, but rather those Datel cards. So what do I think about that? Well, to be honest, I don’t like it regardless of me not even having one of those cards. I do not see what logic, what reasoning, Microsoft has to ban these devices, beyond the fact that instead of allowing 3rd parties to develop and sell these may cut into their profits on similar devices. I believe right now Microsoft is selling their official AUTHORIZED memory cards for $30. That’s right, $30 for 512MBs of space. Ridiculous, of course. The Datel card sells for $39 and is 2GBs. Still a steep price, but you get a lot more bang for your buck! Plus you can use your own MiniSD card and get up to 16GBs of storage, sure blows that over-priced Microsoft card out of the water.
What I fail to see is WHY Microsoft is banning such devices. I guess if someone could provide sound reasoning I may not dislike Microsoft for doing this so much. An online petition has been formed and it currently has a whopping 71 signatures, so if you’re a Datel Memory card owner, I certainly recommend adding your signature to the bunch.
That said, I’m glad they’re not (or hopefully not) going to mess with the hard drives (home made and otherwise). My good friend Raf (WithinRafael.com) outright asked Major Nelson if our home made drives would be affect but to this date, I don’t think he’s received a response. If he does get one I shall update this post with that information.
So what do you guys think about this banning of un-authorized devices? Is it a smart move on Microsoft part, or just another instance of them being stupid?
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