Topic: 360 Next Update = Mad Customers Possibly

Reason..... Microsoft is goin to push through a patch that will no longer allow 360 customers who have NonMicrosoft Hard Drives installed on their 360s to be functional. Im sure this will NOT please anyone who has one and will no longer be able to use it. Honestly I cant blame anyone who doesnt because the prices Microsoft wants for upgraded memory is a bit high. This is one area Sony does have Microsoft beat in with PS3 as you can upgrade to a 500gb HDD for about $175 or so, and even Official Playstation Magazine ran a couple page article on it showing step by step on how to do it, and to my knowlege it also doesnt affect your warranty on your PS3. With the PS3 drop in price and the recent launch of Uncharted 2 with Ratchet and Clank just around the corner Im very suprised to see Microsoft making any kind of move that could potentially push a customer towards Sony at the moment.

THey haven't said anything about non-Microsoft HDDs... they have only targeted unofficial MUs...

ANd it all goes back to fighting against cheaters... they are blocking, and punishing people that cheat their gamerscore and profile, that's all this is about.... most cusomers are gamers, not cheaters or pirates, so customers won't be affected (maybe a couple, that bought unnofficial MUs, but they are a minority)

I bet this will piss a bunch of customers off. I have a Xbox 360, but I use Microsoft's sorry excuse for a hard drive. Seriously, Microsoft is deftinely going to lose the console wars.

Thanks for that prediction, Kreskin.

@SS1990: Whats so sorry about it? (I dont have one myself. Bro does tho.)

It has so little room, about 20 GB of data. My hardrive has been full months ago, and I had to delete some downloadable games, and game data. Also, upgrading to a bigger hardrive is unreasonably expensive. For my PS3, I already have a 80 GB for my PS3. THAT ALONE is more than enough for my PS3. At least the PS3 hardrives are reasonably priced. Slapshot82 is right, the PS3 is superior to the Xbox 360 when it comes to harddrives.

@Longtimegamer
There isn't actually anything wrong with the Microsoft hard drives. Just overpriced.

There's a single reason why the HDDs are overpriced: to make the Xbox 360 Pro/Elite more appealing than the Arcade model... there's a price difference of $100, if the 120GB HDD costs less, or exactly $100, the Arcade would be the best option, since it would be cheaper with an extra 512 MB MU... now, an Arcade + 120 GB HDD = $350, but an Elite is $300 and comes with the same stuff...if the HDD was, say, $60 there would be no reason for the Elite...

And there's a single reason why Microsoft only allows licensed MUs and HDDs, and that's to make as hard as possible for cheaters to edit their profile and modify game files, as well as make it as hard as possible to pirate stuff downloaded from Xbox LIVE. Those are 2 very good reasons for the decision.

Starting with the awesome Modern Warfare 2 and Forza 3 bundles, there's now 250 GB HDDs, that should soon hit the market... I guess that, by Natal's launch, they will have phased out the 120 GB ones, and put the 250 GB HDDs at $150, or less, depending on any future price cuts (it was recently said that Microsoft could still cut $50 from the Xbox 360 if they feel it will help... the recent rebate they did was to "test the waters")

@DarkG.... I was hoping you had some insight on this. The email i got on my phone was from G4 and it did say Hard Drives and I was like Wow. Surely they just last month saw the big article OPM put in there on how easy it was to upgrade you HDD on PS3 and Sony has officially stated that they don't care at all and that is why the HDD are compatable and the software is there for you to do it already built in on the PS3. It really threw me for a loop. Especially when PS3 sold 500,000 units last month wich is the most they have ever sold since its launch. I just think Microsoft finally has some real competition and I dont think this is a smart move. But to stop cheaters...... it may be worth it, if that is the real cause.

The main target is unofficial MUs, specially the newest Datel ones that allow to use SD Cards and save games there... since the update is mandatory to have access to Xbox LIVE, that would add extra problems for cheaters to cheat achievements and stuff... They are also targeting unofficial HDDs, but since you can only use up to 120 GB even if it's an unofficial HDD (so far, the hack works by extracting the security and authentication files from an official HDD, and since for now 120 GB is the biggest one available to customers, is the max cap for hacked ones), other than cheating and piracy experiments, there's not much use for putting together an unofficial HDD... you still need the case anyway...

They are just trying to keep a fair community, and stop the average not-very-knowledgeable from purchasing stuff that might not be easy to use, and that lacks a proper warranty... In the end, we, gamers, win.

It would turn me away. You can buy hard drives that have 1TB of memory on them for $100, I'd rather use that than a $175 120GB one.

@DarkG... yeah that does clarify things alot. I didnt realize that people are actually hacking achievments. That is really stupid of gamers. I mean I love my trophies on my PS3 because I earned them. I would never cheat them. I dont blame Microsoft for the update at all if that is the case. I know the hacking problems with PSP and DS is why Microsoft didnt procuce a handheld system, all I can say is damn you hackers. I mean downloading a old out of production game that 20 yrs old is one thing but new games on the market is just freaking wrong and your only hurting yourself. Pay for what you play. I gotta give Microsoft dibs on this one, sounds like a good update. Just hate it for the guys with other HDD that will not be compatibe anymore that arent using them for hacking reasons. Those guys it will really hurt because if I did own a 360 it honestly prob be me that would get hurt by it.

I recently bought a TB drive for £60.

This is funny, can't wait to see the fall-out.

More reasons why Microsoft is at the bottom of the console race in not only quality, but soon sales.

If Microsoft keep pulling this crap out, they will have to leave the gaming business.

They still have, by far, the best online experience on a console, and overall the best online gaming community... and it's getting better with Facebook, Twitter and Last.FM...

Understand that they have to do things like this to keep a fair system for all their users... and to avoid bad PR because of third party, unsupervised products... you can't imagine the amount of times I've heard people bitching about Sony because they bought crappy unlicensed PS1 and PS2 Memory Cards and they lost all their saves, Sont's only fault? to allow unlicensed accesories to work with their system... they are saving themselves not only from cheaters and pirates, but from that too...

@SSBFan..... Microsoft will never leave the gaming industry. They still sit right there at the top with Sony in my opinion. Nintendo can hardly call themselves a Gaming Company if things keep it up. A few games and a truckload of shovelware.

@DarkG.... I dont knock Sony for allowing 3rd Party support on their system. It does have a warning on the box when you bought it that it was unliscensed product and the buyer is responsible for any loss. Sony isn't perfect either. I know I do lean toward Sony as I was there at launch for the PSone and got insanely hooked on the Jet Moto series, but Im no Microsoft hater either. Im not the biggest shooter fan and that is the highlights of the system so the 360 isn't the highest appeal to me, but I promise If I had the time to own two systems (considering games are getting longer and longer to fully beat per game) I would own both. If I just had a 360 I would be happy as well.

I tried to own a Wii as a only current gen system but couldn't handle the games dropping on 360 and PS3 that were top notch compared to the slow trickle of games on the Wii. It just wasn't enough, so I upgraded.

What are you talking about? Nintendo's doing the best out of those companies!

Yes, because we all know Microsoft can make great games. PS360 ain't got nothing on Mario Galaxy 2, Mario Bros. Wii, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Other M, Monster Hunter, Zelda Wii, Pikmin 3, and all the other awesome wii games coming soon and already out.

I don't like shooters either, and still the Xbox 360 is one of the consoles I spend a lot of time with... PGR, Fable, Halo Wars (the only RTS worth playing with a normal gamepad), among others are great... you don't have to like FPS to like the 360... and there are some awesome FPS games for it like Left 4 Dead and Borderlands that make you love the genre lol

I beat Fable on the XBOX like 4 times lol. Yeah not owning a 360 sucks sometimes. Especially missing out on Fable 2. I did have one up until Halo 3. Actually the last ring of death happened the day we got Mass Effect. I played most the great games on 360 up until then cause we didnt have a PS3. I bought a PS3 soon after that it was the 4th RROD with Uncharted and was hooked Im really hating Im not playin Shodow Complex and Banjo lol. I just dont have the time for two systems anymore now that Im married.