Xbox 360 USB storage limit raised in dashboard update

Along with the well publicised additions to the Xbox 360 in the latest dashboard update, Microsoft seems to have added a few hidden ones as well. According to Engadget, the Xbox 360 was updated to have a 32GB cap on USB storage, up from the original 16GB.

Microsoft confirmed the storage limit change and explained the purpose in a statement: “The more our customers use their profile and download digital content, the larger the file size necessary to store that content and move it between consoles gets. Therefore we increased the size of the memory to enable our customers to take more of their Xbox profile with them on the go.”

This allows users to have more save games stored on a USB flash drive so that the users can carry them around.

USB storage limit quietly raised

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Back in October, it was revealed that Microsoft had quietly gotten rid of the Facebook and Twitter app from the Xbox 360 dashboard in the update. “We are retiring the Facebook and Twitter apps," Microsoft confirmed in a statement. “Xbox Live subscribers will have the ability to access these sites through Internet Explorer on Xbox, available through the Web Hub located on the new dashboard.”

Perhaps the biggest feature in the new dashboard update for the Xbox 360 other than Internet Explorer is the inclusion of Xbox Music. Microsoft had officially taken the wraps off its latest attempt at a music service in October. Xbox Music shows that the company is focusing on the Xbox 360 as more than just a gaming machine; the company looks at the console as an entertainment machine. This can be seen through the inclusion of many apps over the years, such as Netflix, Facebook and ESPN, among others.

The company seems to have realised recently that music is just as important as any of those things for consumers. During the launch, Xbox Music general manager Jerry Johnson said, “We also realize, as an entertainment company, that music is an important ingredient on its own and as a part of different user experiences.”

This would be Microsoft’s second attempt at creating a music channel, the first being the not-very-successful Zune. This time, the company is focusing on integrating the service into as many of its devices as it can. While starting with the Xbox 360, the company plans to integrate the service into other devices that would be running Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 through its SkyDrive cloud service.

Microsoft’s Xbox Music aims to compete with the likes of Spotify by giving the capabilities to stream music, and have a free as well as a paid account. The main attraction of the service would be the inclusion of a download-to-own music store. The store will include over 30 million songs in its catalogue, rivalling, and surpassing the catalogue on Apple’s iTunes. The service is also all set to have over 70,000 music videos, but these music videos will only be available for the Xbox 360.