Xbox 360-branded 16GB drives from SanDisk coming in May

This morning at the PAX East Microsoft breakfast, Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb revealed the 16GB Xbox 360-branded Flash drive from SanDisk. Available in May, the not-yet-priced device comes pre-installed with the April 6 Dashboard update for those who shun the connectivity of Xbox Live.

In a conversation with Joystiq, Hryb informed us that all data will be transferable to the USB device, except for installed games -- users will need to re-install those directly to the USB device once more. He assured us, however, that, "If you've got a 16GB and you only want to use 8, you can use the UI and throttle it back." Further, he reiterated to Joystiq that while this branded device is certainly one option, other Flash drives (including those larger than 16GB) will work in the same capacity.

Reader Comments (67)

If you've never had to deal with U3, it's not just a file on the drive.
It's part of the HARDWARE of the device. It creates a second virtual CD Drive that is supposed to autorun with you insert the storage, and allow access to programs on any machine.

In practice though, it's SUPER ANNOYING. Original versions (and some 3rd party licensees' versions) could not be removed. Since then (and probably due to customer backlash) they've made a utility to remove it.

I bought two 16GB SanDisks not too long ago for somewhere between $30-$50. Can't remember exactly how much, but I do remember them being wicked cheap, these MS ones will have to be competitively priced, imo.

Captain Girth was taken.

let me guess the price. HIGH.

I had an interesting thought, what if MS is doing this to overcome the DVD9 size limitation. Think about it, FFXIII was a total of 18.3GB they could have put disk 2 & 3 on a 16GB flash drive and the main disk (1) on one DVD9. The cost of flash drives are still a little more than DVDs but for some big titles it might be worth it, say HALO: Reach for example.

FFXXIII http://kotaku.com/5480759/how-many-gigabytes-is-ffxiiis-xbox-360-install

Although an interesting thought the downside to it is that the DVD disc compacity has no bearing with memory storage units besides storing saved game data. Now if they opened up their console to support an external storage device (which they probably won't) that will reduce the burden with those 3-4 disc game installs.

I hope it's a reasonable price. But Microsoft isn't really known for reasonable prices... It's a memory unit/card, and it's 16GB. Their 512MB memory card was $35 last time I checked... That doesn't look good.

The last time I checked at the local stores in my area the 512 memory unit was still $50. Crazy I know.

Yeah, I think it used to be $50 for us over here in Canada, as well. $35 was probably just a sale price I saw at Best Buy/Future Shop that I remembered. Checking the online site, it's currently $39.99 right now.

Either way, anything over $10 for 512MB is just ridiculous. I bought an 8GB USB key when it first came out for $30 lol

If the past is any indicator with how Microsoft prices their products then we can see that this branded flash drive will be at around $60 if not more - guaranteed! Now the real question is will Microsoft open up their console to allow external hard drives in the future? Doubtful. Why? Because they can't make that money that's why. It's all exploiting their own product, and the name brand, to make that extra cash.

It'll probly be cheaply made, but it certainly won't be cheap to pay for

anyone noticed it's super thin...and glossy black!?!!! New Slim glossy black xbox 360 confirmed to go with natal which is itself glossy black....confirmed! lol but i am serious...and i do love myself some piano black electronics.

Pretty much. Don't forget the new wireless-N adapter is black too.

Tell that to all the PS3 owners that buy the official ps3 blue tooth headset for $60 instead of buying a $20 one from a cellphone kiosk.. or better still, paying $10 more for the games that have multiplayer that come bundled with one. :P

I actually don't think it will be too overpriced, b/c u have to remember that other company's drives can be used. With the HDD, only Microsoft's can be used (w/o modding), so you HAVE to buy theirs if u want a good amount of storage. Still happy about this tho b/c im stilling using my 14GB (after 7 taken up by system) HDD :(

@ Urza

Except the headset is only $50 and the quality is much better than a $10 one. In Sony's case you get what you pay for.

Not to mention what kind of schmuck are you for not buying the Socom bundle? You could think of it as getting a game for $10 for getting the official BT from Sony for $20. Win-Win my friend.

Man i got my ipod video and wtih 30 gigs....im gona partition it into half and half and bammmm, dont need to wrry about any of this b.s

Xbox 360-branded 16GB drives from SanDisk coming in May

Reader Comments (67)

Posted: Mar 26th 2010 12:33PM kevlar said

Posted: Mar 26th 2010 12:38PM Emil K said

Posted: Mar 26th 2010 12:39PM Captain Slender said

Posted: Mar 26th 2010 1:21PM JamesHks said

Posted: Mar 26th 2010 2:35PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 26th 2010 4:15PM TOYBOXX said

Posted: Mar 26th 2010 3:48PM Sojoph said

Posted: Mar 26th 2010 4:07PM TOYBOXX said

Posted: Mar 26th 2010 4:11PM Sojoph said

Posted: Mar 26th 2010 4:06PM TOYBOXX said

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Posted: Mar 26th 2010 6:08PM aronmayo said

Posted: Mar 26th 2010 7:46PM SirUrza said

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Posted: Mar 31st 2010 11:04PM Emblazin said

Posted: Apr 6th 2010 7:13PM (Unverified) said

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