Xbox 360 PayPal update arrives right on schedule ... in some territories

by James Ransom-Wiley on May 19th 2011 10:38AM

Microsoft has today begun the anticipated rollout of probably the least anticipated Xbox 360 system update in the post-NXE era. The automatic update is being "gradually" deployed to consoles across the globe through Xbox Live over the next few weeks. "Just like any other update to our service," Major Nelson notes, "you will know you've received it when you turn on your Xbox 360 console, connect to Xbox Live and receive a notification to download the update."

Most notable, the update includes the option to add your PayPal account as a billing option on the console (it was previously limited to Xbox.com) for Microsoft Points and Marketplace content purchases. The feature will be available to all Xbox Live users, excluding those in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea and Taiwan. So ... just a few (million) people left out.

Additionally, the new system update adds and enables (by default) an auto-standby feature that's activated after one hour of console inactivity. You can switch it off in System Settings, but ... why? Finally, the update will also introduce support for the new Xbox game disc format (a.k.a. "XGD3"), which adds 1GB of storage capacity and some fresh anti-piracy coating.

According to internal documents we obtained earlier this month, Avatar Kinect is scheduled to be released as a separate update on May 27.

Source: Major Nelson

Tags: auto-standby, dashboard-update-spring-2011, microsoft, paypal, system-settings, update, xbox, xbox-live, xgd3

Reader Comments (55)

Yay, PayPal!

Updating right now in NY.

@LinkRazr

annnnnd that was fast.

@LinkRazr dude I'm in nyc and I didn't get it. Did you updated manually?

One of the anti piracy features being that it hides your DVD ROM's key making the consoles drive non flashable.

Well.. at least for a week or 2.

@commonbredtrigger

Dude check the couch, that's where I usually find my keys

@commonbredtrigger I doubt it will change it though, which means we'll...I mean..."they'll" know what "they're" looking for after the update. I'll give..."them"... a week

XBOX Live Marketplace is mostly useless in India, given the credit card billing system stopped working after the mandate of Verified By Visa (and Mastercard SecureCode) in 2007. MS hasn't got the system working yet. I was hoping Paypal might be a solution, now that's gone too. The only option left is to buy overpriced MS Points cards by third party vendors, which sucks since they are anywhere between 10%-20% costly over the original set price by MS. Thank you very much MS for leaving India out, considering a significant development of XBOX Live happens out of India, and it has a large customer base too.

@ie5x

As well as every Microsoft customer support rep I've ever dealt with.

@baby sea tuna

Was that completely necessary?

@baby sea tuna

If you don't like a company's business practices, don't give them your business.

@Assmar

I was merely stating a fact based on my 3 separate personal experiences. If you want to read a "THEY TOOK OUR JERRRRBS!" undertone into it, that is wholly your perogative.

@baby sea tuna

The only tone I didn't appreciate was that of you bitching about three phone calls. There isn't much to read into when you place your comment where you did. Anyway, don't complain to this person, make the 4th phone call and complain to MS.

@Assmar

There was no "tone" or "complaint?" The previous poster (whose mailbox we're currently garbaging up..."sorry dude/lady") stated that MS neglects India while still doing a lot of business there. Call centers are part of their business. My business was conducted with their call centers based out of India. These are all facts. You are filling in gaps with opinions and suppositions based on some chip you've got on your shoulder and...nope, I'm done talking about it.

@baby sea tuna Its kind of tough for me to state (without appearing biased) that the PR division and customer support of MS had been decent enough. In fact it is the reason why there is a good customer base despite the various hardware failures. However, the tech division's lack of interest in making XBOX Live useful outside the US region leaves much to be desired. Most of the new features are not available/applicable in other regions. Not a good strategy IMHO for a console sold globally, considering the Gold service charges are consistent everywhere.

@ie5x

Absolutely. Every time I've had to deal with a MS CSR has been a very pleasant experience (well, I mean as far as CSR experiences go.) Certainly better than Verizon or *shudder* Comcast.

As far as their global Xbox policies go, however, I can't really speak either way. It's a shame that worldwide users don't get the same services that we do here in the US, but in this case, I'd say that not having PayPal integration or Avatar Kinect are much to fuss over.

@ie5x

You act like they're refusing to sell to a billion peop...oh wait...

Auto-standby? Will that possibly nerf your game?

@Hawaii Jeff Yes. But you can disable it.

@Hawaii Jeff

Possibly if you don't have a memory card and have to leave your copy of Chrono Cross running so you won't lose your save before you have to return your rental to Video City, maybe then it will turn off your game. I think you're safe otherwise.

@Assmar

Cloud saving to be revealed at E3 for the Fall update ???

Why would I want to turn off auto standby after 1 hour of inactivity? Well, I use my Xbox as much, if not more, for watching DVD's and Netflix and movies require no input and are typically longer than an hour... that's why.

@belcaw So you think the console isn't smart enough to know that playing a dvd and "inactivity" aren't really the same things? c'mon...don't bullshit me.

@belcaw

I think you're being a bit too hard on MS there. Surely they're not stupid enough to switch off your console while you're watching a DVD/ Movie?

@belcaw That's not inactivity. If your xbox were to go untouched for an hour after the DVD/Netflix video finished, then it would turn off. Or if you left it sitting in a game for an hour without touching the controller, then it would turn off.

@belcaw
Playing a DVD, watching a Hulu/Netflix/Zune/network video, listening to music, et al is considered activity. I've got the auto shut-off enabled on my 360 and have left music on for over six hours without touching the console or the controller and it doesn't shut off.

My 360 was just signed out over the night. Went to resign back in and the update was waiting for me. It took all of 3 mins to finish. Not as big as the last couple years. Try retarting if you haven't done that.

@LinkRazr
I did and nothing.... I guess I'll have to wait

anyone console quit reading disc yet?

Sweet, we've been left out. Again. Even officially having both XBL and PayPal around here.

Globalization ho!

"Microsoft has today begun the anticipated rollout of probably the least anticipated Xbox 360 system update "

♥♥ Oh Joystiq, I love you ♥♥

Paypal can go to hell. It can go to hell and die in a fiery pit of burning fire.

@Faceless Troll

And it'd still manage to charge you a percentage off the front end for doing so.

"update includes the option to add your PayPal account as a billing option"

Making it even easier for little kids to spend their parent's money!

least anticipated update is right. these updates are pretty insignifigant

Looks like after modders update their system to this update it puts them back to original firmware but they can easily just reflash and run the non AP2.5 games again. Hopefully developers will implement better methods of security in the near future.

So, How can I start earning money through the xbox??? Cause thats what i need to know. Deposit straight into your paypal account, side betting on PvP matches perhaps?? Oh the possibilities.

(Please note that all Iga affiliates do not promote gambling, and the words of the poster are only from Spooky himself)

@Spookimitsu

You can become a Kinect Camwhore!

This is great news for me, I hope when I turn on my 360 I get the update so I can buy MS points immediately

Sweet. Pay Pal. : )

Will be alot more comfortable using paypal over credit/debit card. Especially after what happened to PS3 earlier in the month.

"This particular update will also bring an auto-standby feature that places your console on standby if it’s idle for more than one hour, helping to reduce power consumption." -- Major Nelson

So, does this work like Windows, where the state of the machine is saved, then later you can "Resume" it? Or does it just kill whatever game session you paused, then took a bit too long to get back to?

This is the least exciting dashboard update I believe to ever happen since they started doing the updates twice every year. It is really weird they are rolling out the new features separate from one another. I like the ability to use Hulu and some people will like the ability to use paypal, but there could have been a lot more improvements and updates they could have included. Knowing microsoft they won't, but I hope they might consider taking ideas to include in the fall update. One of which for me I would like is more Facebook integration other then just being able to log in on your xbox.

useless if it wont support paypal globally and its region locked, so what its the point?

panama and colombia and many other latin america countries will still pay more than 80 dollars for a live suscription, and lets not start with the point.

Kinda waste of bandwidth

@eilegz
If you don't know what the point is then I guess you should try to figure it out. Seriously. How about using your brain. The countries are blocking their customers from that service. So I guess since some countries will not allow their users to use Pay Pal we should all not use it ? Grow up Dude. I for one am happy to be living in a country where we have so many freedoms, I'm sure not giving them up because Chile can't use Pay Pal. I for one am very happy to have pay pal as an option. I have used Pay Pal for a long time and they have always gotten my money back for me when someone tried to screw my over on Ebay. Nothing but good things to say about Pay Pal. While I'm not to worried about my credit card info being stolen on Xbox Live. I would still like to use another form of payment anyways. To be fair though Microsoft has had live since the original Xbox where as Sony just created their PSN for the PS3, which is why they are having all these problems and their service for the most part sucks compared to Xbox Live.

@maxxgold

its not my crappy country that its locking paypal, in fact i can use paypal on STEAM.

Its mostly microsoft implementing region lock in paypal.

Do your research first... or i mean your brain.

I have never liked PayPal, it always seems shady. And it doesn't help that 90% of my phishing spam I've ever received was using PayPal as the hook.

I accidentally updated to the latest BETA dash without being in the program, thus I don't have XBox Live and can't do anything at this moment with my 360 because we only play Kinect, which doesn't work with the Beta dashboard.
So when will the USB/CD download be available? Or is it possible that other users, who already got the update, upload it?
I'm living in Germany, if that matters in any way. Thanks in advance.

Seriously why can't XBox make a sleep timer already?! Auto-Turn off after 6 hours is totally worthless.

@whylekat
you didnt read the article did you

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Xbox 360 PayPal update arrives right on schedule ... in some territories

Reader Comments (55)

Posted: May 19th 2011 10:41AM TurbineTech said

Posted: May 19th 2011 10:41AM LinkRazr said

Posted: May 19th 2011 10:47AM LinkRazr said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:07AM freddnyc said

Posted: May 19th 2011 10:51AM commonbredtrigger said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:12AM oOWallaceOo said

Posted: May 19th 2011 2:04PM beckerist said

Posted: May 19th 2011 10:51AM ie5x said

Posted: May 19th 2011 10:54AM baby sea tuna said

Posted: May 19th 2011 10:55AM Assmar said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:24AM Assmar said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:54AM baby sea tuna said

Posted: May 19th 2011 12:02PM Assmar said

Posted: May 19th 2011 12:18PM baby sea tuna said

Posted: May 19th 2011 12:43PM ie5x said

Posted: May 19th 2011 1:38PM baby sea tuna said

Posted: May 19th 2011 3:43PM eat it said

Posted: May 19th 2011 10:52AM Hawaii Jeff said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:01AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:17AM Assmar said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:27AM oOWallaceOo said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:00AM belcaw said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:03AM oolzie said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:03AM Blizzard said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:12AM BanjoApocalypse said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:17AM ytilanigiroon said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:24AM LinkRazr said

Posted: May 19th 2011 4:50PM freddnyc said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:10AM hapa77 said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:12AM KazamaSogetsu said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:15AM Mystictrust said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:15AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:57AM baby sea tuna said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:22AM whylekat said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:29AM endgamer77 said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:33AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:39AM Spookimitsu said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:58AM baby sea tuna said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:56AM cleopatrudo said

Posted: May 19th 2011 11:58AM maxxgold said

Posted: May 19th 2011 12:08PM James Taylor UK said

Posted: May 19th 2011 12:21PM c0bra95 said

Posted: May 19th 2011 12:37PM Mrblonde57 said

Posted: May 19th 2011 12:51PM eilegz said

Posted: May 19th 2011 1:04PM maxxgold said

Posted: May 19th 2011 9:02PM eilegz said

Posted: May 19th 2011 1:47PM MonkeyKing1969 said

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