Unauthorized Storage Rendered Inoperable after new Xbox 360 Dashboard Update
Cards like these won't work anymore.
In what's most likely an effort to help combat piracy, Microsoft is potentially hurting thousands of legitimate customers by disabling unauthorized third party memory cards and storage on the Xbox 360 following the upcoming dashboard update.
Xbox Live's Major Nelson warns that users better "back up profiles and saves" stored on these devices to "authorized" memory devices, because once the update hits it'll wipe your content.
The comments on the story for the most part have been negative, with many users complaining of using these solutions because of their more realistic pricing scheme. For instance Microsoft's 512MB memory card lists for $40, while you can get a 512MB SD card for the Wii for around $15.
The hard drive prices have been a controversy since the system launched with the 120GB drive listing for $135 on Amazon. Comparably, a 120GB drive that you can plug into your PlayStation 3 will cost you around $70.
To know if your device is authorized, be sure to check Xbox.com's official page on it.
Source: Link 
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ShadokatRegn at 06:50 AM on 10.19.2009
I - don't know if anyone I know is using 3rd party memory, but I'll be passing this article on to all of my Xbox friends just in case. That's so....weird. Stupid pirates, messing it up for everyone else. 
Jackel at 06:54 AM on 10.19.2009
As an update for your article Nick, I've been following this one closely since I have one of the home-made hard drives, and Microsoft commented about a day after the announcement by Major Nelson that hard drives wouldn't be hit. That it is only the memory cards.As an aside, both the official and unofficial memory units use the same connection (USB) and both can be connected to the PC using software to be used for piracy. So the excuse that this is for piracy is kind of a lame one at that.
TheReaperCooL at 07:25 AM on 10.19.2009
There's a great thing called Local Area Network (LAN) playing. They don't include it in many games nowadays, because it supports piracy. No, it doesn't, because it is used to play games when they servers are shut down, or when you get a couple of friends together.And this is plainly BS what they did here, forcing people to buy lots of stuff and pay more money just because they think they commit piracy...
It's interesting how other people suffer because they don't use piracy at all...
Biohzrd451 at 07:27 AM on 10.19.2009
That is the truth dude, i am so tired of companies screaming pirates! Then forcing all kinds of stuff on the legit consumer.
This is just another way of making sure M$ corners the market on their system stuff.
ShadokatRegn at 07:39 AM on 10.19.2009
@Biohzrd It's like they're accusing everyone of being dishonest thieves because of the minority that pirates regularly; creating a whirlpool effect They raise prices and restrict usage, poor people that can't afford raised prices figure out how to pirate more, etcetc. 
blakepro at 07:58 AM on 10.19.2009
The problem for me is: Most of the time, the efforts used to fight pirates just hurts the honest people. The pirates almost always find a way around the restrictions. Meanwhile, the honest people end up with gimped products because they get caught in the cross fire of a war they are not even involved in. 
hedgehogaj at 08:18 AM on 10.19.2009
"In what's most likely an effort to help combat piracy"Or they're pulling a page from Nintendo's book. Removing competition by forcing third party hardware vendors to pay a licensing fee.
MisterDeeth at 08:23 AM on 10.19.2009
Laws are for honest people. Even with this update coming out, piracy will still run rampant and we, the honest consumers, will pay the price. 
cave at 09:23 AM on 10.19.2009
Ok so from what I can gather, 3rd party Memory Units aren't required for piracy but rather for gamesave swapping, so you download a gamesave of Fallout 3 and it has all the achievments unlocked, load the game and save and BINGO!! you got 1000 gamerscore without having to tediously and laboriously play a game. Way to go SmartGuy. You figured out the real reason people pay $50 a year for XBOX Live, bragging rights, it's scientifically proven that the higher your gamerscore the cooler and awesomer you are. I don't have a problem with people being proud of their gamerscore, I'll admit mine is measley and I want it to be higher. But I also don't care how many people boost it with gamesave downloads. It's like listening to idiots on HALO, I can ignore/mute them if I want to. If gamerscore affected Trueskill(possibly the most broken thing about Live) I still wouldn't care. So I own a 2GB one of these for carrying my gamertag and some great arcade games, which are bigger than the 512 Microsoft makes!!! and I am being punished.
Massive fail Microsoft, I will no longer pay for gold I will steal it by making new accounts every month for online play and I will most definitely stop defending you, I was a fanboy but this is just plain mean. I will still play 360 and love the games and friends I use it with but I will never think that Microsoft cares about gamers again. Harsh but it's been building up for a while.
blakepro at 09:26 AM on 10.19.2009
Can you just not upgrade the firmware? or are you forced to if you want to play online? Jackel at 09:33 AM on 10.19.2009
Once the update goes live, you will need to have it in order to play online.
smurphster at 09:45 AM on 10.19.2009
this is really rotten. i hope M$ at least drops their prices a bit and put out some larger units.btw, as far as piracy is concerned... theoretically, you could encrypt data in such a way that the xbox will only read from approved units and data being written by another device (your PC) would corrupt it, therefore making it much more difficult to use them for piracy. more difficult but definitely not impossible. i would compare it to WPA encryption for WiFi. its way better than leaving your router open or using WEP, but its still crackable given the knowledge and a few hours of data collection.
the problem with my theory is that, to my knowledge, the approved memory cards in circulation right now would not have the elements needed (public & private encryption keys). i don't know how the xbox knows if a card is approved or not so that is a piece of the puzzle i'm missing. regardless, this will be cracked eventually.
blakepro at 10:36 AM on 10.19.2009
On the PS3, if you load someone elses save for a game, it disables the trophies for that game and you cant earn them even if you pass the requirements. 
txshurricane at 10:48 AM on 10.19.2009
Really? I thought gamesaves were linked directly to your Gamertag...
I have two Gold tags and a Silver, and none of them can share gamesaves...
smurphster at 10:57 AM on 10.19.2009
apparently there's a way to change the "owner" of a gamesave. txshurricane at 11:32 AM on 10.19.2009
Oh. I'm assuming this can be done with an official card or unofficial. I don't see cave's point.
smurphster at 11:46 AM on 10.19.2009
as far as i know, it doesn't matter if its official or not so you're right, cave's point doesn't exactly hold water (but his anger is definitely valid).
daribus at 01:04 PM on 10.19.2009
"In what's most likely an effort to help combat piracy" ha more like whats gonna make Microsoft a little more $$$. severe_009 at 05:41 PM on 10.19.2009
I think their just using "piracy" as their reason, but they just want to sell more of their really expensive cards and make money... Microsoft are the pirates. cave at 05:48 PM on 10.19.2009
How is my point not valid? I admit I don't know how to do the gamesave swapping but I know that it is one of the selling points from the box, "if you want to make use of suitable game saves and content downloaded from the internet too". My point is I use it for transporting multiple large files ( arcade games like shadow complex) to my friends house, with my gamertag. If the update serves no purpose other than eliminating 3rd party accessory $'s then I don't need a point, I should just start raving like a lunatic and they (Microsoft) have no points to debate they can only concede they are greedy. I truly want answers but everyone seems content to say "That's a dick move Microsoft" and move on. Maybe it's just cause not enough people care/use 3rd party units but this should be a bigger deal I think. 
HobocidalManiac at 07:17 PM on 10.19.2009
I assume piracy is the reason why 360 hard drives are so expensive, too. They couldn't be charging three or four times as much for a hard drive just because they're greedy, right? This is probably just for licensing fees. You can't get achievements from gamesaves from other gamertags. Besides, it seems a little much to cripple people's storage units over something as minor as achievements. 
Mrxknown_JG at 07:26 PM on 10.21.2009
Well, we are starting to get a reaction from those "unofficial" manufacturers Ghengis at 07:21 PM on 10.22.2009
Hilarious connection -- when pressed for the reason they stopped putting any HD cables (component or HDMI) in the new non-elite Elite units, they said they wanted to "give the customer more flexibility". Now they're blocking out 3rd party memory units, probably for "customer choice". Next announcement to come out war is peace, slavery is freedom. Nice PR move, numbnuts. cave at 07:51 PM on 10.22.2009
I really think this is wrong from Microsoft. If your interested in hearing what I think you can read this petition I wrote. Sign if you agree, but please let people know about it because Microsoft isn't giving anyone a choice or warning about this.Petition
http://bit.ly/2pVtXq
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