According to Major Nelson’s Blog the next update to the XBOX Console that includes Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm will also render inoperable any 3rd party memory units you have purchased.

When Preview Program members start receiving the Xbox 360 system update next week, one of the changes is that unauthorized Memory Units will no longer work with the Xbox 360. If you’ve moved your profile or saved games onto one to “back it up,” you’d better move it back onto an authorized Xbox 360 storage device prior to taking the update. If you continue to use an unauthorized Memory Unit after the update, you will not be able to access your stored profile or saved games.

In other words even if your not a pirate, if you are not using overly expensive OFFICIAL microsoft parts then you will have to go out and buy some. Currently DATEL sells a 2GB memory card for $40 (Best Buy) and the official Microsoft memory unit for 512mb is $30.

Truly, Fuck You Microsoft. What is the problem. If you were not selling your crap at overly inflated prices people would by the official stuff. These 3rd party memory Units are not found on some dodgy Asian website next to the mod chips and ROMs. These are sold at Best Buy. How many people do you think are going to be severely pissed off by this.

In other News only Official Microsoft Television Sets will display content from the Xbox console. Fucking Retards.

Now taking bets on how quickly the HomeBrew community breaks the update to use their memory cards again. I’ll give it 2 Days.

UPDATE: Todd Bishop from TechFlash has email confirmation from Microsoft that this only applies to units that plug into the front of the console not Hard Drives. They failed however to clarify what companies if any are on the Approved list. But I don’t doubt they will eventually apply it to Hard Drives as well.

UPDATE: I got the following response from Datel on the Issue.

Unfortunately there is no way for us to know for sure how/if the Xbox 360 Fall Update will have an effect on the Max Memory Unit until it is released publicly. As a precaution, we are advising Max Memory owners to back their data from the Max Memory unit to another memory unit, hard drive, or the internal memory* of their Xbox 360 console.

*NOTE: Internal memory is only available on newer Xbox 360 consoles.

UPDATE: 03Nov09 Datel has found a way around the Latest Xbox Dashboard Update

If you have downloaded the most recent Microsoft Dashboard update, our Max Memory card with 2 Gigabytes of memory will not fully function.

These problems are entirely due to the actions of Microsoft and are beyond our control.

The good news is that Datel is aware of the changes that are required to remedy this problem and will release a solution shortly.

If you have yet to download this update, we advise you to back up your data to your PC using the supplied USB card reader or to your Xbox hard drive, internal memory or Microsoft’s memory unit so you can restore your data.

If this item was purchased from Best Buy or Codejunkies.com, please return the Memory Card including the 2 GB Micro SD card and USB SD Card Reader to us along with your receipt and we will exchange / replace with a new updated version that will be compatible the recent Microsoft Dashboard release.

If your Max Memory Card was purchased from another U.S. or Canadian retailer, please contact them directly to arrange for a return/exchange.

If your Max Memory Card was purchased outside of the U.S. or Canada, please contact Datel UK at support@codejunkies.com for information on exchanging this item.

They still don’t say that they are “officially Licensed” so they probably found a workaround. Hopefully MS will stop the Cat and Mouse game and just let people use their 3rd party memory Units. (Fat Chance but one can hope)

6 Comments Games

6 Responses to “UPDATED: XBOX 360 Update to block 3rd party Memory Units”

  1. Dan Furnas on 24 Oct 2009 at 6:05 pm #

    G4 posted a story on this early Friday saying that the reason behind it was “cheating.” Cheating them out of money?

    Link

    [Reply]

  2. Microsoft Bans 600,000 from LIVE for Modded Xbox Consoles | G.A.M.E.S. on 12 Nov 2009 at 12:52 pm #

    [...] guess the recent Dashboard update did more than wipe out memory Units. It looks like it was also used to determine if you have a mod [...]

  3. Datel Sues Microsoft over Memory Card Blocking Update | G.A.M.E.S. on 24 Nov 2009 at 1:45 pm #

    [...] previously reported on an Update to the Xbox Dashboard that rendered inoperable third party memory cards, particularly the Datel Max Memory Card. And back then Datel felt it could work around the update. [...]

  4. Microsoft uses the Apple Defense Against Datel | G.A.M.E.S. on 21 Mar 2010 at 5:07 pm #

    [...] first MS disabled 3rd Party Memory Cards,  Then Datel (the only 3rd party Memory Card maker) sued MS for abusing its monopoly power to [...]

  5. Some Thoughts on USB Storage for XBOX 360 | G.A.M.E.S. on 21 Mar 2010 at 5:13 pm #

    [...] mass storage on the Xbox 360 fits in to the Datel fiasco. To sum it up quickly, Microsoft disabled 3rd party memory units. Datel, a third party memory maker, sued Microsoft over the update. From the court filings we found [...]

  6. MS Sues Datel This Time for Patent Infringment | G.A.M.E.S. on 05 Apr 2010 at 1:06 pm #

    [...] Datel Wildfire ControllerThese two just can’t play nice with each other. First MS blocks third party memory units (MU). Then Datel sues MS over the block as they are the ONLY 3rd Party producer of MU’s. Now [...]

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