Don’t get too excited - this is just a render a forum-goer made after seeing a photo of a black 360 devkit. The initial launch will probably be white, though there are rumors everywhere that at some point, they may also sell a black and silver version of the 360.
I emailed Daniel about this article which is claiming that there’s going to be huge problems with transferring saved games from Xbox 1.0 to Xbox 360. I wasn’t sure what to think of the article. On the one hand, it’s written in an alarmist fashion, as Daniel pointed out to me, but on the other, it’s easy to beleive given the existing save game situation.
Currently, you can only transfer saved game file from one Xbox to another using the “memory unit” (sold separately) that plugs into the controller. This wouldn’t be bad except not everything is transferrable - unlocked costumes in Dead or Alive 3, for instance. Some files are too large to fit on the memory unit, such as Knights of the Old Republic save games, or ripped music. It’s a frustrating experience replacing your Xbox as is, which means it’s no stretch of the imagination to think that it would be the same way with the new Xbox.
However, Daniel pointed out that the only source this article cites is a single entry in a FAQ file. Since the 360 hasn’t been released yet, it’s possible this could change. Also, not everything in the article seems accurate. Daniel was on the dev. team for Whacked!, which is one of the games the article cites as having “locked” saved games that can’t be copied. He hasn’t heard anything about this, and finds it unlikely. (Edit: See the comments for further discussion on this - turns out that the saved games can be locked.)
So, I’m not sure what to think. Daniel’s right that we shouldn’t get alarmed by a single article with weak sources. But I think it’s a valid concern, given the existing problems with transferring files between two Xboxes. Hopefully this is one of those things that will prove to be a non-issue once the 360 finally arrives. And I have to admit, that this is the first real negative I’ve seen for the 360, while the positives form a list as long as my arm. I’ll be getting one no matter what.
You know, as soon as I get a job and have some disposable income again… *sigh*
Update 11/15/06: I now have a 360 and can confirm that there’s no method provided (by MS) to transfer your saved games, music, or downloaded content to your 360. Lexx has a comment below which suggests a method to do so, but I haven’t tried it. Personally, I’ve found this isn’t a big deal, because I’m not playing any of my original xbox games other than Halo2, which I’m willing to play through again.
I'm a 30-year-old 
Rye Bread Says:
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 at 12:37 am.
All of which is especially stupid frustrating since the Xbox is made by Microsoft, who is no stranger to new versions of OS’, replaced machines, and the hassle of transferring a user’s settings to the new machine. You’d think they could write a batch file for that.
On another note: I thought I’d heard that the 360 would have usb ports? Perhaps there’s a way to use a USB memory key somehow? Maybe not.
Scott Says:
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 at 12:56 am.
Yeah, it’ll have USB ports - but without software in the 360 “OS” to support them, it won’t matter what you plug into it. Just like the original Xbox has an ethernet port, but there’s still no way to FTP or file transfer between two boxes.
Gamewatcher Says:
Friday, October 21, 2005 at 9:53 am.
I stumbled across your blog and I’ve posted a response you might be interested in. Daniel’s wrong about Whacked! - and there are some other surprise titles that are similarly locked. Anyway, I appreciate your POV and your post spurred me to dig a little deeper into the save game issue.
Scott Says:
Friday, October 21, 2005 at 12:24 pm.
Hey, thanks for the reply! I wasn’t expecting to even register on your radar, let alone motivate you to write a followup - but I’m glad you did!
First: I read your blog post, and cracked up. Good to see that you’ve got a sense of humor about all this. I’m on the same page as you with regards to hard drive failure. I also like your suggestion about letting players use their Live accounts to transfer saved games. Seems to me that it would be pretty easy for Microsoft to slap some controls in place to prevent abuse (only letting the files be transferred from on xbox to another, limited by mac address, perhaps).
Second: I didn’t test the “locked” save games thing either. So, this morning, I opened up my xbox dashboard and tried to copy the Whacked! save game to a memory unit, and you’re right! The only option available is “delete”. Add that to list of things that suck about saved game management on the original xbox.
Oh and Daniel, I hope you don’t mind that you’ve been dragged into this. As he points out in his blog-post, I really should have warned you that I was writing a blog post, not just asking you for your viewpoint.
Daniel Says:
Friday, October 21, 2005 at 1:31 pm.
*shrug* No problem. I’m just a guy. I wasn’t involved in the part of Whacked! development where they decided whether or not to lock the save game file, so I’m sorry I didn’t have better information about them. I didn’t mean to imply the saves couldn’t be transferred - I just didn’t know anything about it.
I still can’t help feeling like this is something Microsoft has figured out. I’m as curious to see where this goes as you guys are. Keep me posted.
xfool Says:
Saturday, November 12, 2005 at 10:12 am.
Hi yall,
My xbox is “unlocked” and I’ve switched the memory card port on the controller to a usb port. When I first plugged in my 256mb flashkey, it asked me to format, since then I just bring my flashkey and controller with me to friends houses and it works on non-modded xboxs!
Hopefully the 360 will reconize the usb flashkey as a memory card… if it doesnt look carefully at the 360s memorycard plug…its usb with an extra pin, shouldn’t be too hard to make an adapter!
I’ll do whatever it takes to play my current Fight Night2 character in HD!!!!
LeXx Says:
Monday, March 27, 2006 at 6:02 pm.
The 360 save files (even locked ones) can be easily transfered from PC to Xbox and visa versa, as long as you have a PC that supports SATA.
you have two options open your 360 drive bay and take out the SATA drive (messy and voids warranty) or buy an adapter form here http://www.360sata.com/ and have a nice day copying files.
use 360xplorer from here http://www.360gamesaves.com/
to navigate your drive and also free up more space as from word go your 20 Gig drive has only 13 Gig available.
you can also use this adapter to transfer movies (must be in WMV format) to play off your drive or music or images.
Transfering files in this manner also copies such things as costumes form DOA4 and weapons or lvls unlocked during hard earned gameplay.
and you can backup your 360 drive for safe keeping.
Have loads of Fun! :)