Xbox 360 Cloud Storage now available

By Tom Warren, on 5th Jul 11 12:00 pm with 26 Comments

New Xbox Dashboard

Microsoft has started introducing its Cloud Storage feature to Xbox 360 this week.

Xbox owners will now be able to download and resume games on other Xbox consoles thanks to cloud storage. Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE cloud will store game saves securely in the cloud instead of users having to store them on a console hard drive or portable memory unit. Microsoft is phasing out gametag recovery in favour of the new cloud storage support. Users simply sign-in and can access their games saves and data.

Eurogamer notes that a recent update to the Xbox 360 has made the new Cloud Storage feature available to some users. The functionality is now working for Xbox LIVE arcade games. Microsoft is expected to push the feature to all games later this year when it updates the Xbox 360 dashboard interface. The new interface includes live tiles and a grid Windows Phone-like experience.

  • http://batmancorps.wordpress.com/ Jas Chiang

    only for Gold?

    • Anonymous

      No it would have no idea if you were gold or silver before you logged in.

  • GP007

    Sweet, just another step in linking 360 games and PC/WP games when the time comes.  

  • http://adamhaider.com Adam Haider

    Let’s hope the game saves and data is securely protected. If with all the hacking that has been going on, Microsoft don’t improve their security and end up falling victim to data loss I wouldn’t be surprised.

    • Anonymous

      Well I think the fact that Microsoft hasn’t been hacked yet is evidence enough that they’ve got top notch security. They’re probably one of the top targets alongside Google when it comes to hackers.

  • http://www.about.me/AngeloGopaul Eingoluq

    Free I hope.

  • http://www.about.me/AngeloGopaul Eingoluq

    Free I hope.

  • Grannyville7989

    Finally! :)

    I’m frequently going on different people’s Xbox 360s when I’m at university and having to recover my gamertag on each console (and then again when I want to use my OWN console again) is a pain. Putting my account on a memory stick did help but I was always kept losing them.

  • Grannyville7989

    Finally! :)

    I’m frequently going on different people’s Xbox 360s when I’m at university and having to recover my gamertag on each console (and then again when I want to use my OWN console again) is a pain. Putting my account on a memory stick did help but I was always kept losing them.

  • JustPassingThru

    So, you cannot enjoy much your XBox 360 if you don’t have an Internet connection because you won’t have your game saves and data?

  • JustPassingThru

    So, you cannot enjoy much your XBox 360 if you don’t have an Internet connection because you won’t have your game saves and data?

    • Terence Cassar

      Probably it works offline and if it finds an internet connection it goes online, similar to the way offline achievements work :)

    • JustPassingThru

      Thanks for the info.! :-)

    • GP007

      No, what it will do is probably either give you a choice of where to save like games do now (hdd, usb stick etc) OR if the game is written right then it will make two copies, a local one and one online.   Unless the feature itself syncs your save files online in which case the game will just make a save file locally and the service will sync it online itself.

    • JustPassingThru

      Thanks for the info.! :-)

  • Anonymous

    This will be awesome!

  • J A

    This is one great feature that gamers have been requesting too. This certainly makes it easy all around Xbox, PC, and WP. Sweet!

  • Anonymous

    when does the dashboard pictured above go live?

    • GP007

      In the fall, I think because it looks like the new games hub in Mango that they’ll release around the same time period.

  • Concerned reader

    I’m sorry to inform that this story is complete fabrication. Allow me to explain myself:

    360 Cloud storage is NOT ready yet. The feature the original article (removed from Eurogamer) mentions is common to some Xbox Live Arcade titles and it’s been there a long time. Said games sync your profile and store your total score, actual checkpoint or achievements to load it even if you’ve deleted the game, or lost your profile.

    The cloud storage feature Microsoft is going to add in the near future does not work like that. There’ll be an option to back your saves up in the cloud, and you won’t need to recover your profile anymore, wherever you log in with your live details, you’ll have your saves.

  • Concerned reader

    I’m sorry to inform that this story is complete fabrication. Allow me to explain myself:

    360 Cloud storage is NOT ready yet. The feature the original article (removed from Eurogamer) mentions is common to some Xbox Live Arcade titles and it’s been there a long time. Said games sync your profile and store your total score, actual checkpoint or achievements to load it even if you’ve deleted the game, or lost your profile.

    The cloud storage feature Microsoft is going to add in the near future does not work like that. There’ll be an option to back your saves up in the cloud, and you won’t need to recover your profile anymore, wherever you log in with your live details, you’ll have your saves.

  • Anonymous

    3 screens to rule them.

  • Tonious

    Steam is already ahead of the game regarding Cloud Game storage!

  • Tonious

    Steam is already ahead of the game regarding Cloud Game storage!

  • Anonymous

    Very cool add on.

  • Anonymous

    Really. Sweet.