Game on the Go

Your parents/siblings/significant other may disagree, but gaming is a social activity. Xbox 360™ was designed and built from the ground up to connect people around the globe. Not only can you go head-to-head in online competitions, but you can also chat with friends, download the latest and greatest games, videos, and premium content. Your in-game achievements are even stored on Xbox Live®, so no matter where you're gaming, the world can see what you're made of by your accomplishments.

Compare your achievements to a friend's.

But what happens when you want to hang out at your friend's place? Let's say you cleared a particularly tough level in Perfect Dark Zero™ and you want to show your pals. What's the best way to bring the action to them?

Xbox 360 gives you a way to bring your game with you. We'll show you how, in a few easy steps, and give you a heads-up on what NOT to do as well. Read on for the details.

Profiles and Game Saves
Before we get to the nitty-gritty, it helps to understand exactly what we're dealing with. Xbox 360 uses a new and unique system for saving games and player information unlike any other console to date. Here's how it works:

• Your gamer profile: Unlike the original Xbox®, Xbox 360 lets you create a player-specific profile for every gamer in the house (even your guests can have one). You can give each profile a unique name, customize console settings for that profile user like the dashboard theme, genre-specific preferences (i.e. inverted aim on all first person shooter games), and store your Xbox Live account information in it. You can copy your profile onto a Memory Unit and bring it with you anywhere.
• Your game saves: Game saves are separate from profiles, but they are intertwined. When you sign into your Xbox 360 under your profile, all of your game progress is stored on your Hard Drive or Memory Unit and is associated with your current profile. Your achievements, on the other hand, are recorded on Xbox Live (a Silver or Gold Xbox Live account and broadband Internet access required). Game saves can be moved or copied onto a Memory Unit and taken with you anywhere, but achievements are only awarded when the game save and profile name match.

Now that you understand the difference between gamer profiles and game saves, we can move on.

Take your profile and saves on the go.

Why Game on the Go?
There are a million reasons why you would want to bring your profile and game saves with you. The obvious ones include:

• You just finished a game and unlocked some bonus content that you want to show to your buddy
• Your friend is on the fence about making the jump to Xbox Live Gold and you want to show him how awesome it is by temporarily moving your gamer profile to his Xbox 360 to show him.
• It's summer vacation and you want to bring your game progress to your aunt's summer home and play on her Xbox 360 instead of packing up your sweet gaming rig.
• Chicks dig Xbox 360 and you've been invited to a sorority mixer. Time to strut your stuff, cowboy!

There are two ways to bring your gamer profile and saves with you:

• Pack up your removable Hard Drive and bring it to your friend's place.
• Copy your profile and/or select game saves onto a Memory Unit and slip it into your pocket.

When you arrive at your destination, simply attach the Hard Drive or insert the Memory Unit into the Xbox 360 and sign in to the profile of your choosing. You can also simply move the save game file to your friend's Hard Drive or Memory Unit, but any progress made under a different profile will not award you with achievements.

What Not to Do
Don't use the Gamertag Recovery tool to take your games on the go. The recovery process is designed to:

• Activate an existing Xbox Live account from your original Xbox onto your Xbox 360
• Recover an Xbox Live gamer profile that was either damaged or corrupted

When you initiate the Gamertag Recovery process, you create a new version of the original profile to be used on that specific Xbox 360. This causes the original existing profile to become outdated and invalid. Should you port your profile onto a friend's Xbox 360, you won't be able to log into Xbox Live with the outdated profile on your original machine. And if you try to recover back on your original machine, it will erase the outdated profile, including all related game save data. So do yourself a favor—don't use the Gamertag Recovery tool for anything other than what it was intended for (unless you like losing all of your hard-earned game progress).

Now you know what it takes to game on the go like a seasoned pro.

Article by Bobby Stein

• Xbox 360 FAQ.
• Xbox 360 Live subscription plans.