Roomy, Portable, and Stylish

Whether you've got a fully-loaded Xbox 360™ under your television, complete with the Xbox 360 Hard Drive, wireless controllers and all, or you've opted for the Xbox 360 Core System, there's one accessory you need, regardless of your setup. That accessory is the Xbox 360 Memory Unit. You might be wondering, "What's a memory unit, and how will it amplify my gaming experience?"

Glad you asked. The Xbox 360 Memory Unit lets you:

• Save your game progress.
• Store your gamer card and gamertag information.
• Download content from Xbox 360 retail kiosks.

What's a Memory Unit?
Just like the original Xbox® console, Xbox 360 allows you to save, store, and transfer game saves onto a removable, portable memory unit. The difference now is that you have eight times the storage as the original Xbox Memory Unit.

According to the designers and engineers at Xbox, you have plenty of room to store saved games for up to five average Xbox 360 games on the new memory unit, and then some. This, of course, depends on how big the game developers make the game saves. In my book, the bigger the save, the better the game.

Bring It Along
Take your saved games, pictures, gamer card, and more—anywhere you want. Bring your created player over to your buddy's house and school him in a game of Madden™ NFL 06, or cart your progress in Project Gotham Racing® 3 across town your aunt's house for the weekend and continue your racing career.

When you're done gaming on the go, bring your saved progress back to "home base" (your living room). The memory unit lets you game the way you want, anywhere you are, without dragging your Xbox 360 console along. The durable carry case is pocket-sized, so you can hook it to your keychain or hang it from your neck for gaming on the go.

Grab the latest goodies at the Xbox 360 retail kiosks.

Xbox 360 Kiosks
Perhaps the coolest feature of the memory unit is how it interacts with the Xbox 360 kiosks. At select retail locations, visit the in-store kiosk for the latest Xbox 360 news, game previews, and exclusive content.

You might find a new Xbox Dashboard theme to download, or a custom extra for a game you own. Kiosks will be custom-tailored for each retailer, so different extras will be available at almost every location.

When you get home, pop the memory unit into your Xbox 360 console and take advantage of the goodies you've discovered. You'll never leave the retail store empty-handed, even if you don't buy a thing!

Article by Bobby Stein

• Dev interview: Memory unit.
• Xbox 360 Hard Drive.