It's been reported that so-called “unauthorized storage devices” will not be allowed to work anymore with the Xbox 360 home-gaming console by the upcoming update for the device, which is due to arrive before November. The news has been reported by Larry Hryb, also known as Major Nelson, one of the bosses of the Xbox business at Microsoft. He has posted a warning for all those who use the unauthorized devices to make sure that all their profile data and all their saves are on the internal memory of the gaming console to avoid losing any of them when the storage solutions no longer work.

Datel, a firm that produces Max Memory storage units for the Xbox 360 that will be disabled, has told CVG that, “We are following this issue and awaiting the outcome like everyone else. If the Major Nelson blog is to be taken at face value then we're disappointed to see that Microsoft are taking these steps to prevent customers from exercising their freedom of choice. Everyone is looking for ways to make their cash go further at the moment and we believe that Max Memory offers a good value, high capacity, alternative to the official Memory Unit.”

Microsoft might be making the move in order to limit the possibilities of hacking the Xbox 360, which arrive from the use of such storage devices. The company might also be looking to make sure that those who want extra space for their consoles get the Microsoft-sold solutions, which are usually significantly more expensive than those offered by other manufacturers. At the moment, there is an Xbox 360 with a 250-GB hard drive offered as part of a Modern Warfare 2 bundle, but Microsoft is saying that it does not plan to sell it as a stand-alone product after the bundle is off the shelves of stores.