MS partners with M-Systems to create flash memory cards for Xbox 2 @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on February 26, 2004

News: Further fueling speculation that the Xbox 2 won't have a hard drive comes this announcement that Microsoft and M-Systems will partner to develop flash memory cards.

Microsoft has recently announced that they have signed a contract with M-Systems to create removable Flash Memory Units for their next Xbox system. The contract also states that Microsoft is under no obligation to use these memory cards with their next system, only to help develop them.

"Although Microsoft is not obligated to purchase any memory units under the agreement, we believe that this agreement could represent a significant opportunity for M-Systems," said Dov Moran, president and CEO of M-Systems.

M-Systems currently makes Flash Drives that attach to the USB port of a computer in 64, 128 and 256MB sizes. Drives as large as 2GB (though they are priced at $600 - $1000) are also available on the market. There's no word on where the Xbox 2 products will fit into this or how they would even connect to the system.

With this agreement to create Flash Memory cards and Microsoft's previous announcement that they plan to offer online storage capabilities for the current Xbox the speculation that the Xbox 2 won't have a hard drive is growing larger. I still think it would be ridiculous to remove one of the Xbox's nicest features, but we'll keep you posted on whatever decision Microsoft makes on all of the Xbox 2's features.