Xbox One, Microsoft’s next generation console which is scheduled for release in November, will offer users unlimited cloud storage.
In a statement, Microsoft said: “Xbox Live offers Xbox One unlimited storage space in the cloud for all Xbox Live members to store numerous types of Xbox Live content, including your profile, games, Achievements and entertainment.
“This content is stored and saved in the cloud so you can automatically access it anywhere, anytime, no matter where you are.”
While the company’s current games console, the Xbox 360, does incorporate some limited cloud storage (512mb), Xbox One’s usage of cloud is key to its value proposition.
However, until now it was expected users would need an Xbox Live Gold membership to use unlimited cloud storage, the existence of which had been referred to previously at the E3 video games conference.
Xbox One will use the power of Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud platform and Live servers not just to save games, music, or films but to carry out some of the more labour intensive in-game tasks and create “massive ... living and persistent worlds”.
The console also has Microsoft’s voice-over-IP service Skype built-in.
It follows a number of more controversial announcements by the company regarding Xbox One’s cloud features, particularly around digital rights management (DRM) and restrictions on pre-owned games, plus a requirement for the console to be ‘always on’ – a decision that was later reversed.
