We just got one at work. I want to use my profile from my home machine to play at work so I can earn achievements and stuff. Looking at the official page, it looks like a
royal pain in the ass. I'd have to either:
1. recover my account every time I want to switch locations
2. bring along my hard drive from home
3. buy a memory card and put my account on that
Microsoft isn't so retarded as to make this as difficult as I think it is, are they? Is "I want to use my account at a friend's place" such an edge case that they make it this hard?
Posts
that is the only reasonable option
You should be able to select the profile on the card directly, without having to move it to the second console.
Now that was a silly question.
That concerns me. If I have the memory card in the console, will that let me sign in and use my existing saved games on my home console?
Also, hooooooly fuck MS charges $50 for a 512 meg card. I just saw a goddamn 4 gig memory stick for $10.
Yes, the profile should work on what ever console it is plugged into at the time. It works both ways.
They still make the 64 meg cards. My local Wal-Mart sells them for $19.95.
Consider this thread solved.
Nope, you can use a USB stick for media, but not for profiles or saved games.
Unlike a Steam or Hotmail account, your profile exists in one place at a time and must be literally moved from place to place. Either by recovering it at one location from microsoft's servers (there by de-activating it at its last location), or toting it around with you on a memory card.
I use a MU with my LIVE account on it all the time, and then toss any saves or Arcade games I want to pack around before I remove it.
Is this not what you guys are talking about doing?
That's Account Recovery, and it's designed for your profile being corrupted or stolen or whatever, and is heavily tracked by MS and takes forever. The MU option is the best one, and it's what I do. I just keep it plugged into my machine all the time with my profile on, and take it out whenever I go to a friend's.
In fact, I got it because we got a 360 at work, exactly like Doc, so it definitely works. Except then our work 360 broke in a weird way and would only connect controllers when a memory card wasn't in.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
That would be using the account recovery option which downloads the profile from a central server. Ok for doing once or twice, but it can take AGES to do (like 30mins - 1hr for a 8 MB profile ).
Edit: Beaten
That was easy enough, but I maintain it's silly that I need to do that.
The implementation really isn't that bad, it's more the cost, and yes, they are nailing you with it. Couple things to keep in mind, though:
The 360 itself is not a moneymaker, so they are going to make accessories proprietary and high-margin. It's the only way they're making it up on the hardware side. ($150 for a 120 gb HD!)
Second, people put up with it because there's a perception of value. If it's worth it to you, then it's worth it, and Xbox 360, for all its flaws and bullshit, has a very high perception of value; the overall experience is apparently valuable enough to many gamers to warrant buying a second console when one dies outside of RROD reasons, without much complaining. That says a lot.
Really an hour? I've had to recover my wifes account and my account (2 xboxes, sometimes we want to play something together, sometimes not) hundreds of times so far and it's never been more than 15 minutes.