While it’s a mystery why it took so long for the Xbox 360 to support USB flash drive-based storage, storage company SanDisk coming out with a flash drive branded specifically to plug into the console is a no-brainer. A little over a month after an Xbox 360 update added USB storage support, SanDisk stars shipping their Xbox 360 USB Flash Drive starting from $35.

It doesn’t technically offer anything different from a regular drive—in fact, you can use any standard drive as long as it can pack in over 1GB and the transfer speeds are fast enough—although SanDisk’s drive is preconfigured to work with the Xbox 360 out of the box to spare you the setup time. Otherwise, it’s still a USB drive that’ll work on a computer.

The Xbox 360 Flash Drive also comes with a few extras, including a one-month subscription to Xbox LIVE Gold service for downloading games and multimedia, and a free lanyard (offer’s “good until supplies last,” so you better rush if you really need a neck strap for this thing. But pockets should still work just as well).

Two capacities are now available: 8GBs for $35, and 16GBs for $70 on SanDisk’s page. It’s currently listed as available for pre-orders on Amazon, but the 16GB drive is cheaper at $65.

Tags: Consoles, Gaming Gear, SanDisk, Storage, USB Flash Drives, Xbox 360

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