While the original Xbox wasn’t able to be set up vertically, the Xbox 360 had this capability and even had stands you could buy to support it better upright. However, Microsoft is warning consumers against putting the soon to be released Xbox One vertically.
While the Xbox One doesn’t look much different from other consoles that have been able to sit vertically, Microsoft’s senior director of product management, Albert Panello warns that doing so is “at your own risk” for damaging both your console and games. The main problem stems from the disc drive, as it was only designed for horizontal orientation, unlike the Xbox 360.
We don’t support vertical orientation; do it at your own risk. It wouldn’t be a cooling problem, we just didn’t design the drive for vertical. Because it’s a slot loading drive, we just didn’t design it for both.
Panello went on to say that 80 percent of Xbox 360 owners kept that console horizontal anyways, so based on that statistic, it doesn’t seem like a large majority will be too upset by this news.
The Xbox One will be released on November 22 for $499.
