Following the tradition of overpriced accessories and peripherals, the recently announced branded USB flash drives are going for much more than ordinary USB memory sticks.

US retailer GameStop lists an 8 GB 360-branded USB flash drive at a whopping $39.99. A similar 8 GB flash drive is half the price on Newegg.

The premium price for the official flash drives is apparently just for the Xbox 360 branding since the aren't any exclusive features listed for the product.

Fortunately, any USB flash drive will suffice. If it's larger than 16 GB, however, only that much memory will be recognised by your console following the update on April 6.

By Tracy Erickson