Rumor: Next 360 Update Will Include Gameplay Timer

Are you getting ready for your 24-hour Halo 3 marathon? If you are, your own Xbox 360 might just foil your plans. There’s a rumor that the Xbox 360 fall update will contain a timer. Parents would use this timer to set a time limit for their kids. If this is included, it might be Microsoft’s way of trying to win over parents.

Interestingly enough, the Wii was going to include a similar, but it was swapped out for the play time record because the games couldn’t system couldn’t effectively shut itself down on the fly. If it did, the console ran the risk of shutting off during saving, which would damage the system memory. The 360 games already have the Xbox guide button functionality. If the timer feature was implemented through that, Microsoft could easily dodge the problem that Nintendo had with this.