Penello: Stand the Xbox One Vertically ‘At Your Own Risk’

Xbox One owners have been warned against standing the console vertically with Microsoft's Albert Penello telling GameSpot that the console's disc drive is not designed to be upright. 

"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".

Microsoft has taken steps to ensure that overheating does not become an issue for the Xbox One both with the size of the console and a feature which detects when the system is growing too hot and shuts down the console. 

Both the original and slim PlayStation 3 support either vertical or horizontal positioning despite having a similar slot loading drive. The PlayStation 4 is designed to stand horizontally but users can buy an official stand to support the console upright without any damage to the system or its disc drive. 

Penello says that a majority of Xbox 360 users lay their console on its side, "we found, interestingly enough, that 80 percent of people, believe it or not, have their Xbox [360] horizontally".

The Xbox One is set to be released in 13 countries on November 22nd for $499/€499/£429. The company insists that they are offering good value.