Xbox senior director of product management and planning Albert Panello has confirmed that the Xbox One is not designed to operate vertically. Its previous console, the Xbox 360, can be used horizontally or vertically. Please inform your interior decorator accordingly.
Panello spoke with GameSpot saying that players who positioned the next-gen console upright risked damaging it.
"We don't support vertical orientation; do it at your own risk," Panello said, noting that "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 said that Microsoft found " that 80 percent of people, believe it or not, have their Xbox [360] horizontally."
The Xbox One will launch on November 22 in North America with Europe and Japan to follow. The Xbox 360 as well as the PlayStation 3 and Sony's next-gen PlayStation 4 feature drives that will not be damaged by placing them horizontally or vertically.
