Unfortunately, those of you who own the original 2013 Xbox One should never mount the console vertically. “We don’t support vertical orientation,” Xbox senior director of product management and planning Albert Panello told GameSpot at the Tokyo Game Show (via Eurogamer). “Do it at your own risk.”
Panello explained that the original Xbox One is simply not designed to stand vertically. Apparently, this isn’t so much a cooling problem as it might be on several other consoles; it’s more of an issue with the weight distribution and the slot-loading disk drive. Its weight isn’t centered on the vertical axis, which can lead to the console tipping easily and falling over. The disc drive also depends on the gravity from a horizontal orientation to keep gaming disks centered. The Xbox One doesn’t have a disk tray with a lip on the side the way the Xbox 360 did. Inserting a disk while the console is on its side can cause it to fall out of alignment, not read properly, and even get stuck.
Of course, there are workarounds. You can choose to stick to digital gaming and use a third-party stand to make the console more secure on its side, but the fact remains that it was not designed to operate this way, and this is, therefore, not recommended.
