Although the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X come with 1TB hard disk, it will not be enough in the coming years. Recently, we found out that the Xbox Series S comes with a pitiful 364GB of usable solid-state storage, but at the very least, it can be expanded. PlayStation 5 users, on the other hand, won’t have the privilege until much later in the release cycle.
A Sony spokesperson has told The Verge that the PlayStation 5’s memory cannot be expanded upon launch and that the feature will be enabled via a future update. The console’s teardown showed us that it comes with a free NVMe slot, which can bolster its memory. While Microsoft forces users to buy a proprietary US$220 hard drive, installing it is a whole lot easier, as it plugs right into the console. However, installing a solid-state drive on the PlayStation 5 requires some minor disassembly work, which may prove to be a daunting task for less tech-savvy users.
At the very least, the PlayStation 5 users will be able to play PlayStation 4 games off a USB hard drive. It will come as a boon to many enthusiasts as the current PlayStation 5 library isn’t particularly large now. It’ll be interesting to see how Sony addresses the expandable storage conundrum. Sony may or may not let will let users install just about any PCI-e Gen4 NVMe SSD into the console, as its needs to check a lot of boxes like high memory bandwidth, compatibility with Sony’s I/O controller, and more, before it can run on the console. In all likelihood, Sony may be waiting for faster, more power-efficient NVMe SSDs to hit the market before allowing users to chuck one in the PlayStation 5.