Xbox Gets the Upper Hand as Sony Confirms Disheartening PlayStation 5 News Days Before Launch

The PlayStation 5 launch is less than a week away as the world gears up to kick-off next-gen gaming. Sony’s new console promises to enhance the gaming experience with its cutting-edge piece of hardware. Along with a lightning-fast SSD, the PlayStation 5 also has an expandable storage slot. Although, in a recent statement, Sony confirmed that the expandable storage slot won’t be functional from day one.

Also Read: Storage, Not Games, to be the Most Expensive Part of Next-Gen Gaming

Sony provided this statement to The Verge where they said, “this is reserved for a future update.” This means that the users won’t be able to use the expandable storage slot on day one and until Sony announces an update on the same.

Limited third-party options available that match the PS5’s custom SSD

One of the major reasons behind this is the custom SSD that the PlayStation 5 has. It is faster than most M2 NVMe SSDs available in the market. Even though there are a couple of SSDs now available that come close to, or match the PS5’s SSD, they still may not be compatible with the console. Therefore, until Sony announces a proper list of compatible SSDs, users won’t be able to use the expandable storage slot.

Unfortunately, this is a problematic situation for Sony. The next-gen games are obviously bigger, considering the enhanced graphics gameplay mechanics. For instance, the Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War title is around 133 GB on the PS5. That is an insane amount of space required for just one game.

In addition to this, the PS5 is also backwards compatible. Considering players will want to move their games to the next-gen console, it is bound to take up a lot of space. This leaves very little breathing room for any other games that players will want to run, even with a 1 TB SSD.

Also Read: Top Xbox Exec says More Expandable Storage Options Will be Available Soon

This is where Xbox Series X and S are one step ahead of Sony. Rather than going for third-party drives, they have their own proprietary expandable storage options. Microsoft created custom 1 TB expandable drives in collaboration with Seagate. These drives also use the same Velocity Architecture as the Series X’s internal SSD.

Additionally, these drives are already available for purchase at a price of $219.99. This gives Xbox an edge over Sony as these drives are available from day 1.

Apart from this statement, there is no further update on the exact date when a list of compatible drives will come out. Sony will not want to wait too long, considering it could face some serious backlash from the fans. They will have to act swiftly to ensure that a list is in place shortly after launch.