A new version of the Seagate expansion SSD for the Xbox Series X|S has leaked via US retailers, but those hoping for a larger version of the 1TB drive that’s already available will be disappointed. Instead, the drive is smaller, coming in at 512GB.
Pricing has not yet been revealed, though it’s easy to speculate that it will be slightly more than half the price of the 1TB drive’s $220/£220 MSRP. Let’s take a guess at $120/£120.
Source: Jez Corden / WindowsCentral
Alongside the new plug-in SSD that can be used for storing and playing Xbox Series X|S optimised games, Seagate also seem to be offering an Xbox branded USB-connected SSD. This will only be able to be used with Xbox One games, cross-gen Series X|S ‘aware’ games, and for storing Series X|S games that will need to be copied back to the internal drives in order to play.
Adding any kind of storage to modern consoles has become increasingly important for gamers as games get bigger and bigger. Call of Duty is notorious for now taking up hundreds of GB of space on its own, and other tentpole shooters like Halo Infinite and Battlefield 2042 are expected to push 100GB soon after their release. Considering that the Xbox Series S’ 512GB SSD actually offers users 364GB to account for system features, you’ll be struggling without an expansion SSD.
While it will bring the entry price of expanding an Xbox Series X|S console’s storage down, we’re already seeing the cost benefits of Sony’s decision to allow for standard PC NVMe drives for PlayStation 5. While PCIe 4.0 drives that meet Sony’s specifications come with a price premium, competition between manufacturers and retailers mean that we’ve seen compatible 1TB drives sell for around £120-140 in the UK over the last few weeks. By contrast, the 1TB Seagate Xbox SSD has held closer to the £200 mark.
That is partly down to the semi-custom design of the drive. While a slower SSD that tops out at less than half the speed of PS5 SSDs, the Xbox Series X|S expansion slot adapts the CFexpress connector to run using PCIe 4.0, and the M.2 NVMe drive hidden inside is the smallest form possible, which is not typically available to consumers. The advantage is that it’s truly plug and play, the disadvantage is that it’s a proprietary form factor and there’s no price competition.
Further Reading: Xbox Series X in review
Microsoft partnered with Seagate in 2020 to offer the first expansion drive at the launch of the Xbox Series X|S, but it’s hoped that they will soon allow other companies to create SSDs to rival them and hopefully bring down prices here as well.
Source: Jez Corden / WindowsCentral