Sony Plans To Have PS5 External Game Storage Working In A Future Update

With the launch of the PlayStation 5 this week, console gamers will be able to experience solid-state drive technology that has been fine-tuned for quicker loading times and transitions between games. Both models of the PS5 will come equipped with an 825 GB internal NVMe SSD, but only 667 GB will actually be usable.

Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem when external USB 3.1 hard drives are commonplace and can easily serve as a storage point for unused games, but the PS5 won't allow for its games to be temporarily moved and stored on one of these devices. If you run out of space you'll need to delete that game and then re-download it at another time, which could be a problem for people who have capped internet access.

Sony is looking into a solution for this, as Sid Shuman, senior director SIE content communications, explained on the PS Blog that "explorations for allowing players to store (but not play) PS5 games on a USB drive in a future update are underway."

PS4 games can currently be stored on a compatible external hard drive and accessed, a feature that the PS5 will continue to provide. In the options menu for storage, users can choose to always have PS4 games install on extended storage. This system comes with a catch though, as it will force all PS4 games to be installed on external storage and you'll need to choose which games to move onto the PS5's internal storage. Still, it will certainly help cut down on space. As a lot of your early games are likely to be PS4 games through backward compatibility, it could be a bandaid solution until the update.

Some games on the PS5 have huge file sizes, too--Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War weighs in at 133GB, for example.

In contrast, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles have a much simpler approach. External storage can also be used to store and play Xbox One, Xbox 360, and original Xbox backwards compatible games, while Xbox Series X/S games can be copied over to these devices when they're not in use.

For more on Sony's next-gen console you can check out our PS5 review and one of its launch games, including Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales.