Sony "Not Hearing" PS5 Storage Complaints, Says PlayStation CEO

At launch, the PlayStation 5 doesn't support an expansion options for its internal SSD or allow you to copy games from the console to an external HDD for storage. But according to Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan, Sony isn't aware of any customer concerns about the limited storage.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Ryan was asked about whether Sony regarded the limited space on the PS5 currently as a problem, to which the CEO explained that the company hadn't yet noticed an outcry from customers.

"We're not hearing that," Ryan explained. "We'll obviously watch what happens as people unbox their PlayStations and start to use them. We think we'll be okay. We obviously are able to monitor hard drive usage on the PS4 microscopically and everything that we saw there indicates that we should be fine."

The PS5 ships with a custom 825GB SSD, with only 667GB accessible to players for game installs. Any PS5 titles need to be on the internal SSD to run, while PS4 titles can be stored on an external drive to save space. But with the size of games already--Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, for example, takes up a fifth of the PS5's total storage--expansion will be welcome. For now, the only option is to uninstall parts of games you aren't playing when the feature is supported or resign yourself to deleting and redownloading titles consistently.

The Xbox Series X and Series S approach this differently. Both consoles support the $230 Seagate SSD expansion card, which adds 1TB to the internal storage. Additionally, you can store Series X/Series S optimized titles on an external drive, letting you transfer them back to the console when you need them as opposed to redownloading it. The PS5 does feature a SSD expansion slot that is currently disabled, as Sony still needs to test and approve NVMe SSDs that will be compatible with the console. Sony has also mentioned that it plans to add external storage options for PS5 games in the future. This means you could possibly be able to store PS5 games on an external drive. However, games will never be playable on these drives because of the speed necessary for them to run properly.

Sony has released the first firmware update for the PS5 ahead of its launch in Europe and other regions today, November 19. The update is said to add performance improvements to the console, although it's unclear if some of the console's technical issues have been entirely addressed.