PS5 SSD woes set to melt away this summer with internal storage upgrade

Sony is reportedly lining up a new firmware update for faster fans and support for additional drives

PS5 Sony PlayStation 5
(Image credit: Sony)
Shabana Arif
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If you've been filling up your PS5 hard drive with games are starting to get dangerously close to the storage limit, your prayers will be answered soon, with reports that Sony is rolling out support for additional storage options this summer. 

Sony launched the PS5 with support for expandable storage disabled, but said the feature was "reserved for a future update”. PS5 lead system architect, Mark Cerny, explained that the company needed to carry out compatibility testing first, to let gamers know which drives "physically fit" and which have been "benchmarked appropriately high" in its testing, urging players to "hold off on getting that M.2 drive" until Sony came back with an update. 

Bloomberg reports (via Eurogamer) that a firmware update is on the way in a few months time that will see support for additional drives, as well as upping the speed of the console's fans to keep it cool and prevent overheating.  

As it stands, you can store and play PS4 games from a compatible hard drive, but PS5 games need to run from the internal SSD for you to play them. With just 667GB of usable internal storage, that space is going to get sucked up pretty quickly, given the size of next-gen titles.

Even cross-gen games like Call of Duty are getting out of hand; the series is infamous for needing a generous amount of storage, and Activision has just dropped a PSA advising players that the 500GB standard PS4 is going to struggle to accommodate Season Two of Warzone, and Cold War, if gamers have installed all of the updates, and packs to date. 

Compatible PS5 SSDs won't be cheap, by any means; the Seagate Expansion Card for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S comes in at $219 / £219 / €239 so we're looking at the same ballpark for the PS5. Better get saving!      

Shabana Arif
Shabana Arif

Shabana worked at T3.com as News Editor covering tech and gaming, and has been writing about video games for almost a decade (and playing them since forever). She's had bylines at major gaming sites during her freelance career before settling down here at T3, and has podcasts, streaming, and video content under her belt to boot. Outside of work, she also plays video games and should really think about expanding her hobbies. If you have any tech or gaming tips, shoot over an email or DM her on social media.

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