With the PlayStation 5 having an estimated 650 to 700GB of useable storage space, an SSD expansion may be on many users’ Black Friday lists. However, they shouldn’t be expecting to use them anytime soon. TheVerge has reported that the PS5’s internal slot for these drives will be disabled at launch.
Sony has told the outlet that this will change in “a future update,” but there hasn’t been any word of when the patch will release. At The Road to PS5 presentation in March, hardware architect Mark Cerny stated not all M.2 SSDs can keep up with the device, and that the team would have to see what is compatible.
It may not be until 2021 when PS5 owners finally see this compatibility, but it is confirmed that PS4 games can be run through USB drives. However, older titles stored on the drive won’t see an increase in loading times. It’s not a bad trade-off, considering something like a 256GB USB drive can go as cheap as $30.
At least for the rest of the year, the inability to use this internal slot shouldn’t be a major issue. Even with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s file size revealed to be more than 130GB on the PS5, launch games like Demon’s Souls and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales will require less than 70GB each of free space to play.