It's no secret that the PS5 has considerably less storage than the Xbox Series X, and there are currently no options to expand it at all. Fortunately, the PS5 has one advantage: how it handles storage for backward-compatible games.
PS5 games can only be played on the console's internal SSD, while PS4 games can be run from an external hard drive. Even if they have been given a PS5-centric upgrade.
For example, "Ghosts of Tsushima. Released last year and a huge hit, this game was upgraded to PS5 after the launch of the next generation consoles. Unfortunately, the game is 50 GB, which is not as large as PS4 games (like Modern Warfare, which is 150 GB), but still a big chunk of storage to sacrifice.
Thankfully, thanks to this loophole, you don't have to use up the 667GB of free space on your PS4. A regular external hard drive or SSD is all you need to play the game in its enhanced form on the PS5. In other words, the game will have better graphics, a better frame rate, and all the other benefits of playing it on PS5, but technically it will still be classified as a PS4 game.
Unfortunately, this is not the case with the Xbox Series X. When a game is optimized for a new console, the console classifies it as a Series X title. This means that the game must be played on the console's internal SSD or official expansion drive. Attempting to run it from any other external drive will not work; TechRadar notes that there are exceptions, such as Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, but for the most part, they are either built-in or not.
This loophole exists, presumably, because of the different way the two consoles handle backward compatibility; Psyonix, the developer of "Rocket League," has revealed that by applying a software update, Xbox One games can be upgraded to full Xbox Series X titles by revealed that the game can be upgraded. Unfortunately, upgrading a PS4 game to PS5 requires a complete port of the game. In other words, no matter how many times you update a PS4 game, it will only be a PS4 game.
Given how few games are currently available on next-generation consoles, many PS5 owners will likely play older games to pass the time. At least, that will be the case until more PS5 native games are released.
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