If you own an Xbox Series X, the only way to expand your storage is to get a Seagate SSD expansion card. This can be a very expensive option
, as Seagate SSD cards are about half the price of the Series X
. The French website Xbox Squad claims that a 500GB Seagate expansion card will be available. While this report was initially nothing more than an unverified rumor, one French retailer has since posted that the 500GB card will be available on November 14 for €155 ($182).This is clearly cheaper than the $220 it would cost to purchase a 1TB Seagate expansion card. If Microsoft were to sell the card at the higher end of the Xbox Squad's estimate, it would not be by much. However, the cost of expanding the storage capacity of the Xbox Series X would still be lower.
Nevertheless, with games getting larger and larger as time goes on, Microsoft should really go in the opposite direction: 1TB of internal storage is a limitation, especially if certain games cannot help but take up more than 100GB of storage space. For example, Microsoft Flight Simulator requires 102 GB of space, while Gears 5 consumes 101.5 GB.
Also, given that Halo 5: Guardians requires 98.8 GB, imagine how much space Halo Infinite will require at launch. In other words, 1 TB doesn't feel like enough, and 500 GB is very much not enough.
A 2TB expansion card seems like a better option, even if it will undoubtedly cost considerably more than the $220 1TB cards currently on sale. Especially with Sony's recent rollout of the PS5 update, which gives players the chance to add SSD space to their consoles.
The PS5 requires the use of a specific type of SSD, and high-capacity SSDs are not inexpensive to begin with. But while Microsoft and Seagate's proprietary expansion drives put Xbox gamers at a disadvantage, PS5 owners still have that option if they wish. Microsoft and Seagate's proprietary expansion drives put Xbox gamers at a disadvantage.
Sure, you can always free up space by deleting old games, but then you have to go through the process of reinstalling them when you want to play again. Even players with physical disks have to wait for patches and updates to download in the process. Therefore, it is better to minimize this problem by increasing the space available to work with.
Also, since the Xbox Series X has only 1TB of storage space and the Xbox Series S has 500GB, the ability to add 500GB is still better than nothing. However, if you choose a smaller (and cheaper) expansion option, make sure you are fully aware of how much of that additional capacity is available. It may be worth spending an extra $40 or so to double the additional capacity.
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