Microsoft has announced new storage expansion options for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles, as gamers begin to fill-up their built-in 1TB hard drives with games and content.
The new options, which are again made by specialist Seagate, arrive in 512GB and 2TB options, joining the existing 1TB option.
They’ll be available in all markets, including the UK, but the United States gets first dibs. The 512GB card costs $139.99 and that’s going to translate directly into sterling, judging by the $219.99/£219.99 price of the 1TB model.
The larger 2TB model costs almost as much as an Xbox Series X itself. It’s $399.99 (again likely to translate into £399.99).
Microsoft says the expansion cards are super-easy to install as they can simply be popped into the back of a Series X or Series S console. Games can be directly played from it, or moved to and from the console.
The company says these options are preferable to other expansion cards because they are “designed to match the exact performance of the internal storage” of the new-generation consoles.
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In a blog post on Xbox Wire, Pamela Wang, the product manager for Designed for Xbox, says: “The Storage Expansion Card uses the foundation of the Xbox Velocity Architecture. This is the custom, internal SSD delivering 2.4 GB/s of raw I/O throughput, more than 40x the throughput of Xbox One. The Seagate Storage Expansion Card was designed using the Xbox Velocity Architecture to deliver the exact same consistent, sustained performance of our internal SSD ensuring you have the exact same gameplay experience regardless of where the game resides.”
We’ll let you know when the cards become available in the UK. Given games are getting larger and larger in size, it’s going to be hard for gamers to avoid expanding the storage at some point.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
