You may be forgiven for forgetting, but the PlayStation 5 has a slot for you to insert an additional SSD storage device, it’s just been blocked from use since launch. This is because the platform holder is taking additional time to whitelist certain drives; the company wants to ensure that you purchase an SSD fast enough to run next-gen games.
It always said that it’d unlock this functionality eventually, and a new Bloomberg report confirms that it’s coming this summer. What this means is that you’ll be able to purchase a compatible SSD, install it into your console, and increase the amount of space you have available for native PS5 games. It’s worth noting that these drives are unlikely to be cheap.
The publication continues that a new firmware update will also allow you to control the cooling fan speeds of your system to prevent overheating. While this does sound alarming, it’s worth remembering that Sony announced prior to launch that it would be able to optimise the console’s fans with post-release updates, and that seems to be what Bloomberg is referring to.
There’s no word on whether the Japanese giant will allow you to offload PS5 software onto a traditional HDD for storage, although this is something that it said it was looking into. The theory here is that you’d be able to copy native next-gen titles across to an external drive, and while you wouldn’t be able to play them, transferring them backwards and forwards could save time and bandwidth – especially for those with poor Internet connections.
[source bloomberg.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 60
Can we blow into the dualsense to control our PS5 fans!?!
@2cents Hire this man, Sony.
Nice, I don't have problem (yet) with my ps5 ssd internal storage though, it's actually making me very selective on what games to install and not just hoarding every game I have.
@2cents: That's it, you won. I am logging off the Interweb for the rest of the day
Can't wait to sell the missus to afford an SSD!
Sony your studios make great games and I have a PS5.
But who designed this PS5
1) Mess around with a stand and a bolt.
2) Open up console to expand memory.
3) change speeds of cooling fan, that should be left with the console manufacture and game developers adjustment only.
4) Big in size overall.
Quality of live product department must have totally been missed when designing this product.
There you go, I said it. Now all beat me up 😂😂😂
Well, this is something I’ll never need to use, but hopefully it stops all the whining, lol.
As to the fan, I’ll let the hardware manufacturer and software devs decide that , thanks though.
The sooner the better as i keep on having to delete stuff!!
Finally it's badly needed
6-7 months to whitelist drives? I don't buy it... My money is they had technical issues, same as they still have with crashes with external drives hooked up.
Edit: comments about compatibility prove my point. This is not about white-listing, this is about fixing and/or finishing implementation that was just not ready at launch. Not white-listing.
Cool, thankfully don't need to expand the internal memory yet. Also being selective on what I have installed. Hopefully will be able to hold out for a while yet. At least all the PS4 games are on the external HDD. Any word on the VRR patch coming out?
The only one feature i want is to be able to back-up my PS5 game saves to USB. I don't get why you can't from day one to??? Very odd. Hopefully that will come in the next big update
I'm not nearly as bothered about this as I was in the lead-up to launch. Most of my gaming on my PS5 has been PS4 stuff from an external SSD.
By the time I have enough PS5 only games that all need to be on the internal drive at the same time, the price of adding a compatible M2. SSD should be better too.
PS5 Pro/Slim will probably ship with bigger SSDs, I imagine.
@Tharsman not one crash with my external hdd...not saying it dosnt happen just not with me yet🤞...i wouldnt be surprised if a sony branded one is soon to be announced..
nothing wrong with a 8tb mechanical drive. ive my ps4 one full. Prefer all my games on a hdd as i have with steam, big let down this.i dont care about speed just load the game lol
Yeah sadly my internal SSD filled by the end of January so I invested in a 4TB HDD for all my PS4 titles. The HDD still works great though I mean all the titles still look excellent the instant loading times just aren’t there.
Black Ops Cold War is the culprit here 😒
@Tharsman if you've ever installed Linux on a cheap laptop with unsupported components you'll know how complex driver issues can be and how long it can take to chase them down. There will be drives that were tested and not deemed good enough, and other drives where it has taken a lot of back and forth. This is the nature of hardware, and Sony are making customers wait rather than giving them a worse experience now. Do you want to alpha test hardware compatibility? Get in touch with Sony and they might have an NDA for you to sign.
Rock and hard place. i desperately need additional storage - the built in drive fits nothing. I have 2TB (native + 1TB expansion) on my XSX and it's been roomy and comfortable (along with unused games stored/running from a USB drive), but the 840 drive in the PS5 kills me. And since I still don't trust external storage with the crashing issues, that means I can fit a handful of games, and that's it. FFVII remake is painful at over 100GB. Hopefully the free PS5 upgrade will also drop the file size.
So I'm really looking forward to new drive availability ,but I worry about prices, as well as messing with the slot while PS5s are still scarce. And I still don't trust the crash issue with the external drives.
@Ralizah I really wonder if Pro/Slim will have that proprietary "CernyDrive" at all. From everything we can gather, and minus the marketing enhancement, that thing exists for the sole purpose of beating the mainstream drives to market by 8 months to a year and is a creative MacGyvering of existing NAND modules in a way that gives them speed ALMOST as good as the mainstream nvme4 drives. Unless they become much cheaper to mfr than bulk drives are to purchase, I can't imagine they wouldn't just remove it entirely in the "slim" and slap in a bulk nvme4 drive on the board.
Yay I can finally get all those free PS5 upgrades and put them on the SSD - Avengers, Borderl3, Cyberpunk someday..
Let this be another item scalpers will get their hands on if there is a limited number that works.
Ps5 pro incoming.word up son
@Carl-G Yes I am only waiting for this one feature, back up saves to USB on PS5. Putting hundreds of hours into some games, it's very unnerving to have no backup. If you get a corrupt game save, and then that save is uploaded to the cloud, overwriting your last save, you are toast. That is assuming you have PS Plus, if you don't, you have one save file on one system. On PS4/Pro I had one thumb drive with every game save from every game backed up. Still do. Hope this feature comes to PS5 sooner than later
& the additional storage will cost a fortune
I'm more interested in storing PS5 games on a cheaper external drive to shuttle back and forth to the internal SSD. I don't play more than a handful of games at a time so expanding the internal SSD doesn't bug me especially when it will be super expensive. But being able to store the other PS5 games externally would save on bandwidth and data caps.
@NEStalgia ive been using a 2TB external for all my ps4 titles since day one. Rest mode works exactly how it should as well. Zero issues with crashes or corrupt data, etc... Only time i had to run a check on the drive was when the wife unplugged it without going through the 'safe disconnection' while something on it was updating.
I read somewhere that one of the issues causing a drive check when turning the console back on from rest mode was because the usb ports were set to only supply power for an hour or two. Once it stopped the external drive disconnected 'unsafely' and had to be rechecked. I leave my usb's powered constantly so it may be that.
@Mad001 It’s not just about load times, it’s about game design and what the game can load in before it crashes. Or so it‘s not frozen like a bad 90’s program every few seconds. The entire concept of the new R&C wouldn’t work on a HDD.
Excellent news, once it’s out I’ll consider buying 3rd party games for my PS5 instead of defaulting to my XSX due to space considerations.
@2cents KO! I award you 1 internet. Good Job.
@Weebleman That's good info. Very encouraging. I may have to try it. What external drive are you using that's working well?
PS4 Pro, I had a mechanical HDD, and had it set to turn off in 2 hours and it was fine, but maybe that's not working on PS5....I'll increase that setting if I add the drive!
Whoo!! Just in time for me to not get one due to shortages!
At least the money I save not buying from scalpers can go to getting more memory.
Silver linings, hey?
Is it just me or is the space on the PS5 SSD absolutely fine? I thought I’d have to micro manage but I’ve got No Mans Sky, RDR2, p5 royal, overcooked all you can eat, MH world, crash trilogy, god of war, resogun, and the uncharted trilogy...still got like 190GB spare! Maybe I should be glad I don’t play call of duty!
Good the sooner the better I'm sick of deleting games its a joke to be honest and it's a joke the size of the ps5 hard drive. 😡
@NEStalgia im using the same 2tb WD mechanical drive i used on my pro (just to save downloading everything on a new one, easier to just plug it over). I always had the pro stay on for a few hours to charge pads and then knock off. It just acts like youve pulled the connection on PS5 though. So far its been all good since i just left them on.
@Weebleman Oh, haha. Maybe I should just bring over my 2tb WD drive I had on the 4! I figured at least an SSD is important, but on the PS5, unlike XSX, I don't see any speed boost from using the SSD. The internal one, anyway. Maybe...maybe...I should tempt fate and give it a try.
@deathaxe
I respect yourself and humans are capable of doing these things.
However quality of life design means making things super simple and easy to do.
Like how the usb stick was designed and a slot in the side of your laptop, to easy expand memory and make it portable.
The more simple something is the more someone is likely buy it and do it.
I get in my car, my key cars stay in my pocket and I push a button to start the car. Simple.
Games consoles over the years have added these quality of life designs to them, simple and easy.
It’s like the PS5 has taken a step backwards in this particular design feature with quality of life design. I.e, stands and bolts, opening things to add memory, which is vulnerable to electric static discharge.
Any designer worth anything would tell you the same.
@NEStalgia yeah for ps4 games the ssd doesnt really offer much over the mechanical speed wise, or that ive noticed anyway. Much more noticable on the xbox but i think its fair to say that microsoft offers better back compat features full stop.
You still get all the extras offered by patches (60fps, resolution boosts, etc...) so i couldnt see much point in using up my internals space with them. Just change your power settings and set it so it'll download any ps4 games straight to the external to save faffing with transfers and you are off.
While I expect those SSD's to be expensive for at least a year, maybe more, I am SO thankful Sony did it the way they did.
By 2023, if not sooner, a compatible SSD for a PS5 will likely cost less - maybe even half the price - of similarly-sized storage for XBox Series XS with their proprietary hardware. And I bet the PS5 will have more options for larger internal storage, too.
I'm slightly worried that the space allowed for it will be a hindrance to really meeting those price predictions...but it's still my prediction (which is worth the electrons it's printed on).
deathaxe
I am fully aware of price that these hard drives would be but to be honest I'd pay the extra just for the convenience worth it at least for me even my series x has more room not by much but it has . As soon as available I will be upgrading no matter the cost to have a choice would have been better. Rather then stuck with crappy small hard drive .
@Weebleman That's pretty cool, I've been so hesitant to do it until now, but maybe I'll give it a go! (Of course the bloated ffvii is going to be a real ps5 game soon so that will have to stay...).
Yeah, I really have not seen performance improvements on the ssd vs the 2.5" spinner on 4pro. Xsx otoh improved load times even from the 8tb 3.5" spinner for the majority of games.) Ffxv still takes forever though.
@Carl-G Same here. That's a feature that should have been available from day 1. There's no excuse why we haven't been able to store PS5 games on external storage, as you've been able to do that on Series X since day 1. Compatibility would be a non-issue since not being able to play them off of an external drive is meaningless.
About fuggin time!
@get2sammyb - Hey Sammy off topic but can't find an article from Push Square on the subject (may be an idea to create one)
I am getting error code NP-103023–9 on my PS5 and have no idea why
Trying to load a PS4 multiplayer (hardware rivals) game
If you or the Push Square team k ow the answer would be appreciated
I have to say that’s a reach to allow users to control the fan speeds, so their PS5’s don’t overheat. Seems like a cop out as the system itself should be doing that automatically. But I bet it’ll be loud when turned up to stop overheating. Doesn’t seem like a very good thermal design?
@S1ayeR74 Agreed. And one of the reasons I got a PS5, is because my PS4 was so freaking loud. I’m worried that it’s going to be the same situation after you add one of these.
"Sony to Unlock PS5 Storage Extension This Summer for the 5 individuals who actually managed to buy a PS5"
I fixed that title for you.
@malbhet you missed a word. You meant the 5 million people. There are a lot of them out there in the hands of consumers. The problem is that there are a lot more people who want them. The scalpers are a niche, but still annoying, problem.
If there is 2tb option that should be the only one you get. What's the point of getting 500 GB on top of the standard 800.
@deathaxe looking at the settings page, it seems all but guaranteed they'll be separate drives. It makes sense from a "what if one drive fails/is removed" point of view, but it does mean potentially more storage admin. Hopefully there will be some simple UI where it allows you to choose a default drive, but then just uses the other if you run out.
@deathaxe hopefully they will be easy once again although my assumption is there will be a larger number of purchases around the summer when sony will let people know the ones we can use. There is hope.
@Medic_Alert lol yes i thought that way til i had a couple of ssds die on me , mechanical lasts longer for me , but hey its what ever works!
have a good one 👍
@Jaz007 hey dont shame my commador64 i waited 20mins or more to play a game lol
true but it was so nice to have all my ps4 games on a external hdd , like i have my steam on , we all dont like change lol ive have to look up m.2s again.
My guess with the fan update is that you won't able to turn it much but you will be able to turn it up. It's just a guess, though.
@awp69 I actually left PlayStation and just got a Series X, one of the reasons being I was sooo fed up with how loud both my PS4 and PS4 Pro were, I should not have to wait a year to buy a console simply because it takes Sony that long to make a quiet running model revision. It should be like that day one. I have to say this news doesn’t give me confidence in the PS5’s design remaining quiet either.
@Mad001 you might not care about the speeds , but the ps5 games are created around the speed of the hard drive.
@Trajan sorry, 1tb internal, 1tb expansion ssd. It treats them as 2 drives since the expansions are hot swappable, but automatically installs on the expansion when the internal is full so it's semi seamless. Ps5 is annoyingly 1.6gb smaller to start with. That's 3+ average games right there. Ive been playing shuffleboard without an external attached.
For ps5's ssd, doesn't the fan blow through that slot directly? For xsx, yeah there's no air moving over the external ssd. Somehow it stays sufficiently cool. Most of the casing being a giant great spreader is all it needs i guess. Well see come July
@theheadofabroom that was a joke and it went straight over your head lol.
@malbhet I read it as a joke, but that it was using humour to imply that most consoles were in the hands of scalpers. It's hard to read it any other way without more cues given how a few vocal people have been commenting about the situation, and it's kinda tiresome.
If that's not what you meant to communicate, you need to include something that clues the reader into the fact that you're not the fool you're impersonating for comic effect, otherwise you're just doing the job of those fools for them.
@theheadofabroom Just ignore my comments, I'm just salty that I can't get my hands on a PS5 while at the same time mad that SE is in the process of remaking FFVII twice meanwhile I can't even get a Parasite Eve remake.
At least I have Panzer Dragoon II Zwei and hopefully they decide to remake Saga.
This is great news for those that need it, I'll just deal with the default storage space until a Pro model is released.
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