PS5 Games To Be Region-Free, Can't Be Played On External Storage

With some just counting down the hours, Sony published a long FAQ that will hopefully address many of the things gamers have been wondering about the PlayStation 5. It's a rather mixed bag of information, some bringing joy to PlayStation fans while others are left scratching their heads. One of the best parts is that, following Nintendo's lead with the Switch, PS5 games won't be restricted by region. But while gamers will now have access to more titles, they are now also extremely limited by how much they can install on the towering console.

Region locks have long been the bane of digital content consumers even before it became notorious in video streaming. Nintendo proved three years ago that it really no longer makes any sense these days, aside from regional maturity ratings and censorship. It's definitely reassuring that Sony is embracing a region-free outlook as well.

In the PS5: The Ultimate FAQ games won't be region-locked. Ironically, streaming apps will still be limited by region, as that industry still hasn't moved away from that system.

Unfortunately, the FAQ also confirms that PS5 games cannot be transferred to and played on a USB drive. Given that the PlayStation 5 has a rather limited amount of internal storage, this will leave owners micromanaging their games, which tend to take inordinate amounts of space and bandwidth to download these days. It is also rather ironic given how PS4 games can run on external storage.

That said, Sony says it is investigating the ability to store but not play PS5 games on a USB drive for the future, similar to the Xbox One X. The only storage expansion it is planning on is adding M.2 SSD storage inside that will match the built-in storage's speed. Unfortunately, that also means storage expansion will be more expensive than necessary, not to mention more difficult to install on your own.