The PlayStation 5's Best Storage Expansion Option Won't Be Ready At Launch

The PlayStation 5 is nearly here, but those of you thinking of buying an SSD for the console's expansion slot right away will probably want to hold off. As it turns out, you won't be able to use that expansion slot from day, which limits your internal storage options to the SSD that ships with the console. While that has the potential to fill up fast with the games that will be available on launch day, you won't be entirely limited in your options.

So says The Verge, with spoke to Sony about the matter of expandable storage on the PlayStation 5. Sony says that the the M.2 expansion slot inside the PlayStation 5 won't even be active on launch day – for that, we'll have to wait for a software update that enables the drive sometime after launch.

As The Verge points out, PS5 lead architect Mark Cerny actually indicated this would be the case during his PS5 deep dive at GDC 2020 (or what should have been GDC 2020, at any rate). The issue is that there are few – if any – that work with the PS5 at the moment, whether it's a question of speed, size, or overall compatibility. So, for some period of time after launch, that expansion slot in the PS5 will be disabled.

That could potentially be bad news for PS5 owners, because the console's SSD only clocks in at 825GB, with a fair portion of that no doubt taken up by the PS5's operating system. With AAA games as big as they are, that means users could potentially run out of storage space pretty fast.

Thankfully, users won't be limited to just that single internal drive as they wait for Sony to ship this software update, because USB external drives will work too. If you've got a bunch of PS4 games you're looking to carry forward to your PlayStation 5, an external drive like that could very well be the play until the console supports M.2 expansion drives (and those drives are readily available).