One of the notable little differences between the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S are the way Sony and Microsoft’s consoles handle storage expansion. For the PS5, it’s a somewhat fiddly process that requires you to open up your console, but on the plus side, you can use an off-the-shelf PCIe Gen4 solid-state drive so long as it meets Sony’s baseline requirements. On the other hand, Microsoft opted for a discrete plug-and-play storage expansion card, which is certainly easier to install, but it comes at a cost – namely, cost. Thus far, only Seagate makes the XSX storage expansion cards, and they’ve been charging a pretty penny for them -- $140 for 512 GB, $220 for 1 TB, and $400 for 2 TB.
Well, thankfully, that's changed as the Xbox Series X/S storage expansion cards are now being sold at a significant discount. Going forward, the 512 GB card is $90, 1 TB is $150, and 2 TB is $280. These aren’t sales, but rather, the new standard price for the cards. Still a bit pricey, but now the 512 GB card is in a reasonable mainstream consumer price range.
This discount comes after a new 1 TB Xbox Series X/S storage expansion card from manufacturer Western Digital was leaked by Best Buy. Much like new price for the 1 TB Seagate card, the Western Digital “WD_Black” card was priced at $180. The new Western Digital card has yet to be officially announced, but it seems like it’s only a matter of time at this point.
Here are the key features for Seagate’s Xbox Series X/S storage expansion cards…
Seamless gameplay - Designed in partnership with Xbox to seamlessly play Xbox Series X games from the internal SSD or the expansion card without sacrificing graphics, latency, load times, or framerates.Exclusive to Xbox - The only available expansion card that replicates the Xbox Velocity Architecture - providing faster load times, richer environments, and more immersive gameplay.Quick resume - Switch between titles in seconds - directly from the internal SSD or the expansion card.High capacity – 512 GB to 2 TB of storage increases the overall capacity of the Xbox Series X|S - collect thousands of games across four generations of Xbox without sacrificing performance.What do you think? Planning to upgrade your Xbox storage in light of this price cut?