PlayStation 5 owners might soon be able to install more than a few games at a time. Bloomberg today reported that, according to “people briefed on the plan,” Sony wants to release a firmware update with support for additional M.2 SSD storage this summer.
The PS5 launched with a custom 825GB SSD—only 667GB of which remained available after the operating system and other extras were installed— complemented by a custom flash controller that features a PCIe 4.0 interface.
That 667GB might seem like a lot, especially compared to last-gen consoles, but saying that PS5 games are storage-hungry would be an understatement. Most people will only be able to have a handful of titles installed at a given time.
Sony previously said the PS5 would support certain M.2 SSDs that meet the same performance requirements as the custom drive that ships with the console. Key factors include PCIe 4.0 support and a read bandwidth of at least 5.5GBps.
The console also offered support for external HDDs at launch, but only for use with PlayStation 4 titles, and Sony didn’t say when the PS5 would be updated with support for additional storage. Bloomberg’s report finally offers a (vague) timeline.
Sony gave Bloomberg this statement: “As previously announced, we are working to enable M.2 SSD storage expansion for PlayStation 5. The timing has not been announced and details will be shared later.” That’s neither confirmation nor denial.
All of which means those lucky enough to have found a PS5 should be able to have more than a few games installed this summer—provided they’re willing to purchase an M.2 SSD that meets Sony’s requirements. We’ll have to see how many are forced to choose between that and, say, a replacement DualSense controller.
