The PlayStation 5 (or PS5 as it’s known to its friends) will be hitting shelves in the US and Japan this week, and in the rest of the world next week.
However, it looks like getting hold of Sony’s new console will be a difficult task at release. Many people are eager to jump into the next generation and buy a console which boasts several new exciting features, as outlets such as Eurogamer have pointed out in their review.
Amongst these is the new DualSense controller, which could be a game-changer once video game developers start taking advantage of it.
However, and while the console comes fitted with a cutting-edge SSD drive, the space available for game installs is not so great. Actually, the PS5 only offers 667 GB of storage out of the box, which honestly doesn’t seem that much.
This is due to the fact that modern games are demanding more and more storage space, as install sizes have gotten bigger throughout this generation. For instance, new games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has an install size close to 200 GB on PS4, which is a hell of a lot of space indeed. Other recent, highly acclaimed games like The Last of Us Part II also have big install sizes – almost 100 GB of space are needed to play Naughty Dog’s zombie adventure game.
Other upcoming PS5 games will have similarly big size requirements: Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Launch Edition comes in at a hefty 105 GB (this includes Spider-Man Remastered though), Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be 133 GB, while the Demon’s Souls remaster will require 66 GB.
So it’s not so hard to imagine some PS5 users running out of storage space soon after they get hold of the console – and sadly, there won’t be a way to expand the PS5’s SSD storage at launch. This is because Sony still has to test third-party solid state drives to make sure they cut the mustard, and are as good as the PS5’s internal drive in order to whitelist them, and this could take time. There’s an empty drive bay inside the PS5 ready for users to install any compatible M.2 solid state drives when the time comes.
Another issue is that PS5 games cannot be moved off to an external USB drive – if you want to install a new game and don’t have sufficient space you’ll have to delete any of your currently installed games in order to make room for it.
Of course, this does not affect PS4 games: any backwards compatible PS4 games you own (and the immense majority are according to Sony) can either be installed on the PS5’s internal SSD drive for faster load times or installed to (or moved off to) a USB drive and run from there if you wish.
The PS5’s limited internal storage could be causing headaches for players this holiday season, then. Saving that storage for PS5 games, and installing PS4 games to an external drive seems to be the best solution, and it looks like this will be the case until Sony starts approving third-party SSD drives for use with the PS5 at some point in the future.
Read more: Should you buy a PS5 this year?
PS5 console (Sony)