As we close in on a month until the release of the Xbox Series X, more details regarding the console are surfacing as media across the globe starts getting its hands on the hardware.
We’ve done a roundup of the need-to-know details about the console, with much of the information focusing on the console’s backwards compatibility and storage capabilities.
The latest bit of news to come out of the preview period for the Series X takes a look at the internal storage, which officially clocks in at 1TB but could actually be significantly less than that based on reports.
The storage in the Series X comes in with a 1TB custom NVMe SSD, whereas the Series S comes with 512GB Custom NVMe SSD. The goal here for the Series X was to make a console that is fast, responsive and seamless, with its quick SSD sure to speed things up on the loading side of things. Fingers crossed for the end of game loading screens completely.
The concern for the Series S is that it doesn’t have a disc drive, which alone isn’t cause for concern but given it’s a digital-only console, only 512GB of storage seems a little low, especially given the size of some games and updates these days. Modern Warfare alone would take up around a third of the console’s total internal storage.
You can expand the console’s storage — thankfully — with a 1TB proprietary expansion card coming directly from Microsoft, which will plug directly into the console, Sega CD style.
Before you opt to drop quite a few quid on these external cards — Series X SSD cards will cost $359 AUD — you’ll have to make do with the internal storage, but how much storage will you actually have at launch?
A report on IGN details how the console’s operating system, which power’s the Series X’s UI, clocks in at around 200GB.
That means that a starting point of 1TB on the Series X is actually 800GB. Media hasn’t been able to verify this with the Series S, but if we assume its OS to be the same size, that leaves only 300GB of storage for games to be stored on the digital-only version of the next-generation Xbox.
This is warning signs for the Series X and Microsoft: while it netted an initial win against the PS5’s internal storage, which is 825GB, Microsoft has form when it comes to large amounts of OS data.
The Xbox One X, for example, was similarly large at 200+ GB. Comparatively, the PS4 Pro’s was less than 100GB. That means the PS5, while offering gamers almost 200GB less overall storage, could make up much of that with less of the overall internal storage used on the OS.
What are your thoughts on the above? Does the impact of the OS change your purchase intent when it comes to the Series X? Sound off in the comments below!
