PlayStation 5 contains a dedicated slot to connect an optional solid-state drive but which has remained locked since launch. That storage expansion functionality will reportedly become available in the coming months of summers.
According to a report by Bloomberg earlier today, Sony Interactive Entertainment plans to release a new firmware update in summers that will finally allow PS5 owners to connect secondary solid-state drives for additional storage options.
The same firmware update will also grant access to the internal cooling fans of PS5 so that players can control the fan-speeds for heat management. These fan management settings were previously promised by Sony to arrive somewhere down the road. It is only fitting that they arrive alongside the storage expansion feature because as reported last year, some players who did try connecting their expansion drives to PS5 ended up either bricking or overheating their console.
PlayStation 5 offers only 667 GB of storage space by default to install games. That is nowhere near what players require these days for modern-day triple-a games which can easily take up 70-80 GB on average. Call of Duty, as an extreme example, can taken nearly 500 GB if players are interested in installing both recent installments—Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War—and Warzone. The ability to connect an external solid-state drive hence becomes pretty important.
That being said, it remains to be seen what types of SSD storage expansion drives Sony will be whitelisting by summers. PS5 features a custom lightning-fast solid-state drive. Optional storage expansions based on that same technology are likely going to be pretty expensive to purchase.
Elsewhere, Sony knew beforehand that storage management would be an issue on PlayStation 5. The new console hence makes use of a new compression technology which developers can access to reduce file sizes of their games. Control Ultimate Edition, for example, weighs nearly half on PS5 compared to its Xbox Series X file size.
