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?
About the author: Professional writer of trivial things. Nathan has been covering games, entertainment, and online culture for over a decade with bylines at IGN, GameSpy, Cracked, Uproxx, ComicBook, and more. Joined Wccftech gaming team in 2017, and has written hundreds of game reviews and thousands of news stories since.
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