Sony’s PlayStation 5 will begin supporting internal storage upgrades this summer, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Per the outlet’s sources, Sony will enable storage upgrades through a firmware update that unlocks higher cooling fan speeds to ensure the console doesn’t overheat.
Should this happen in the summer, it would alleviate one of the PS5’s major shortcomings. As it stands, both the standard PS5 and its all-digital variant feature 825GB of storage, but only 667GB is actually usable since the remaining 158GB is taken up by the operating system, updates and other console features.
However, the PS5 only supports external hard drives for storing PS4 games, so there’s currently no viable storage solution outside of deleting games to clear up space.
Meanwhile, PS5 games routinely take up more than 40GB, with some, like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, well exceeding 100GB. Therefore, PS5 owners often are only able to have a small number of games on their consoles at a given time.
Since the PS5 launch in November, Sony has promised that it will eventually support SSD storage expansion, but no timeline has yet been given. At launch, Sony said it needs to run compatibility tests on the various SSDs on the market before it could offer support for them.
“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,” a Sony spokesman told Bloomberg.
Once storage expansion is enabled, PS5 owners will be able to remove the front plate of the console to insert a compatible SSD.
Source: Bloomberg
