Sony PS5 won't support SSD storage expansion at launch

As reported by The Verge, Sony said that while the PS5 will ship with a dedicated internal slot for inserting stand-alone SSD units, it won't be compatible with them right out of the box.

"The slot for expandable storage will be disabled until the update arrives,": the report said on Thursday.

PlayStation 5 will include a lightning-fast 825GB solid-state drive on release, and Sony has previously confirmed owners will be able to expand that SSD storage space via the console's dedicated internal M.2 slot.

PlayStation hardware architect Mark Cerny spent several minutes talking up the SSD storage expansion feature as part of his technical preview back in March, but he also said at the time that support was likely to be "a bit past" launch.

In a previous discussion about the SSD, Cerny clarified that Sony wanted to have this available at launch but not all M.2 SSDs are fast enough to keep true to PS5 performance goals.

The PS5 will support USB external storage at launch and this will be a good way to play PS4 games or those that don't need to utilise the faster speed of the SSD.

The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, on the other hand, will support expandable SSD storage at launch with the official 1 TB Seagate Storage Expansion Card that will fit into a dedicated slot on the back of the consoles.

Sony PlatStation5, likely to arrive next month globally amid the initial pre-order mess, will cost Rs 49,990 in India and the PS5 Digital Edition will be available for Rs 39,990.