The launch of theXbox Series Xand theXbox Series Sis less than a week away. Yet, new details about the consoles continue to be shared. One area that has remained mostly nebulous up until recently is exactly how much storage space will be available in next-genXboxconsoles. With official console reviews now coming in, the Xbox Series S’s available digital space has been confirmed, and it’s not the most encouraging.
TheXbox Series S is advertised as featuring a 512GB solid-state drivefor its storage. However, console users don’t get full access to that storage. A significant amount of it is reserved for the console’s Operating System and other essential files. As a result, it’s now confirmed that that Xbox Series S only allows for 364GB of the SSD to be used for video games, apps, save files, and other media.
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By all accounts, 364GB of data is absolutely manageable. There was an Xbox One X with a 500GB hard drive, though it has since been discontinued. Both the initial PS4 andXbox One had 500GB hard drives, too. Xbox Series S users will just have to settle for having fewer games installed at a time, or using a third-party storage device for everything that isn’t in a constant state of use.
However, that doesn’t mean that the limited storage space isn’t problematic. Video games in the last generation have grown in size significantly.Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold Waralone is supposed to be 136GBon next-gen consoles, though that’s an extreme case. Most big game releases fall between 40 and 60GB after installation, which for Xbox Series S users could mean having less than six or seven games installed before having to delete something.
TheXbox Series S’s storage size problemis exacerbated by the fact that it’s an all-digital console. Physical media would allow some data to remain on-disc, rather than having to be fully installed. Though, even that offers limited solace, as games tend to take up a lot of space.
It’s ultimately a somewhat disappointing situation. Microsoft offers a 1TB hard drive for the Xbox One S, so it understands the need for a good amount of space, especially for digital-only consoles. But the Xbox Series S isn’t necessarily comparable to the Xbox One S, as thenew Xbox console uses an SSD, with a much stronger hardware performance. For $300, Microsoft has to be somewhat more economical, and the lack of a 1TB hard drive is just part of the cost Microsoft apparently decided was necessary.
