Microsoft has confirmed its plan to release Xbox Series X|S 512GB and 2TB Seagate expansion cards later this year.
It isn’t that shocking to learn that Xbox is looking to give more expansion card options to Xbox players. Especially since the 512 GB expansion card model was previously leaked last month. The 512 GB expansion card model is set to launch in the US sometime in mid-November. The expansion card will cost $140 USD which is $80 cheaper than the 1 TB model.
Speaking of TB, the 2 TB model was a little more shocking to hear about for a couple of reasons. Those reasons are that it wasn’t included in the initial leak and how much the 2 TB actually is which will release sometime in early December for $400 USD. Just for comparison’s sake that is $100 more than a Nintendo Switch and the same price as a digital edition PS5, so if you’re looking to majorly expand your console storage then you’ll have to put a lot of money down.
In anticipation of the release of the 1 TB expansion card last year, Xbox director of program management Jason Ronald explained why the expansion cards are so expensive.
“The Xbox Velocity Architecture is a key innovation of our next generation consoles, delivering unprecedented speed and performance enabling transformative gaming experiences never before possible on console,” Ronald said in a blog post last year.
“This level of consistent, sustained performance requires advanced components which comes at a higher cost than traditional hard drives or SSDs often found in PCs. By partnering with an industry leader in Seagate, we worked together to deliver an expandable storage solution which delivers identical performance at the lowest cost possible.”
Right now the Seagate Expansion cards are the only way to officially expand your new Xbox’s storage and play Series X|S games natively on it. External hard drives can’t do this as their read/write speeds are far slower than the console’s internal SSD. The hard drive however can still be used to play Xbox One and 360 backward compatible games from the device.
