Xbox Series X Expandable Storage

That's insane! I expected about £180. But anyway I was always going to use my existing drive and just transfer stuff across. Xbox have done an explainer re drives here just this minute.

 
smyths toys had 1 up the other day and its was £159 but came down fast
 
Thing is they've shrunk the internal SSD into this card format for cooling purposes and matched the internal spec exactly with a proprietary connection. That was never, ever going to be cheap. I can understand why they've done it because one imagines the mess of consumers trying to get a drive of the right spec and Xbox's point is their drive metrics are sustained performances whereas SSD specs listed for PCs are not sustained - so you'd likely have to buy one of greater speed to ensure some redundancy.

But still the price is crazy - but expected.

EDIT: Just talked about this with our IT guy at work on teams chat and he says this will be selling at a huge loss. Reckons hotswappable cards of this speed and size don't even exist so they've had to build something new. Yikes!
 
I like the tech and I know I’ll run with a big backlog of games so I’ve pre-ordered one, but ouch, expensive.
 
Xbox Wire: Why does the 1TB Storage Expansion Card cost $219.99?

Jason Ronald:
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. 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 and available this holiday.

Xbox Wire: Why did you decide to create a custom solution rather than enabling users to install off-the-shelf SSDs?

Jason Ronald:
The Xbox Velocity Architecture delivers over 40x the performance of a standard hard drive, unlocking a new level of speed and performance that will virtually eliminate load times and enable new levels of innovation. To make this simple for both gamers and developers, we partnered closely with our friends at Seagate to deliver the very first 1 TB expandable storage solution that matches the exact performance of our internal SSD. This means that you can be confident you will receive the exact same next generation experience regardless of whether or not you are playing your games from the internal SSD or the Seagate Storage Expansion Card. Working with Seagate also enabled us to have a custom storage solution that is super compact, plug & play, and available at the launch of Xbox Series X|S .

Xbox Wire: Will all Storage Expansion Cards come from Seagate or could we see them from other companies as well?

Jason Ronald:
Seagate, with a storied history as a critical innovator in the storage industry, was our first choice to collaborate with to provide expandable storage solutions for the Xbox Velocity Architecture. Xbox is continuing to invest in the Expandable Storage category on Xbox Series X|S with goal of offering choice for Xbox fans, including additional capacities and implementations in the future.

A Primer on the Simple and Custom Storage Options Available for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S at Launch - Xbox Wire
 
Yikes, so for those with Series S, they will be better off spending the extra to get the Series X.
 
Yikes, so for those with Series S, they will be better off spending the extra to get the Series X.

Depends if you are happy to store games on a USB and spend a couple of minutes transferring them across and managing storage that way.
 
Yikes, so for those with Series S, they will be better off spending the extra to get the Series X.
Or just managing the hard drive contents better. I've lived with a 500gb SSD in my PC for 5 years, deleting and downloading games, this wont be a problem for me.
 
Awesome, I’ll get 3
 
Amazing tech or not, stupidly overpriced considering you can get a console for £30 more.

I won't be needing one. I have an ext SSD if needed but I manage with a 500gb SSD currently on the One X so 1tb will be more than enough.
 
£220 isn’t a bad price actually for what it is. I await to see Sony’s solution and the price of compatible drives, what is it faster then 9GBPS they have to be I think, and even then they still won’t performs as fast as the internal drive, Microsoft guarantee their expansion card will.
 
I'm sorry it's a terrible price for what it is. It's a 1tb storage drive and is £30 cheaper than a next gen console with half the size.
 
£220 isn’t a bad price actually for what it is. I await to see Sony’s solution and the price of compatible drives, what is it faster then 9GBPS they have to be I think, and even then they still won’t performs as fast as the internal drive, Microsoft guarantee their expansion card will.

If Sony’s is that price it will be stupidly over priced too.
 
Maybe consoles are subsidised to some extent and accessories not ? Just a thought
 
I'm sorry it's a terrible price for what it is. It's a 1tb storage drive and is £30 cheaper than a next gen console with half the size.

I mean it’s a terrible price to double storage on a console that costs more or less the same or double. Absolutely. The problem being that it’s almost certainly being sold at cost at best...it’s not a cheap solution but the whole I/O in the console requirements makes it tricky. You can’t just plug any SSD in. It’s a neat solution but way too expensive for most.

Assuming it’s built on CFexpress tech - not sure what else it can be - look up price of those cards....eye watering.
 
it would be crazy to think thats almost half the cost of the series X which has 1tb of storage
 
Jeepers.... I will have a stack on xbox series s... one for each game.
 
Depends if you are happy to store games on a USB and spend a couple of minutes transferring them across and managing storage that way.

A couple of minutes? Lol. Not at the size of some of these games!

Any way, at £220 feels expensive, but being necessary for the performance needed to run these games, it's expected. Unless I get to a point where having to move games about actually frustrates me I'll wait till there is a bigger one. Seems pointless forking out for a 1Tb now, then a 2 Tb in a couple of years. I'll try make do for now.
 

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