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Game sizes today are pretty big, and getting larger with every generation as games become more complex, graphics get more realistic, and we pack more data into our games. Games and their patch sizes have become ludicrously bloated – we’re looking at you, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – and going forward, with all the advances in gaming technology, we might see game sizes to grow even further. We’ve already revealed initial details about how big certain games have gotten on Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 5 console, but if that holds water across the console divide, like Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla looks to do on Xbox, that might be an issue for gamers who have bought an Xbox Series S.
The Xbox Series X (L) and Series S (R).
As the less powerful and less expensive sibling of the Xbox Series X, the Series S is positioned as the entry point into the next generation of console gaming. Coming with that tag is a smaller solid-state drive than the Series X, at 512GBs of storage. However, not all of that is usable, with the system OS taking up a decent chunk of space, leaving the total usable figure at around 364GB of space. That’s not a massive figure by today’s standards – we’ve largely accepted that 1TB is a logical standard, which is what the Xbox Series X has. The PlayStation 5 has only an 825GB drive, although both consoles’ usable figures are obviously below the total ones.
We know that game sizes on the Xbox Series S can be up to 30% smaller than it’s more powerful counterparts, due to developers being able to ship lower resolution textures and files for the Series S versions of games, but it would still mean that gamers will likely have to keep an eye on the storage monitor on the games and apps page of the dashboard. This issue can be resolved by buying the proprietary storage expansion card, a partnership with Seagate, but at $220, it begs the question of why even get the Series S when the price of the console plus the expansion card drifts close to the Series X, a console with much more powerful internals.
This is bizarre to me, but I’d like to hear your thoughts. Will the Xbox Series S’ storage space cause problems? Would you get it with the expansion storage? Let me know in the comments below!
When I'm not researching games to potentially add to an ever-growing backlog of games I've never finished, I'm scouting the next wonderkid on Football Manager, or adding my 180th hour to my Persona 5 completionist run. Likes games, and likes talking about them. Surprise, right?
