This week, Sony began its promotional tour for the PlayStation 5 by giving select Japanese media members a chance to go hands-on with the next-gen console. Previews and videos from those hands-on experiences revealed new details about the console's cooling, showed off some gameplay, and highlighted its record-breaking size.
However, unofficial details about the PS5 have also leaked this week, potentially revealing more specific information about the console. For example, one leak claims that the available storage space for the PS5's SSD might be far less than players expect.
According to the leak, the PS5's included 825 GB SSD will only allocate about 664GB of usable storage space for games, save files, and other media. This, of course, is unconfirmed and is only supported by an alleged screenshot of the PS5 UI, which could also be faked.
Nevertheless, the idea of less than 700GB of storage space on a next-gen console has some concerned. Depending on file sizes and game type, 700GB can support anywhere between 8-14 new triple-A games. There are plenty of games whose files sizes are much larger than that – like Destiny 2 – but Spider-Man: Miles Morales is said to be 52 GB on PS5, for example.
Usually, a hard drive doesn't offer the advertised storage space, and for consoles that is a significant portion of the hard drive that contains its OS. For example, the Xbox Series X's 1TB hard drive offers about 802GB of storage space, with the OS taking up about 200GB of space.
The good news is that Sony's PlayStation UI and OS do not take up as much space on the SSD, but with a smaller overall size for the drive, there isn't a ton of room for games. Assuming that some PS5 games could be at least 100GB in size (if not larger), then it stands to reason that gamers will need to make choices about what to keep installed and what to delete.
Dwindling hard drive space is nothing new for console owners, who have had to contend with ballooning game file sizes. Just this week, Call of Duty: Warzone's file size exceeded 250GB, making it so that some gamers won't be able to hold it on certain external drives anymore.
Both game file sizes and game prices are increasing in the next generation, but how gamers will be able to respond to that will vary from user to user. For prices, it will likely mean that gamers will become more discerning about which games they purchase at launch. File sizes, however, are harder to contend with since proprietary SSDs that match the functionality of the PS5's included drive are not cheap. Sony has not announced any official pricing or support details for its SSD, but the expandable SSD for the Xbox Series X will sell for $250.
Sony's PS5 console releases November 13, 2020.
Source: Resetera