DF Weekly: Microsoft should make Xbox Expansion Cards cheaper
Why are Xbox Series X/S expansion drives so much more expensive than PS5 equivalents – and should Microsoft put pressure on its suppliers to drive prices down? That was one question on this week’s DF Direct Weekly episode, and one that I’d like to tackle in more depth given that I’ve spent the last two years charting price changes and sharing deals on PS5 SSDs and Xbox Expansion cards alike.
To sum up the current situation, the PS5 can use regular off-the-shelf PC PCIe 4.0 SSDs for its storage expansion, while the Xbox uses proprietary cards made by Seagate and WD which cost far more for a given size. That’s been true for years, but big price drops on PS5-spec drives over the past six months have made the comparison increasingly ludicrous. It’s now possible to get a 1TB SSD that’s technically PS5-compatible for as little as £35, with higher-grade models at the £55 mark. Meanwhile, 1TB Xbox expansion cards debuted at an eye-watering £220 – and have only dropped to £150 for a 1TB model over the same time period.
Of course, the Xbox solution has its advantages – it’s dead easy to buy and install, with only a handful of varieties available with equivalent performance. The Sony solution does require some research – such as a visit to our list of PS5 drive recommendations – and a bit of confidence to take off one of the PS5’s wings, unscrew the drive bay, screw in the SSD and replace everything again. It’s totally achievable within a few minutes, but it’s the sort of thing that you might understandably feel a bit anxious about if you chose a console because you want an easy, plug-and-play experience. On the Xbox side, you just buy the card and push it into the storage expansion port on the back of the console in a few seconds. The ability to move games from console to console in a matter of seconds is also pretty neat – and incredibly useful for our work, as it allows us to quickly compare games on both Series X and Series S.
00:00:00 Introduction00:01:20 News 01: Gamescom: what to expect!00:19:07 News 02: Intel update: Arc DX11 driver, PresentMon Benchmarking00:39:28 News 03: Xbox 360 store shutting down00:51:35 News 04: Immortals of Aveum tech interview01:00:52 News 05: Bomb Rush Cyberfunk launches01:08:36 Should we expect most UE5 titles to struggle with performance? And are upsampling technologies just a crutch in lieu of optimisation?01:23:40 Are you pleased or dissatisfied that the rumoured RTX 4090 Ti may not be getting a release?01:27:26 Could path tracing be beneficial for highly stylised games?01:31:25 The end of the year will be loaded with titles, so how are you planning to keep up?01:35:55 There’s a wide price difference between Microsoft’s Xbox storage cards and regular SSDs. Should Microsoft try to lower their prices?01:40:03 Would moving gaming towards a single platform be beneficial for the industry?01:44:54 What are the best phrases to use for a Digital Foundry drinking game?
Unfortunately, the big advantages of the Xbox approach – that unique form factor and a short list of official drives – also mean that the drives necessarily cost more than their PlayStation counterparts in a capitalist market. That’s a real shame for owners of Xbox Series consoles, but Microsoft could try to make it a bit better – and there are a few options here.
