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A gamer girl holding a PS5 controller with a video screen in the background A gamer girl holding a PS5 controller with a video screen in the background

The best storage options for gaming consoles

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Jan 2022
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In this age of increasing game sizes, gaming consoles are starting to require a lot more storage in order to keep up. For console gamers, having enough storage is crucial to make sure that you have enough space for all your games. 500GB used to be sufficient, but as game sizes increase, more storage is required to support those big and dynamic worlds. Considering the somewhat limited amount of storage space on the PlayStation® 4/5, Xbox® Series X/S and Nintendo Switch™, this article will look at some of the best storage options available for your gaming console.

Internal SSDs

Has your game collection filled the drive on your PS5™? Well, the chances of this are pretty high, seeing as the PS5 comes with an 875GB SSD, but some of this space is needed for the system software, leaving you with only 667.2GB for games, apps, screenshots etc. With many of the best PS5 games requiring at least 40GB of storage, adding more storage to the PS5 is necessary for most gamers and their growing game libraries.

In September 2021, Sony offered a solution for PS5 owners. Sony has added the ability to install your own internal SSD to your PS5 in order to expand its storage. This is great news for PS5 users as they will now be able to add more storage to their gaming console as their game libraries expand.

However, you can’t just install any internal SSD into a PS5, it must be a PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe drive that meets all of Sony’s strict and specific requirements. Make sure that you visit Sony’s{{Footnote.A65222}} website before buying a new internal drive for your PS5 and read their M.2 SSD requirements for PS5 consoles.

Kingston FURY™ Renegade PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD works with PS5 and is a great option for PS5 gamers looking to expand their storage. If you’re looking to upgrade the internal storage on your PS4™, check out our KC600 2.5” SSD.

USB flash drives

USB flash drives aren’t just a good fit for adding storage to your gaming PC, they’re also a great option for expanding the storage on your gaming console. If you find yourself deleting games to make room for newer titles, a USB flash drive could be the solution you’re looking for.

PlayStation owners, it’s important to note that you can’t play PS5 games directly from a USB flash drive as they were developed with extremely fast storage in mind. But you can store PS5 games on a USB flash drive and copy them over to the PS5’s SSD{{Footnote.A65223}} or your internal SSD when you’re ready to play them.

However, while PS5 games can’t be played from a USB flash drive, PS4 games can. Don’t let the PS4’s internal drive hold you back{{Footnote.A65224}}, use a USB flash drive to store your games so that you don’t have to delete any of your favourites.

Kingston’s DataTraveler® Kyson with USB Type-A and capacities up to 256GB can be used for storing PS4 games, while the DataTraveler® Max with USB Type-C and capacities up to 1TB can be used for storing PS5 games.

USB flash drives can also be used to create extra space for the Xbox Series X/S{{Footnote.A65225}}. With the Xbox Series X coming with a 1TB SSD, and the Xbox Series S coming with a 512GB SSD once you start installing a few games you can soon run out of storage. Sign-up for Xbox Games Pass and this built-in drive will fill up even faster. Use an USB flash drive as storage for unused games in order to save the hassle of redownloading them all the time. Our DT Kyson USB flash drive can be used for storing older and newer Xbox games, and for playing older Xbox games. It cannot be used for playing the newly designed Xbox Series X/S games.

microSDs

Are you running out of storage on your Nintendo Switch? This is a pretty common issue on the Nintendo Switch, as it only comes with 32GB of internal storage, and a portion of that is reserved for use by the system. You might be able to download several games, but with most games requiring at least 10GB of space you will quickly use up the internal storage. The good news is that expanding your Nintendo Switch’s storage is as easy as inserting a microSD card into its built-in microSD card slot.

microSD cards come in a range of storage capacities and how much storage you need really depends on how many games you want to download and play. We recommend a high capacity card like 128GB in order to give you the flexibility of playing a wide range of games. But if you don’t want to worry about filling up your microSD card, maybe even consider a 512GB card; more storage, means more games! Kingston’s Canvas Go! Plus microSD will be a perfect choice for your Nintendo Switch.

Conclusion

These days the internal storage on gaming consoles just isn’t enough for the majority of gamers. Don’t let your lack of storage stop you from playing your favourite games, invest in a suitable storage option and keep gaming!

#KingstonIsWithYou #KingstonFURY

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