As players likely expected but hoped against, the PlayStation 5's true SSD storage size has been revealed to be much smaller than many were likely expecting, clocking in at a 664GB of the 1TB promised. Storage space is going to be a big issue in the next generation, especially for players who stick to the biggest AAA fare. Franchises like Call of Duty, Destiny, and Grand Theft Auto-style sandboxes can eat away at free space in massive chunks, forcing players to throw other games back to the cloud in order to make room. Juggling between installed games was already an issue in the years of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but it's going to be even more important in the next generation.

This issue is due to the custom SSD drive that fuels both console's improvements in load times and game speed. As PC players have known for quite a few years, SSD technology is a generational leap forward over a traditional hard drive, and such technological leaps require a heavy financial investment. Players can still hook up external storage, but older hard drives won't offer the same snappy experience as what will come inside the box this time around, meaning that players may need to split their games up to keep the biggest and best on the SSD.

As spotted by VG247 in the ongoing Japanese PlayStation 5 previews across the Pacific, the PlayStation 5's default 825GB SSD will not be fully open to players when they get their hands on a machine. Instead, only 664 gigabytes will be open to game installations and save data, with the rest taken up by the PlayStation 5's system software. Sony has already revealed that its launch lineup's storage requirements, which gives a window into what players will be looking at on launch day. A relatively simple title like Sackboy: A Big Adventure will require 32GB, while the Ultimate Edition of Spider-Man: Miles Morales will require 105GB - just under one-sixth of the system's available memory.


Of course, even the sizable footprint of Miles Morales may be dwarfed by some third party titles. On PlayStation 4, Destiny 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare regularly scratch up against the 200GB ceiling, and that number will only increase with the improved 4K graphics allowed by the PlayStation 5. Xbox Series X owners will be in a similar boat with these games, but their SSD is slightly bigger, giving players northward of 850GB available space. With games taking up this much room, that could be enough to install one more big shooter before digging into the storage menu.

Early adopters of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are going to be in a less advantageous position as those who come down the line. That's just how technology has always worked. These machines are on the cutting edge, and bets sometimes don't pay off. The Xbox 360 initially required an adapter to use wireless Internet, and the PlayStation 3's launch console featured controllers that lacked rumble. Two generations later, the games may be shiner, but newfangled solid state drives that make them that way will likely cause more than a few headaches along the way.

PlayStation 5 will be available on November 12, 2020 and globally on November 19.