MS Executive says Devs will need to learn how to work around Slower SSD on XSX

[DonFerrari]

padib said:

shikamaru317 said:

Wait, are you telling me that PS5 doesn't have 2nd, empty internal SSD slot? I could have swore I read somewhere that it does. If it only has the one slot, that is even worse than I thought. It would mean that you will have to replace the 825 GB one it comes with with something larger in order to get more storage, which will be even more expensive. On XSX, you should be able to buy a 1 TB SSD cartridge to pop in the expansion slot on the back for about $150 (the price of a 1 TB NVMe SSD currently), doubling your maximum storage from 1 TB to 2 TB. On PS5 you would have to wait until SSD's as fast as the internal one are available off the shelf, and then buy a 2 TB one, which would likely cost $300+, if not $400+. 

At minute 21 of the road to PS5 video, he talks about the expandability of the internal storage. Indeed there seems to be an internal bay (20:55 of the video), but it only supports certain M.2 SSDs.

This article is also interesting:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinmurnane/2020/03/25/the-xbox-series-x-has-a-good-solution-when-its-ssd-gets-full-the-ps5-doesnt/

I'll quote the most relevant part:

"Sony took a different approach. Instead of designing for a custom external SSD, Sony opted to include an SSD-ready internal drive bay. There are two problems with this. The first is there currently are no SSDs to go in the bay. SSDs have to work with the PS5’s advanced technology and those SSDs don’t exist yet. Mark Cerny, the PS5s lead system architect, cautioned that once these SSDs are built, they have to be vetted by Sony to make sure they fit in the bay that’s provided and work with the PS5’s custom tech. That’s going to take time. Cerny expressed hope this problem will be solved before the PS5 launches, but he counseled patience because it might not be."

It's just that your original post was kind of wrong because Sony won't be selling SSDs, and also because it will be possible to purchase an additional M.2 SSD even though it will be limited to certain vendors and will happen after launch (time 23:30 of the road to PS5 video). Otherwise your conclusion matches the article and makes perfect sense so it shouldn't have been bashed, just corrected.

I missed the bay availability, good catch.

Cerny wasn`t explicity so I`ll take my interpretation. Sony will validate SSDs but that will only give us safety on choice, but the system won`t discriminate if Sony analyzed that model or not, if it fits in the bay, have required speed (and possibly layers) it will work even if Sony never validated it. Since the new standard for SSD seem to go over 7Gb/s and Sony doesn`t offer a proprietary format it is quite possible that some vendors will make SSDs available close to launch and claim compatible with PS5 (not sure how much they can say without a partnership thought).