Xbox Series X is officially getting 512GB and 2TB SSD expansion cards

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There are about to be even more options to expand your Xbox Series X's storage

seagate xbox series x expansion cards in 512GB 1TB and 2tb
(Image credit: Seagate)

If you were planning to pick up one of the Xbox Series X expansion cards over the Black Friday deals season, you might want to pay attention. After many rumors Seagate has finally confirmed more storage cards are coming, with 512GB and 2TB options hitting store shelves before the end of the year.

In other words don’t go spending any money on a 1TB card before figuring out whether you’d be better off with one of the new cards. How much space do you really need, and how much are you willing to pay for it?

We’ve already seen the rumors about the 512GB expansion card, which prompted me to ask why there wasn’t a 2TB option. Fortunately Seagate knows what’s up, and with games requiring ever-increasing amounts of storage, the 2TB drive will help you avoid having to micro-manage your SSD.

The downside is that the 2TB card is going to cost $400, almost as much as an Xbox Series X itself, and slightly less than double the price of the $220 1TB cards. The larger card won’t launch until early December, which means it definitely won’t be getting any Black Friday discounts.

If you’re not inclined to spend that much money, the 512GB card will be arriving in mid-November for $139 — $82 cheaper than the 1TB option. You only have around half the amount of space, but you don’t need to spend nearly as much to expand your available storage.

Of course, the prices are only so high for a number of reasons. The main one is that you can only play games on external storage that is as fast as the internal SSD, and that generally involves cutting-edge PCI-e 4.0 NVMe drives. The other is that the Xbox’s expansion cards are proprietary hardware, and currently only Seagate makes them. 

Compare that to the PS5 which has a generic SSD expansion slot, and means multiple companies can develop PS5-compatible cards. Increased competition should, eventually, bring those prices down. But since PS5 storage expansion is still quite new, it might be some time before that happens.

The good news is that last-gen games can be run from any old storage device, including USB hard drives. Current-gen games, including Series X-optimized Xbox One games, can also be stored on USB drives. Just in case you need somewhere to keep game files without having to delete and download or install them again at a later date.

Tom Pritchard
Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.

1 Comment Comment from the forums
  • tommyshenanigans
    You don't need a SSD to play games on Xbox Series X as stated in this article ... my Seagate 8TB non SSD external works fine with all 283 games from my old Xbox One and others added later. Only dif is games load slower from external than from internal SSD. Just keep the games you play most on internal. You can move games from external to internal if/when you play them and the old games you don't play to external. The price (and less storage) of a SSD is not at all worth it IMO.
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