WD Black explains why there aren’t more Xbox Series X internal storage cards

TechRadar Gaming is reporting live from Gamescom 2023 on the latest and greatest developments in gaming and hardware.

Hardware manufacturer WD Black was in attendance at Gamescom 2023, and TRG had the chance to sit down with the head of product marketing, Ruben Dennenwaldt, to discuss the state of storage options for both Xbox Series X|S and PS5.

One thing that is striking this console generation is that when it comes to the best Xbox Series X hard drive and SSDs, there really isn’t much to choose from. Especially when compared to what’s offered on PS5.

With this in mind, we spoke to Dennenwaldt about the release of the WD Black C50, which felt like a refreshing product release considering the only other internal storage solution for Xbox Series X|S was, up until that point, the Seagate Xbox Storage Expansion Card.

There’s clearly a demand for more internal storage cards for Xbox this generation, so we asked Dennenwaldt why there weren’t more beyond WD Black and Seagate’s offerings. “It’s because it’s just not that easy,” he explains, “we’re not talking about a standard interface. It’s a proprietary interface that only fits the Xbox Series X|S.

“That’s something Microsoft owns,” he continues, “so you have to work with Microsoft to come to an agreement so you can have a licensed product. That’s something that takes a lot of time, and that’s probably why there are not more companies offering a product.

“If you compare it to Sony, Sony has a more standard interface. It’s an M.2 interface. So technically you could use any M.2 SSD for your PS5. Is it a good idea to do that? Probably not, because there are minimum requirements, and Sony pretty clearly specifies what kind of heatsinks the product needs to have.”

Ultimately though, Dennenwaldt is correct in that storage solutions are more plentiful on PS5, as opposed to Xbox. A quick glance at our best SSDs for PS5 page will show you that there’s a staggering amount of options available at a wide range of budgets. And that goes for WD Black’s offerings, too.

The company launched a revised officially licensed WD Black SN850 for PS5 which doubled the capacity from 2TB to 4TB, as the PS5 supports this capacity. Based on this information, it could only be a matter of time before we see a new iteration of the WD Black C50 with a higher storage capacity.

In that regard, Dennenwaldt wasn’t able to give us any specifics, but he seemed optimistic about the state of storage solutions moving forward. “Sony launched beta firmware a couple of weeks ago, and that now supports up to 8TB. So that gives you an indication of where things are going. And console manufacturers do see the need to increase storage with game sizes growing.”

For more information on top Xbox products, consider browsing our best Xbox Series X and Series S accessories page, as well as our guide to the best Xbox Series X games for choice recommendations.

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