Sony to Open PlayStation 5 for Storage Upgrades in Summer

(Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp. is preparing to open up its PlayStation 5 for internal storage upgrades this summer, lifting a bottleneck that prevents gamers from having more than a few marquee games on their console at one time, people briefed on the plan said.

Adding support for additional drives will be enabled with a firmware update that also unlocks higher cooling-fan speeds to ensure the console doesn't overheat, the people said, asking not to be named because the plans are not yet public. The PlayStation 5 comes with a custom solid-state drive with around 667GB available for storing games, apps and media -- at a time when the latest Call of Duty game needs 133GB of installation space and most major titles take up at least 40GB each.

Sony's latest console has a customized architecture that accelerates loading and processing times, but makes it impractical to plug in an external hard drive, the typical way gamers add storage. Such a drive can only be used for older PS4 games. After the planned firmware upgrade, players need only take a plastic cover off the PS5 and attach a new storage unit to address the current limitations.

“As previously announced, we are working to enable M.2 SSD storage expansion for PlayStation 5. The timing has not been announced and details will be shared later,” a Sony spokesman said.

Read more: Sony, Microsoft Consoles Struggle With Thin Launch-Day Stock

The PlayStation 5 has been in high demand since its launch in November, with various supply chain and logistics issues preventing the Japanese electronics giant from delivering sufficient units. Constrained supply has also been a problem for rival Microsoft Corp., which warned its latest Xbox console generation is unlikely to see relief before June at the earliest.

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