HomeWinBuzzer NewsMicrosoft Xbox Series X Trades Storage for Compression Technology

Microsoft Xbox Series X Trades Storage for Compression Technology

While Microsoft is using new compression technology for the Xbox Series X, storage will remain at 1TB as games get larger.

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Anyone who bought a 500GB Xbox One or PlayStation 4 will be aware of the storage limitations of those consoles. With games weighing between 20GB and 100GB, there’s not a lot of room and there’s a constant shuffling of available titles. Microsoft and Sony responded with 1TB consoles but will still not increase storage for the upcoming Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

Game capacity has been increasing for years and it’s a problem gamers face by being forced into download the full game onto their console. However, Microsoft has confirmed the Xbox Series X will come with a 1TB SSD, just like the Xbox One X.

That’s problematic because it severely restricts how many games a player can hold on the console. For example, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare weighs in at 185GB. Of course, not every game is that large, but most major titles are over 50GB.

Games sizes have increased 3x since the launch of the Xbox One, but it seems Microsoft is unwilling to increase storage.

Compression

Instead, the company says it is using BCPack compression technology that could reduce the size of games. Hardware-level decompression in the Xbox Series X allows a new dedicated controller to handle storage.

While that helps performance, Microsoft’s technology can also reduce file sizes by as much as 50 percent. Furthermore, Microsoft will also allow external drives to be connected to the Xbox Series X. Incidentally, Sony will also allow expanded storage on the PS5.

Without adding another drive, it seems games will have to get used to another generation of installing and uninstalling games. Sure, the compression technology may help reduce the footprint of a game, but with titles becoming increasingly large, it seems compression will offset the storage changes rather than solve the problem.

Luke Jones
Luke Jones
Luke has been writing about Microsoft and the wider tech industry for over 10 years. With a degree in creative and professional writing, Luke looks for the interesting spin when covering AI, Windows, Xbox, and more.

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