Sony reportedly set to open up PS5 for internal storage this summer
Heating up.
Sony will open up the PlayStation 5 for internal storage upgrades this summer, according to a new report.
Bloomberg says this support for additional drives will come alongside a firmware update that unlocks higher cooling fan speeds to prevent the console from overheating.
Next generation games for PS5 can only be run from the console's internal storage, which makes just 667GB available for game installs. When you consider the install size of some games, such as Call of Duty, the PS5 can fill up fast.
Exacerbating the problem is the fact that currently, there's no way to move PS5 games off the SSD. Thus far, Sony has not whitelisted any third-party M.2 NVMe drives for extra solid state drive space.
According to Bloomberg, after the planned firmware upgrade goes live, PS5 users will be able to take a plastic cover off the PS5 and attach a new storage unit.
Sony did not confirm the release timing of the upgrade, but did say it was working to enable M.2 SSD storage expansion for PlayStation 5.
In November 2020, Sony said "explorations for allowing players to store (but not play) PS5 games on a USB drive in a future update are underway".
You can, however, store and play PS4 games from a compatible USB drive connected to PS5.
In October 2020, Sony signalled it would optimise the PS5's internal fan with online updates. Yasuhiro Ootori, VP of mechanical design at Sony Interactive Entertainment's hardware design division said Sony would optimise the fan control based on data on the Accelerated Processing Unit (APU)'s behaviour in each game.
"Various games will be released in the future, and data on the APU's behaviour in each game will be collected," Otori said. "We have a plan to optimise the fan control based on this data."
The PS5 has a double-sided air intake fan, which is 120mm in diameter and 45mm thick. The console uses a temperature sensor inside the APU as well as three temperature sensors on the main board to control the fan speed. And it's these fan control parameters Sony can tweak via online updates.