Microsoft has announced that 2TB and 512GB models of Seagate's storage expansion cards for Xbox Series X/S will be joining the existing 1TB model before the end of the year.
As detailed on Xbox Wire, the Seagate 512GB Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X/S is available for pre-order today at Walmart in the United States for $139.99 USD and will be released in the middle of November.
The Seagate 2TB Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X/S will be available for pre-order in November, will cost a bit more at $399.99 USD, and will be released in December. The 2TB model will also be the "next product featuring the Designed for Xbox Limited Series badge, ensuring premium product quality, performance, and design."
For comparison, the original Seagate 1TB Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X/S costs $219.99 USD.
One of the best aspects of these cards is the ability for users to simply plug the card into the Storage Expansion port on the back of their Xbox Series X/S. Users will then be able to use it as they would any other external storage solution. The benefit of using one of these cards as opposed to a standard external hard drive is that these are "designed to match the exact performance of the internal storage of the Xbox Series X/S."
This exact performance is due to the fact they are built on the foundation of the Xbox Velocity Architecture. This custom SSD delivers "2.4 GB/s of raw I/O throughput, more than 40x the throughput of Xbox One." These cards are "the only external SSDs on market designed to leverage the Xbox Velocity Architecture and deliver the exact same performance as the internal SSD."
Considering the Seagate Storage Expansion Cards use the same technology powering the Xbox Series X/S, all games will see "significant improvements in load times" and games will be able to take full advantage of Quick Resume and more.
Microsoft's solution to expanded storage is a much simpler one than that offered by Sony for the PlayStation 5, as the latter requires you to take parts of the PS5 off to install it and ensure that you use a certain SSD with a heatsink to dissipate any additional heat generated by it.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.