So yes, you can technically play next-gen games for $299. Or $399, if you prefer the PS5 ecosystem. But realistically, you can’t. The digital version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, for example, currently demands 185GB on a PS4 or Xbox One. The much-anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, meanwhile, is expected to be an 80GB download. That’s already more than 250GB. There will be smaller games, of course, and some titles, like Rare’s Sea of Thieves, have been cleverly shrunk post-release.

Sony

Mark Cerny, the lead architect on the PS4, has also suggested that game sizes could get smaller on the PS5. On a traditional HDD, commonly-requested game elements — a car or mailbox that appears on every road, for instance — are duplicated so they can be quickly retrieved and loaded into the game. A faster SSD, meanwhile, shouldn’t require these duplications. In theory, this means the same game could have a smaller file size on the next set of consoles.

That’s a big assumption, though. Developers could also use the extra space to pack even more detail into their titles, negating the efficiencies of the SSD and creating file sizes that are similar to what we have now.

So here’s the big question: how many ‘triple-A’ games can the Xbox Series S actually hold? If file sizes don’t fluctuate, eight or nine seems likely.

The situation won’t be much better on the PS5, either. The 825GB SSD is better than the original PS4, which only shipped with a 500GB HDD. But again, you’re probably looking at 10 or 12 games max on a drive that size.

How many ‘triple-A’ games can the Xbox Series S actually hold?

Both of these predictions are based on the assumption that all of the advertised storage will be available to users. If huge chunks are taken up by the operating system and basic apps, then you can expect to squeeze even fewer games onto each console’s SSD.

Microsoft and Sony are fully aware of this problem. And the solution, just like previous console generations, is expandable storage. Microsoft has teamed up with Seagate on a 1TB expansion card that supports Velocity Architecture, a combination of features that ensure developers get the best performance out of the Xbox Series S and X. For now, it’s the only SSD that will support next-gen games, though you can use a cheaper drive for older titles, as well as stor