Xbox Series X/S gets cheaper storage expansion cards from Western Digital

Xbox Series X and S are getting a new range of storage expansion cards from Western Digital. Coming under the company’s gaming brand, WD_Black, these new cards are the first alternative we’re seeing to Seagate’s options.

Western Digital has now undercut Seagate on the pricing with its new cards. WD_Black’s new Xbox storage expansion cards are now available, starting at $79 for the 512GB variant, and $149 for the 1TB version. Western Digital is throwing in a free one-month subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to sweeten the deal.

There’s no exact performance numbers, but the product page does say you’ll get a performance similar to the internal storage. It also says that these cards are Quick Resume compatible. This means that these cards will likely have the same performance as the Seagate options.

Cheaper Xbox storage expansion is finally here

When Microsoft first released the Xbox Series X and Series S, there was a lot of hype around the storage expansion slot because of the plug-and-play interface and internal storage-level performance. However, there weren’t many options at launch. Series X/S launched with the Seagate Xbox expansion card in 1TB capacity, but it came at a high price of $219.99 / £219.99. 512GB ($139.99) and 2TB ($399.99) versions joined the lineup later, in late 2021.

The price tag was still pretty high, and Seagate has since then cut the prices down to $90, $150 and $280 respectively, but Western Digital is still coming in at a lower price at launch. There’s no 2TB version as of now, however, so if you want a lot more storage, Seagate is still the way to go.

PS5 still has the advantage with cheaper SSD options, but with this new launch, Xbox storage expansion is on the way to be more affordable. WD_Black’s Xbox storage expansion cards are now available via the Western Digital website, with wider retailer availability expected in the coming weeks.