Is 500 GB Enough For The Next Generation?

Like probably every other hardcore gamer on the planet, I am looking forward to that day a few months from now when the next generation consoles hit the stores, and I get my very own to hook up to the TV. However, unlike previous generations where the purchases to accompany the console were limited to games and/or an extra controller, there is one pre-console purchase I plan to make in advance. I’m going to get a new hard drive.

Right now, my current plan is to keep an eye out on 2.5”, one terabyte hard drives, and pick one up before the PS4 debuts. Then, the first thing I’m going to do when I take my console out of its packaging is open it up, swap out the stock 500 GB hard drive and put in the new one.

[Excalibur]

Nope, especially when you have to install everything and it's moving to a blu-ray format.

[solidt12]

I think for most people that is enough but for people who game alot like n4g readers we will probably upgrade the hardrive at some point.

[FarEastOrient]

I agree 1TB at minimum

[xX-StolenSoul-Xx]

I bought my white 500gig ps3 last april and it's down to 80gigs left :s All those ps plus games + disc download games took its toll.

500gig is not enough, gladly with the ps4 we could upgrade freely.

[fardan85]

For XB1 & PS4 "no ps+",the 500 GB might be enough. Consider that you will delete the games files if you don't feel like playing the game again, Most people won't go fully digital with their purchases in this gen, so with some management the 500 will be enough.

For PS+ subscribers, you will need a minimum of 1TB. Right now with ps3 & vita, I feel like I'm swimming in a sea of games, I delete games to free space for others every month. You will not need to upgrade right away, once the games for ps4 starts rolling in IGC like now with ps3 then you will find it essential, unless you enjoy to delete games.

[fourOeightshark]

500 GB will be enough for me thanks to the play while downloading feature. Redownloading uninstalled games won't be an issue.

[bumnut]

500GB is plenty of storage, you don't need to have all of your games installed at once.

500GB should be enough for 30 games +

Not all games are big, and don't forget that disc based games include multiple languages.

[kayoss]

500gb is enough for an average gamer. But If you are a PSN plus member, thats not enough. I currently have a 750gb hd on my PS3 and I can tell you that I've already filled up 515gb (had to go check and confirm) with every single PSN plus game offered so far.
If PSN plus follow its trend to the next gen, I dont think 500gb will be enough.

[badz149]

if games are not all mandatory full install, then 500GB is plenty

[GribbleGrunger]

When did Sony say that you have to install everything? As far as I know, you have the choice.

[B-radical]

Agreed i wanna know how external HDs work with next gen consoles.

But anyway it happens every cycle starts of small then goes massive prob be 2tb versions of x1 and ps4 at end of cycle

[duli14]

It will be enough for xbox one, but for PS4 with PS plus I don't think so.

[GameCents]

If the Xbox One allows the use of an external harddrive in tandem with the internal 500 gig then I see no problem.
Obviously you will not be able to play a game off one hard drive while accessing DLC or even music on the other but as long as upgrading doesn't mean having to transfer all data from the internal then I say it's a big win for the consumer.

[B-radical]

I read somewhere xbox one will be able to use external hard drive so should ps4

[Hicken]

That... doesn't quite make sense.

For one, playing a game off an external wouldn't be as fast as an internal, even if it IS through USB 3.0.

For another, that's an extra device you need- most likely formatted and dedicated solely to holding games and saves- in order to play games.

And of course you'd have to transfer the data when upgrading from one internal to another. How else do you expect to upgrade?

And how do you figure it's a "big win" for anybody? If consumers wanna make CERTAIN they've got enough space for a generation of gaming on XBOne, they'll need to add something onto their console. Sorry, but that's not nearly as efficient or sensible as just allowing you to upgrade the internal.

Hell, that's yet another way XBOne is a step backwards from the 360, which allowed you to upgrade(albeit with their own proprietary hard drives that only went up to a certain size).

The best option is to allow consumers to upgrade the internal. THAT would be a win for the consumer.

[GameSpawn]

I always thought this was Microsoft's biggest oversight. They just want control over what hard drives go in their console when really it isn't that big of a deal. I can only think it is that they cannot figure out a way to restore the OS to the hard drive, when a new one is installed, via on-board flash or through a firmware update run via USB (ala PS3) because their OS is too big for this to be feasible.

Also the external USB will never be as fast as native SATA, even if it is USB3.0.

Thank god Sony understands the importance of user replaceable and upgradable hard drives. I liked that I could change out the HDD in my PS3 for an SSD which performs MUCH better and generates considerably less heat (yeah it was more expensive, but it was worth it). The PS4 has already been confirmed to have a user replaceable drive and I plan on getting a 1TB in there come hell or high water. I just hope SSD 1TBs will drop a little in price by the time I get a PS4 because the Crucial M500 is around $600 right now (at $300-400 I'd start consider getting one as an upgrade, otherwise I'll stick with standard HDDs until the price drops).

[Blackdeath_663]

it is if you can replace or upgrade the hard drive

[Gazondaily]

I think it should be. I have hardly used up the 250GB (or so) on my 360.

[Edit]- Actually, as Excalibur mentions, mandatory installs might take up a lot of space.

Still, I'm content with 500GB for now.

[mandf]

@Septic

The 360 didn't use Blu-ray. That format changes the coding of a game to a certain extent. Certain codes are reused on different layers adding up to larger games. Not to mention things aren't as compressed because of the amount of space.

I too have a 250gbs but I can only put 28 games on it with 4gbs left. Look at these current gen games

The last of us 26gb

Call of duty 14gb

tomb raider 9gb

Battlefield 3 13gb

Demon souls 8gb

Vanquish 12gb

Imfamous 16gb

In the seven games I listed is a 100gb right there. That almost half the hard drive. I currently have access to 300 games on the psn store and can only fit 28. That is sad and I won't let it happen to me again.

I was just trying to give you a different way of looking at it.

[Gazondaily]

Ah wow...that put things in perspective!

I suspect a lot of uninstalling/re-installing to happen

+Bubs for helpful

[mandf]

Yes and it sucks waiting. I can't wait for download and start next gen. Thousands of gbs of info aaargrh. I would love to have all my games access-able at once. It's an easy mistake to make. Think about it. Anyone reading do your self a favor and hook it up.

[Serg]

And with the bump in texture sizes, expect games to hit the 50GB ceiling pretty soon. Kojima managed to hit it with current gen 5 years ago already.

God of War III was 33-40GB I believe.

And people are dreaming about a digital only future with their 10MBit connection and 500GB of storage...

[mandf]

@Serg

You are absolutely correct. We going from 720p and mostly lower to native 1080p that in its self is a lot of info. Not to mention 5gb and 7gb so far of the system ram and developers are going to make larger worlds. Games are going to take up a lot of space.

[Serg]

Yup, and while we're on the topic of system ram, fun fact: The XBox One and PS4s total system memory is bigger than ~95% of XBox 360 games (Excluding the few multi disc games).

DVD9, which is the format the 360 uses, has a total capacity of 8,5GB. However, due to the fact that mandated data from Microsoft has to be on every game disc, most games are only a little over 7GB in size. Among other things, developers have to include 480p and 720p (maybe even 1080p, not sure) video tracks of the Xbox 360 intro on the disc, which is played when you insert the disc into a DVD player, telling you to put the disc into a 360.

[NYC_Gamer]

Nope,the installs will eat up that 500gb.

[dcj0524]

No. Give me a terabyte and I'm set all generation.

[colonel179]

60 GB sounded like a great option for PS3 at launch. I actually thought that PS4 and XBox One would launch with at least 1TB, but we'll definitely see that changing in the future. Even more at the end of the console life cycle.

[Cmk0121]

surely not enough. most likely will have to buy upgraded external hard drive for xbox one or upgrade internal one for ps4. buy a 1TB hard drive for like 100 bucks and your gold in this gen i would imagine with 1500 gb for saves

[Allsystemgamer]

I don't think so if there are mandatory installs. 1tb should have been standard with installs in mind. Depending on how the game installs, if like pc then the whole game is put in the drive, then 500 won't be anywhere near enough. Games range from 8-20 gb....generally

[GasTankKiller]

A 500GB drive is nothing these days. I plan on upgrading my PS4 to a 1TB drive and use the 500GB it comes with as an external backup drive.

Hell I'm running out of space on my PS3 and I just upgraded that to a 320GB drive from a 40GB. PS+ killed that drive real fast.

[Thehyph]

Yeah PS+ is pretty hard on storage. While I don't mind at all on ps3, on Vita I got annoyed and just ended up buying the 32GB card. I was bested by proprietary!

[Donnieboi]

Hey do u think that the stock ps4 hdd will be compatibility with the ps3? Because i'm already out of memory for my ps3, but 500gb should be enough for it. I'd rather put a higher sized HDD in the ps4. But my ps3 is in need of an upgrade badly.

[GasTankKiller]

The PS4 is most likely a laptop hard drive just like the PS3. So my guess is yes but we wont know 100% until the PS4 releases.

[RememberThe357]

If they push the gamer intalling then it'll fill up really fast. Especially as the generation moves on and games get bigger.

[despair]

First thing I'm doing with my ps4 is putting a 2tb hdd in it, so no its not a problem.

[johny5]

exactly that's what i'm doing! I already have a 1tb hardrive in my PS3 so it only makes sense.

[Roper316]

nope but luckily 1 company lets you upgrade your HDD with the biggest you can find.

[sandman224]

I'd be happy with 1000 gb. That would be perfect. Mainly because I want to download all my games to the hard drive, and who knows how many gb next gen tittles will be.

[maniac76]

Lmfao 500 gbs.i cant even download drakes off psn cause its so huge,lolz.deffo need option to dl onto official ps4 hdds or sonething.

[Animal Mutha 76]

No.

I started with a 20GB Xbox and now have a 250 where I have to manage space from installs. My PS3 has a 320 in it and that's now chocka.

Battlefield 3 takes up well over 20GB of space alone.

Not allowing a user upgradable hdd in the XB1 is a mistake in my opinion. The only saving grace would be if the OS allowed connection to a NAS drive for more than just streaming. I don't want loads of usb3 drives cluttering up the ports of my xbox1.

A PS4 with 2TB in it and connection to my NAS would be peachy.

[JBSleek]

You could use an external hard drive on the One.

[Animal Mutha 76]

Yes I said I don't want loads of drives cluttering up my ports ^^^^

[svoulis]

I have a 750GB hdd in my PS3 and its only got 30GB left of space. I can't imagine 500GB being enough

[MasterCornholio]

If it isn't you can always upgrade it.

Motorola RAZR i

[Foxgod]

I think il manage with it for the first three years.
After that il just wipe install data of old retail games.

[impet25]

1tb harddrive go for like $70-$80 right now on amazon. But I would rather put a ssd and watch the ps4 fly, they are too expensive right now but totally worth it when you see how much faster everything is.

[calin1010]

Ig you need more than 500 GB, get a life! Even if you have 30-40 games on your console, who plays them on a regular basis? you doon't need so many games at the same time, maybe just to stare at them, I play 2-4 games at once

[hellvaguy]

For most people, 500 will be fine and that's how consoles are designed around. In a few years, I'd say 1 tb will become the standard.

[strigoi814]

If you are PS+ member i think 500 gb isnt enough

[Mr-SellJack]

I have a 250 GB ps3 with plus and it still has room for 47 gb or less.i download the essential games only and avoid the others especially indie games unless they're well received from the critics like limbo.u won't miss out much trust me,and full game trials are useless unless u have fast internet connection

[Mr-SellJack]

That's more than enough don't get why people need more unless they buy their games digital,y don't they delete their trashy games in the games data,your saves and trophies or achievements will remain.Seriously that's a waste of money

[WeAreLegion]

Not if you have PS Plus. My 500 Gb has been full since they released the super slim. :/

[ramiuk1]

xbox one uses 70gb for system though.
500gb,usable about 465gb and then after system u have about 400 on xbone.
record a couple of tv shows etc it will soon fill up(really silly to not allow upgradable HD imo.
i have 1tb in my ps3 and i will be putting it straight into my ps4 on launch day,unless they announce SSD gives major performance and i prob go that route

[Adolph Fitler]

Nowhere near enough for me...I have filled up my 500gig PS3 & have to delete stuff to fit new stuff on. I've just bought myself a 1T HDD & 12gig PS3 to start again.
I wanna throw a 2-3T HDD in my PS4 on day 1.

[MadMen]

They dont want you to have too much, they want you dependent on the cloud.

I think 1TB on anything going fwd should be standard, the days of GB drives on major set top boxes needs to go away.

[clrlite]

I think people should be grateful they are getting a 500gb HD at that price point ($400US PS4).

Obviously an upgrade is in store for many though.

[FanboyCrusher]

If all you're doing is playing games, and downloading DLC it should be fine for a while at least.

[EXVirtual]

Lol no.

[Mikelarry]

500gb with an option to self upgrade if you want more memory is the way to go

[hollabox]

Nah probably 750 GB at the bare minimal, since my library of Xbox 360 is currently 17 and my 320 GB was maxed out with game install, had to take a couple off to fit the Walking Dead 400 days arcade title. Strangely enough my PS3 is the 120 GB slim edition, I still have 77 GBs of free space with over 10 game installs, but I don't think the PS3 installs the full game, I could be wrong.

[turgore]

There will be larger harddrives down the road. The 360 started out with a 20gb HDD and now you can have a 320gb one.

[blacktiger]

What I amazed with PS4 is that Gaikai is coming soon to PS4 which means 500GB may not matter and yet it can be removed and upgrade with any store that sells standard harddrive. With Xbox One on the other hand I am not sure hwo it is, if it's like Xbox 360 then 500GB may matter, if they don't server Gaikai alike.