Now Western Digital has confirmed its own PS5-ready SSD, at $250 for 1TB

Western Digital has confirmed to VGC that its premium SSD is compatible with the PlayStation 5.

The WD_BLACK SN850 with Heatsink is the second SSD to be confirmed as PS5 compatible, with a retail price of $139.99 / £140.99 for 500GB, $249.99 / £218.99 for 1TB and $429.99 / £452.99 for 2TB.

A Western Digital spokesperson told VGC: “Based on Sony’s published requirements, we can confirm our WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD with Heatsink (500GB-2TB) meets the stated requirements to expand console storage on the PlayStation 5 for those with access to the PlayStation 5 Beta software. Compatibility testing is in progress.”

Yesterday, Seagate was the first storage manufacturer to declare one of its SSDs to be compatible with the PS5. Its FireCuda 530 with a heatsink attached will cost $169.99 for 500GB, $274.99 for 1TB, $569.99 for 2TB and $1,049.99 for 4TB.

Sony released the full set of requirements for compatible SSDs yesterday, but stressed that even some SSDs that meet the requirements may still not work. As such, the onus has been placed on storage manufacturers to confirm which of their SSDs are compatible.

• Related: PS5 storage upgrade guide - How to upgrade PS5's SSD storage

Sony has started rolling out the ability for beta users to expand the PlayStation 5‘s storage with an off-the-shelf M.2 SSD as part of a large system update, but players will have to carefully follow detailed instructions to complete the process.

Storage expansion has been one of the most requested features since PS5 launched in November last year, but its rollout has been hampered by the need for off-the-shelf drives to match the high specifications of PS5’s own high-bandwidth SSD.

Further reading

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PS5 storage upgrade: How to install a new PS5 SSD

Choose the right SSD and install it in your PlayStation 5

While players can currently attach an external drive to the PlayStation 5 via USB, these aren’t capable of playing PS5 games. They can only be used for playing PS4 games, and can also store PS5 games currently not in use so they can be copied to the console’s main SSD storage when they’re ready to be played.

In order to extend the main SSD storage for playing PS5 games, players will need to buy a high-speed M.2 SSD that meets Sony’s requirements, and attach it to the console’s internal SSD mount, which is currently inactive for everyone except beta users.

The only current solution for expanding the Xbox Series X/S SSD storage is Seagate’s bespoke Storage Expansion Card, which launched at $219 for 1TB.