Xbox Series S will have 364GB of storage available for games, it’s claimed

Microsoft’s budget Xbox Series S console will have just 364GB of storage available for games and applications, it’s been claimed.

That’s according to a Reddit user who appears to have obtained the digital-only console ahead of release, and claimed that around 148GB of its 512GB SSD is reserved for operating system functions.

If true, the figure would closely match the storage space reserved in the original Xbox One console for OS functions.

It was previously revealed that the premium Xbox Series X reserves almost 20 percent of its 1TB internal SSD storage for its operating system, leaving around 800GB usable for software.

Although the available storage appears to be surprisingly small for a digital-only console, Microsoft has claimed that game install sizes will be approximately 30% smaller on Xbox Series S than on Series X.

Xbox director of program management Jason Ronald told IGN that because of the smaller resolution texture packages required for games on Series S, which will run software natively at 1440p as opposed to at 4K on Series X, install sizes will be significantly reduced.

“With a performance target of 1440p at 60 fps, our expectation is that developers will not ship their highest level mipmaps to Xbox Series S, which will reduce the size of the games,” he said.

Microsoft recently detailed the custom storage options that will be available to Xbox Series X and S owners and explained why storage expansion cards for the consoles cost $220/£220.

In a blog post, Xbox director of program management Jason Ronald said players will be able to unplug their existing external USB 3.1 HDD or SSD from their Xbox One and connect it to Xbox Series X/S and play of all of their current-gen games.

Players will also be able to use USB 3.1 storage to house next-gen games for transfer and play on Series X/S.

But existing USB 3.1 storage options can’t be used to play games optimised for Xbox Series X/S and won’t replicate the speed and performance of the next-gen internal SSD. These features will require a Seagate expansion card.

Ronald also explained how Xbox Series X and S will enable players to selectively uninstall different parts of games to free up storage space.

“So, let’s say you play a campaign as an example, and then you want to focus exclusively on multiplayer,” he said during a podcast with Microsoft’s Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hryb.

“If the developers chose to support it you can actually uninstall the campaign itself so that you can be more in control of how you’re actually using your storage, so that you really get the most benefit out of the available storage that you have.”

Further reading

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Xbox explains why Series X and S storage expansion cards cost $220/£220

As part of an overview of custom next-gen storage options