Seagate Game Drive for Xbox SSD brings fast external storage to Microsoft's game console

While the PlayStation 4 can be cracked open for storage upgrades, the Xbox One cannot. Luckily, Microsoft went an arguably better route -- USB storage expansion. This way, users can connect a second drive, while still utilizing the internal drive too.

Today, Seagate announces a new external SSD for the Xbox One. The unimaginatively named 'Game Drive for Xbox SSD' uses flash storage rather than a mechanical spinning hard drive, which should improve game load times.

"The Seagate Game Drive for Xbox SSD uses flash storage to improve the gaming experience. Helping gamers get into the action quicker, the Seagate Game Drive reduces waiting at welcome screens and enables quicker transitions between levels in top titles like Forza Horizon 3 and Gears of War 4", says Seagate.

The company further says, "with limited console internal drive capacity and game install sizes continuing to increase, users are looking for ways to expand storage. With 512GB of capacity, the Seagate Game Drive lets gamers store approximately 15 of their favorite titles and downloadable content. Users can archive less frequently played games on their console and keep a huge library of games at their fingertips on the Seagate Game Drive".

We should address the elephant in the room -- this drive is no different than other portable SATA-based solid state drives. Not only will this work with Xbox One, but when properly formatted, Windows 10, macOS, and Linux-based operating systems too. The only real benefit that Xbox gamers will get from this drive -- over another with the same specs -- is the cool paint-job and Xbox logo.

Still, a 512GB portable SSD for $199 is not a bad price -- it is surprisingly not over-priced. Quite frankly, if you need to add storage to your Xbox One console, you could do worse. If you decide to buy it for yourself, or to give as a holiday gift, you can get it next month, in November. It will be available at all the usual retailers, such as Amazon and GameStop.