There are many reasons to buy and enjoy an Xbox Series X. The proprietary storage solution is not one of them. The Seagate expansion card that fits into the back of the console has been exorbitantly expensive since 2020 when it launched alongside the Xbox Series X. Even as the cost of speedy M.2 SSDs used in PlayStation 5s fell, Xbox expansion cards clung to higher prices, probably in part because they’re the only option.
Well, after a week-long sneaky discount on the 1 TB version to $149.99 (originally $219.99), Microsoft announced on Twitter that the price cut is permanent. There are two other sizes, 512GB and 2TB, but 512GB is rare in stock and too small – seriously, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is 135.18 GB – while the higher 2 TB capacity may still be out of reach at $279.99; that’s more than half the cost of a Series X.
Because the Seagate expansion cards can be used to store and play Xbox Series X games (slower USB drives are limited to Xbox One generation games and earlier), it’s technically the best Xbox SSD that exists. So as much as it would personally hurt me to pay this much for storage if I owned an Xbox, it’s the SSD you should buy if you want more room for games and their ever-increasing updates. Refer to the table below in case you need more context.
Xbox Series X external storage options, compared
| Function | USB 3.1 hard drive | Seagate expansion card |
|---|---|---|
| Function | USB 3.1 hard drive | Seagate expansion card |
| Saves any Xbox game | Yes | Yes |
| Plays Xbox One, Xbox 360 and original Xbox games | Yes | Yes |
| Plays games optimized for Xbox Series X|S | No | Yes |
| Replicates the speed and performance of the internal SSD | No | Yes |
Table: Microsoft
If you can hold it off later to add more storage, I’d suggest waiting for news of a newcomer that could shake up the pricing structure a bit. The edge reported in April that a new expansion card from Western Digital called the C50 had leaked on Best Buy. We don’t have confirmation that it will be officially supported, or if it will launch at the purported price of $179.99 for 1TB (now more expensive than the equivalent Seagate model), but more competition may push prices even lower in the future mean.