Western Digital Announces First M.2 SSD for PS5 Under PlayStation License

Manufacturer Western Digital announces the first M.2 SSD that can be sold under the PlayStation license for expanding the storage of a PlayStation 5. It would be an ‘optimized’ variant of the WD Black SN850 NVMe SSD.

Western Digital announces the ssd to be the first ‘official m.2 ssd’ for the PlayStation 5. By this the company means that it meets the standards of Sony and that it will be in stores under the PlayStation license. The SSD is a modified version of the WD Black SN850 NVMe with a heatsink.

The drive is available in two variants and starts at 215 euros for 1TB. Western Digital also has a version with 2TB of storage and it costs 320 euros. The drive will initially only be available through the manufacturer’s online store, but should also be available at retailers from August.

WD Black SN850 NVMe has a read speed of 7000MB/s and a write speed of 5300MB/s. It is a PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD. Both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games can be installed and played directly on the drive, according to the manufacturer.

Although it is the first SSD to be released under the PlayStation license, there are already several SSDs on the market that can expand the storage of the PlayStation 5. These are just not officially supported by Sony. The company previously gave recommendations for SSD specifications to expand the console’s storage.