Western Digital officially announces two new storage cards in the WD Black C50 series for the Xbox Series X and S. The external SSDs are part of a licensing deal with Microsoft and are available in 512GB and 1TB storage configurations.
The storage card uses a proprietary connection called Xbox Velocity Architecture. As a result, the read and write speeds of the WD Black C50 should be the same as with the internal storage. The 512GB and 1TB cards are available at the time of writing for 95 and 160 euros respectively, states Western Digital.
The storage expansion is supplied in a protective housing. After removing the protective cap, the card can be inserted into the Storage Expansion Port of an Xbox Series X or S, after which the internal memory is expanded. Users can store games on the SSD and play them from the card. Quick Resume also works on games saved on the stick. The WD Black C50 is not tied to one console, so gamers can take their games with them and continue playing on another Xbox Series console.
The storage card in question was spotted on various web shops at the beginning of April, but had not yet been officially announced. Besides Western Digital, only Seagate makes officially licensed storage sticks for the Xbox Series storage capacities. When only looking at the lowest prices, the prices differ considerably less. Seagate also offers a variant with 2TB of storage space.