Gotcha. That's close enough to definitive at least for the near future. Wish they'd consider it, though.
If someone is planning on upgrading the HDD thinking they'll install 50 gb games on it, no. But if someone is planning on using it for other types of stuff (media), then sure.
http://techland.time.com/2013/09/04...supports-external-storage-but-theres-a-catch/
Yes, the PlayStation 4 Supports External Storage, but Thereâs a Catch
Game installs look like a no-go.
By
Matt Peckham @mattpeckhamSept. 04, 2013
6 Comments
It was probably a given, but we now know that while the PlayStation 4 supports external storage (like the PlayStation 3 before it), we wonât be able to use that storage to play downloaded games. Thank
Sony games honcho Shuhei Yoshida â one of those rare corporate divisional presidents who spends a pile of time fielding questions on Twitter, pretty much daily â
for confirming as much last week.
- Jay @_Tracid_
@yosp Hello Mr Yoshida, can we use external hard drive to install games without having it on the main internal hard drive?
Iâm assuming thatâs not an anti-piracy thing, since Sony uses a generic 500GB internal hard drive in the PS4 and supports swapping it in or out, just like the PS3.
Shuhei Yoshida @yosp
And yes, PS4's HDD is upgradable like PS3 <3
4:04 AM - 11 Jun 2013
If youâre hoping to lock down your hard drive in an attempt to thwart freebooters (hey there, Xbox 360), youâd never make your internal drive swappable. And since Sony doesnât sell PlayStation-branded hard drives priced upwards of twice what youâd pay for the same hard drive off whatever store shelf (hey again, Xbox 360), itâs also not a proprietary profit-making thing.
Okay, so a transfer speed issue then? Probably not. I donât know enough about the PS4â˛s developmental architecture to make a blanket assumption, but while an external hard drive standard like eSATA (which the PS4 doesnât support) is faster than USB 2.0, USB 3.0 (which the PS4
does support) brings things at least up to par with eSATA, give or take nominal differences when performing different transfer functions. In theory, thereâs no reason the PS4 shouldnât be able to play games running off a speedy external hard drive tethered with a USB 3.0 cable.
Indeed, computer-based gamers do as much today via external hard drives,
playing Steam-based games without incident. Or take Nintendoâs Wii U, which employs USB 2.0: the console supports running games off external hard drives â indeed, the top-end Deluxe model only comes with 32GB of internal storage, so plugging in an external hard drive is mandatory if youâre scarfing from the full-downloads trough. Itâs perplexing, to me anyway, that Sony wouldnât support gaming off an external drive.
Not that
Microsoftâs doing much better:
Speaking at PAX a few days ago, Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) confirmed that while the Xbox One will eventually support external storage, the feature wonât be present at launch because âthe team is working on some other things.â
And yes, youâll need a lot more than 500GB if youâre going all-digital. Not day one. Maybe not even year one. But weâre talking, at least in some instances,
50GB per game; do the math and thatâs less than a dozen games before youâre forced to play the âwhich do I play leastâ game.
I hope, as Iâm sure most do, that Sony eventually comes around and supports playing games off external hard drives (Microsoft, too, if itâs planning the same, though Engadget
claimed back in May that the companyâs senior director of product planning had said the Xbox One
would ultimately support installing games to an external device). That, or Sony ought to explain, candidly and in some detail, why this featureâs a no-go.
Shuhei Yoshida @yosp