If you own a PS4, you really owe it to yourself to be a PlayStation Plus subscriber. For a mere $59.99 a year—or $10-$15 less, if you keep an eye out for specials on the membership cards/codes—you get access to premium features like automatic software updates, special promotions, and, most importantly, free games.
Each month, subscribers are treated to six new additions to a growing library of PS+ games—typically two new selections each for your PS4, Vita, and, for those still rocking the older hardware, PS3. The only problem? Storage.
For years, I have taken part in a monthly ritual of deleting and downloading, eliminating titles I’ve completed (and a couple I probably never even bothered to touch) to free space for fresh updates and my new PS+ freebies. I’ve been meaning to replace my system’s stock HDD for a while, but the process, while straightforward, is rather involved… to say the least.
Thankfully, with the last major firmware upgrade (4.50), the PlayStation 4 now supports external USB hard drives. Finally!
Your options for external storage are pretty much wide open. All you really need is an HDD that supports USB 3.0 of the proper capacity—250 GB minimum, 8 TB maximum. My choice, however, is easily the Seagate Game Drive.
Built and tested for the PS4—it even apes the system’s blue-on-black color scheme—the Game Drive delivers an extra 2TB of storage in a snap. Simply plug in the device to one of your PS4’s forward-facing USB ports, navigate to Settings -> Devices -> USB Storage Devices, and allow your PlayStation to format the drive as extended storage.
With that done, you’re able to download (or, in my case, re-download) to your heart’s content. You can even move existing games from the internal storage your new Game Drive, freeing up more core system space for game saves, system themes, and those copious Fallout 4 screenshots.
I’ve been using Seagate drives for as long as I can remember, and I’ve always been impressed with the quality. This Game Drive is no exception. From its simple, elegant packaging to its sharp minimalist design, it certainly seemed like the solution I was looking for. After a couple of weeks of solid use, I can assure you that it’s managed to impress. It offers ample storage in a form factor so discreet, I honestly forget that it’s there… which I suppose is rather the point.
At a current Amazon price of $89.99, you get an eye-catching drive that performs as great as it looks with enough storage for more than 50 software titles. Best of all, with the Seagate name behind it, you don’t have to worry about all that content suddenly disappearing into the digital ether.
Review content provided by: Seagate
