Western Digital announces Xbox expandable storage cards, starting at $79.99

Western Digital is offering some much-needed competition in the Xbox expandable storage card market today. Western Digital is now offering its own 512GB and 1TB expansion cards for Xbox Series S / X consoles. It’s the first time we’ve seen Xbox expandable storage that’s not manufactured by Seagate, and Western Digital’s own cards are priced at $79.99 for the 512GB model and $149.99 for the 1TB version.

Those prices seemed like a big price drop when we first heard cheaper Xbox expandable storage cards were on the way earlier this year, but Seagate also heard about Western Digital’s plans and has adjusted its own pricing accordingly. The 512GB Seagate version is available at $89.99, and the 1TB card is $149.99. So Western Digital is undercutting slightly at $10 less for the 512GB card, but the 1TB versions are the same retail pricing as Seagate.

Either way, it’s great to see an additional manufacturer for Xbox expandable storage. The prices have remained stubbornly high with Seagate as the only manufacturer, with the initial 1TB cards priced at $219.99. Even $149.99 is still expensive for 1TB of storage, especially when 1TB PCIe Gen 4 drives can regularly be found for under $100.

Microsoft picked proprietary storage for its Xbox Series X / S consoles, which makes expanding storage very consumer-friendly at the cost of more expensive storage. Sony opted for standard M.2 2280 drives, so PS5 owners can pick up a variety of Gen 4 drives that are already on the market.