Data Backup Digest

The PlayStation 4 is the bestselling console of the current generation, beating Microsoft’s Xbox One and Nintendo’s Wii U by quite a margin. It’s an impressive pull back from Sony, especially after their fairly disastrous launch of the PS3. Thanks to a strong marketing campaign, along with a reassessed focus, the PS4 continues to be a strong gaming platform.

Now with the annual Electronic Expo approaching, eyes are on all the big gaming companies to see what they will reveal. E3 is the biggest games convention of the year and the big three, along with some publishers, all host their own press conferences to reveal what is lined up for their future. There’s often breaking news, but that doesn’t mean that people don’t try and scout out that news before it breaks.

As such, there’s a rumour that Sony will be announcing a 1TB model of their console at this year’s E3. Currently, the console only comes with 500GB of internal storage via a hard drive. It is possible to swap out the drive inside the console for something bigger, but this isn’t suitable for those who aren’t confident in how to do that or don’t want to pay out for a bigger drive just for that.

The reason that internal storage is important on the PS4 is due to the rise of digital downloads. Whereas in the past it would have been common to run your games off a disc, it’s now the norm to download games from digital marketplaces. While disc games may still need some hard drive space, for things like saved games, installing an entire game to the drive takes up much more of the capacity.

This is especially true for recent releases like Witcher 3 and Titanfall, which require over 30GB of internal storage. It’s not hard to see how the 500GB storage can quickly get used up from all these games. With the majority of PCs now having terabytes of data, modern consoles are lagging slightly behind with their storage space for the hardcore gamer.

A filing to the Federal Communications Commission by Sony shows that the new PS4 will also be lighter, though it’s not currently known why. While it could mean that some components have been removed, it’s actually possible that advancements in technology have allowed them to use lighter parts and keep the same specifications.

Sony hasn’t officially confirmed the existence of the 1TB PS4, so time will tell if they announce it at E3. Microsoft has released a 1TB model of the Xbox One in the past, but this was a limited edition and it wasn’t on sale for long. However, it wouldn’t be unsurprising to see it make a return if Sony does announce their own, in order to compete.

While some gamers may be looking to the cloud to store their data, Sony has said that they have no plans to keep actual game data in the cloud, instead opting to keep that mainly for things like backups and updates.