PS5 major update arriving tomorrow, enables PS5 games to be stored on USB drives

Sony has announced the first key update to the PS5 system arrives Wednesday 14th April, which allows you to store PS5 games on an external USB drive. 

Since the launch of the PS5 in November, it’s only been possible to store PS4 games on external hard drives. That’s set to change however in a new update, so you don’t have to simply delete games when your internal storage is full.

There are some caveats however, as outlined in a PlayStation blog post. You cannot play PS5 games from external hard drive as the game’s are designed to take advantage of the SSD built into the console. You can’t directly download games to the external device either.

The main upside to storing PS5 games on an external drive is it’s much quicker to copy it from there than downloading it again from the PlayStation Store.

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You can soon store PS5 games on an external drive (Picture: Sony) 

Sony also states they’re working on supporting storage expansion via M.2 drives, which is set to arrive in a future update.

Other new features in the update include cross-generation share play, meaning PS4 and PS5 players can now use the share play function across systems. A request to join game session option is also being added, for a quicker route to join friends in games.

The update adds quality-of-life improvements to the Game Base, with quicker switches between parties, along with the ability to turn notifications off. Options to quickly disable game chat, pre-download updates, customise your game library by hiding games, and change the zoom magnification on the home screen, are also coming.

The new Trophy Stats screen (Picture: Sony) 

The final key change is to Trophy settings, although it’s perhaps not the overhaul many are hoping for. You can now customise whether you want certain levels of trophies to capture screenshots or video, so it’ll record footage when you earn a Platinum for example. There’s also a Trophy Stats screen, which gives you a quick summary of your Trophies.

More updates are also being rolled out across the PlayStation App in the coming weeks, so you can join a multiplayer game on PS5 from the app, manage your PS5 console storage and compare trophy lists with friends.

The PS5 update is set to roll out on Wednesday 14th April.