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You may be forgiven for forgetting, but the PlayStation 5 has a slot for you to insert an additional SSD storage device, it’s just been blocked from use since launch. This is because the platform holder is taking additional time to whitelist certain drives; the company wants to ensure that you purchase an SSD fast enough to run next-gen games.

It always said that it’d unlock this functionality eventually, and a new Bloomberg report confirms that it’s coming this summer. What this means is that you’ll be able to purchase a compatible SSD, install it into your console, and increase the amount of space you have available for native PS5 games. It’s worth noting that these drives are unlikely to be cheap.

The publication continues that a new firmware update will also allow you to control the cooling fan speeds of your system to prevent overheating. While this does sound alarming, it’s worth remembering that Sony announced prior to launch that it would be able to optimise the console’s fans with post-release updates, and that seems to be what Bloomberg is referring to.

There’s no word on whether the Japanese giant will allow you to offload PS5 software onto a traditional HDD for storage, although this is something that it said it was looking into. The theory here is that you’d be able to copy native next-gen titles across to an external drive, and while you wouldn’t be able to play them, transferring them backwards and forwards could save time and bandwidth – especially for those with poor Internet connections.

[source bloomberg.com, via eurogamer.net]