When Sony and Microsoft announced how much storage space both consoles would have, the truth is that many found it quite scarce. Given the large size of titles such as GTA V, Call of Duty Warzone or Red Dead Redemption 2, not exceeding the 1 TB figure seemed quite insufficient for the future of video games.
Of course … we are talking about SSD drives, much faster and more expensive than traditional mechanical drives. On paper, PS5 has 825GB and Xbox Series X 1TB of storage space, although lThe figures stand at 667 GB real on PlayStation 5 and 802 GB on Microsoft’s console (since the operating system and the interface take their own place).
Fortunately, the smaller amount of GB of free space on PS5 benefits from compression technology, which makes it possible for many next-gen games to take up less space on the SSD than their counterparts on Xbox Series X. In some cases it hardly varies, but others will leave you speechless because of the great difference between the two.
If you have a PS5 and you don’t know which games take up less than its version on the Microsoft console, know the surprising differences between installing the same games on PS5 and Xbox Series X.
The surprising differences between installing the same games on PS5 and Xbox Series X
PlayStation 5 is full of surprises, and one of them maybe you didn’t even suspect that it existed. Sony’s console is less powerful than its Xbox Series X competitor, but it hides a very useful tool that uses the console’s fast SSD to do wonders. Which? Let’s see it.
We were already very surprised when Insomniac Games revealed the space that Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales would occupy on PS5. The reality is that the next-gen versions occupy less than the PS4 editions, and this is due to a technology that the PS5’s SSD has.
We are not only talking about the fact that the same game on PS5 will occupy less than on PS4, something crazy considering the greater graphic load, but that this advantage also affects many titles available at the same time on PS5 and Xbox Series X, as we will see later in this report.
Of course all this depends on the work of the developers. If they decide to optimize their games using all the possibilities that PS5 offers, they will be able to reduce its size incredibly. It must also be said that Xbox Series S has a similar optimization capacity, although in this case there is a technical reduction compared to the Xbox Series X versions.
If you need to expand the capacity of your PS5, these hard drives are cheap and also allow you to install dozens of games on them.
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Why do some titles take up less space on PS5 than on Xbox Series X? The answer is simple: Kraken compression technology. We are going to tell you and explain what it is, and what is its advantage over the Xbox compression system.
KRAKEN COMPRESSION ON PS5
The Oodle Kraken technology is quite a surprise hidden inside the PlayStation 5. It hasn’t been talked about too much, but this wonderful tool from RAD Game Tools (known for developing Bink Video, and acquired by Epic in January of 2021) allows the console’s SSD to progressively decompress game files in real time.
One of the first times this technology was named was when Remedy Entertainment released Control: Ultimate Edition, the enhanced version of the 2019 title for PS5 and Xbox Series X | S. The guys at Remedy used Kraken compression on the Sony console version, making the game 40% smaller (from 25.79GB to 42.5GB) as a result.
Kraken is a data compression algorithm that is implemented in the PS5 hardware. Specifically, it is capable of initiating a real-time decompression of the SSD to the console’s RAM, thus making the game take up less free space. The use or not of this tool depends on the optimization process used by each development studio.
This compression technology uses domain-specific processors in parallel with the console CPU, consuming less space and acting faster. The key to Kraken is that the data is kept compressed on the console’s SSD, but that when it runs and goes through the centers of the RAM, it is decompressed in the act thanks to the transfer speed of the SSD.
As you already know, the PlayStation SSD has a transfer speed of 5.5 GB / s, which allows this decompression in real time in a good handful of titles. It is not the first time that Sony uses such a technology, since with PS4 a ZLIB system was used whose transfer rate was much lower, Yes indeed.
In the first presentation of PS5, Mark Cerny stated that the transfer speed of the SSD with Kraken could reach 9 GB / s, although it all depends on the tools that each developer uses and the size of these data blocks. Let’s find out the size differences between some PS5 and Xbox Series X games.
GAMES THAT TAKE UP LESS ON PS5 THAN ON XBOX SERIES X
Once explained what Kraken is, it’s time to see the surprising differences in size of some games on PS5 and Xbox Series X. As we say, it all depends on each developer and the optimization they give to their video games for both consoles. Thanks to a thread on the PS5 sub-forum on Reddit (courtesy of pmartinez527), we have been able to break down a list and the existing differences.
You have to qualify something about this list. The first thing is that it is about the size of each game without the DLC and without some updates released. You may notice some differences if you have some of these titles on your console, but it may be due to language packs and other complementary information.
The first case that became popular at the time was Control Ultimate Edition, which is 40% smaller on PS5 compared to Xbox Series X. We are not evaluating if it “ looks better ” or if the game runs at a higher resolution, but what they occupy in the SSD storage units of each console.
According to the Reddit user who has provided this list, the total GB of these games on PS5 is 403.1 GB, while the total on Xbox Series X is 595.6 GB. SIf we apply this to the total free space on each platform, we will realize that we would have more free space on the Sony console compared to the Microsoft console (236.9 GB on PS5 and 206.4 GB on Series X).
In conclusion, the Kraken compression technology of PlayStation 5 allows us to install more games (if they are optimized with this system) than in Xbox Series X. Always talking about those mentioned in the list, of course, because there are exclusive games from the Sony console and other titles that occupy the same as on the Microsoft platform. Still, and We emphasize, on paper Xbox Series X has more SSD memory, and that is an objective data.
DIFFERENCE FROM XBOX SERIES X | S COMPRESSION
Xbox Series X | S also has its own real-time data compression technology, making use of its SSD for background processing. Practically the big difference is that the transfer speed on the Microsoft console is 2.4 GB / s, compared to 5.5 GB / s on the PS5.
Xbox uses a compression system very similar to Kraken, which uses a program that runs from the SSD and goes through the console’s RAM. Despite having a slower transfer rate, Microsoft may update this software at any time to improve compression and make it easier to optimize Series X games.
Another point to keep in mind is that most video games will be optimized using the same parameters for PS5 and Xbox Series X | S, starting with the platform with the lowest transfer rate per second SSD. What does this mean? Well what these differences will be reduced over time, until they are completely equalizeds.
Finally, it is interesting to note that this entire report is about PS5 and Xbox Series X. In the case of Xbox Series S, developers can further optimize the games, by not having to add 4K resolutions or Ray Tracing graphic effects, so It’s no wonder that many Series S games take up less than Series X and PlayStation 5.
