Get ready, players, because Gears of War: E-Day is nearly here, and it’s shaping up to be one of the best games in the Gears of War franchise and the biggest gaming blockbuster of the year, second only to Grand Theft Auto VI.
However, there is one caveat Xbox players must be aware of before buying it on October 6 (or October 1, if they've secured early access via pre-ordering the game), and that is its required install space of 115GB (as confirmed on its Steam page).
That’s about one-tenth of a standard Xbox Series X’s 1TB storage space, and that’s just for the base game alone without any DLC. Plus, the developers plan (confirmed by GameSpot) to update Gears of War: E-Day’s Horde Mode with new classes, missions, modifiers, and seasonal content, along with adding other in-game items like gun cosmetics and character skins, so that 115GB install requirement is going to bloat fast.
So, we have sought out the best Xbox Series X|S storage expansion devices, from external SSDs to plug-and-play SSD cards, to help you fit in Gears of War: E-Day while having tons to spare for its post-launch updates and other awesome Xbox Series X|S titles for your Xbox.
External hard drives
Now, granted, finding Xbox external storage upgrades is a lot harder these days thanks to the ongoing RAM crisis, jacking up the prices of all things tech-related while making their availability scarcer.
One of the more affordable and available options is external hard drives, which can offer tons of storage space ranging from 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and even 4TB. In addition, they can be formatted to store all kinds of media, not just Xbox games, depending on what platform you intend to use it for.
The drawback is that you can’t play Xbox games directly from an external hard drive, you have to manually transfer them from the hard drive onto your Xbox’s internal hard drive if you wish to play them.
Plug & Play expansion cards
Plug & Play expansion cards are scarcer and more expensive, but more convenient Xbox storage expansion units compared to external hard drives.
They fit easily into an Xbox’s dedicated expansion card slot, so they don’t take up desk space, and they let players play games installed on the cards directly without needing to shuffle them into the Xbox’s internal SSD, saving you from tedious file management.
However, you can’t reformat these Plug & Play Xbox expansion cards for other devices, as they were purely designed for Xbox consoles.
Should I wait for Big Deal Days/Black Friday before buying these expansion devices?
If you don’t mind waiting for discounts, it may be wise to wait until these external hard drives and plug-and-play cards go on sale, as many of them have retail prices that cost hundreds of dollars as of this writing.
However, the RAM crisis is stirring extreme levels of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) behavior in consumers, driving them to buy popular Seagate and WD_Black Xbox expansion cards online until they run out of stock, even at full price.
With this in mind, it may also be a risky but good idea to grab one of these devices quickly because they may sell out before they even get a chance to be discounted during sales events like Amazon's Big Deal Days in October or Black Friday in November.
Are you ready for Gears of War: E-Day?
And there you have all the best options to upgrade your Xbox’s Storage size in time for Gears of War: E-Day. Are you looking forward to playing Gears of War: E-Day? Will you be sticking around to play its Horde Siege mode months after launch to see its post-game updates?
If you have any thoughts on the matter, please send them to the comments section below, or our Discord, Reddit, or cast a vote in the poll above.
Gears of War: E-Day is scheduled to launch on Xbox Series X|S (with Xbox Play Anywhere support), Xbox Game Pass, and PC via Windows and Steam on October 1, 2026, for early-access players who pre-ordered the game, and then October 6, 2026, for everyone else.
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