YES.. You CAN Play SOME Optimized Series X|S Games Off an External Drive! 

Hey everyone, it has been a while since i posted this video so i wanted to give an update on a few things. 1st, it seems that newer cross gen X|S games can only be played on the internal which is likely to be the case for all cross gen games moving forward. I haven’t tested all newer X|S games, but that seems to be the case for the games I have tried. 2nd, a few people think I’m playing the xbox one version of these games in this video even though it gives you the updated visuals and framerates the xbox one version doesn’t provide which is my fault as I didn’t show gameplay and I don’t have things such as an fps counter. I can assure you, the games i mentioned in this video are the optimized versions and NOT the xbox one version. If there is a X|S game, your series X|S will ALWAYS download the optimized version of the game unless the game is giving you both versions as a separate download. Games like Call of Duty Cold War and MLB the show do this. 3rd, I can’t believe this video has reached so many people and I want to thank you all SOOO MUCH for watching. People even mentioned they purchased the console because of my videos which is extremely humbling. I appreciate you all so much!

“Do not buy that $220 SSD 1TB expansion.” Me remembering paying $180 for the Xbox 360 HDD that was only 20GB.

They need to get rid of the SSD requirement. Just patch it. It's so ridiculous.

This was a ton of help, thanks. I already had an extra ssd sitting around so this made the purchase of the Series S that much easier

Thanks for clearing this up! Just got my Series S today and have been frugal about what to put on the SSD from my external. 👍

Great video man. I'm surprised this feature isn't talked about more. I was just going through my storage on my Series X and just found this out! Awesome!!

To be fair it’s not an Xbox issue for storage , it’s really just the game devs got lazy (and other reasons) and don’t compress and try to reduce the size. If they did they probably could fit games into around 7-25 gb and not like 100 gb. Since even two generations ago they had to deal with dvds on the Xbox and Wii so game devs needed to compress and do what ever they do to reduce games sizes so they can fit on one or two disks , but now with day one updates and game disks the require you to download tons of the game via the internet they stopped caring really. (Made this is very early in the morning so sorry for any grammar mistakes.)

Thanks so much for this video! I’m so glad to see that Halo MCC works with this as that game is a must for me and I was concerned about storage on my new Series S. Thanks again!

I was just curious on this and tripped over this video and it is really helpful thanks

I’m pretty sure that when you use one of these hard drives you’re not playing a optimized for the X or S version. All those games you showed have 2 versions which is the regular version you can play on external HD’s and then optimized version which you can only play on the internal or the expansion card. I have the expansion and I don’t regret buying it. I do wish it was bigger and less expensive but if you can afford it then I don’t think it’s a bad buy. Especially if you want to go somewhere but not lug your whole system with you when you go to a friends or another place that has a series X or S. You can just put the games you want to take in that card and plug it in to another sure when you get there. That is pretty awesome to me and helps make the price a little easier to take.

I was confused for a bit about all this but you cleared it up thanks

gonna try this after work! thank you! subbed!

Nice video man! More and more people need to get this message out there. I was super hesitant on buying a series s until I did some research and after watching your video I feel more at ease that I made a good purchase yesterday and have a viable option for storing games. I'll be using a samsung 870 evo 2tb ssd.

The #1 thing is you can at least store all the games

Bought a 2 TB storage device for my PC, and was getting my 1 TB to my Xbox Series S. I was actually scratching my head a lot wondering if I could even get the games "Optimized For Series X/S". So I was looking around the internet to find my answer, but a lot of them was talking about the "SSD" storage devices when I was wondering on "HDD". So then I stumbled across you and I am glad you explained it very well, thank you very much.

This guy should have more subscribers tbh. High quality video for someone with less than 1000 subs

Thanks it's good to know these things

I actually just hooked up my external hard drive today & figured that out. Great video 👍🏿

Thanks for the demo and info, have a great day

Good to hear that you can play games on the external hard drive optimised for the new series consoles

Instantly liked and subscribed. Great content bruv

I got a HDD and external SSD. SO many games work of the SSD, and still load super fast. The HDD so great for storage and for any older game (remember 360 and Xbox one only had a HDD). For $220 I got a 1tb ssd, and 4gb hdd combined

My take is it’s a quick fix for the moment. If you already have an Xbox expansion card you don’t need to invest rn but if you’re new to Xbox you should get the new expansion card. It’s made for next gen. Not only can you play every game from it you can still use Quick Resume with it. Transferring games isn’t really necessary but on the new ssd you can transfer huge games like Warzone in 2 mins but on the older ones it’ll take about 20-30 minutes. Oh yea and most importantly I think we’ll hit a point in the lifecycle you’re not gonna be able to play the newer games off your old storage. We’re already seeing it with Valhalla and Watchdogs. Great video though man. I’m new to Xbox and been soaking up all I can lol.

Thanks for the video bro. Very informative

You won my like and subscribe. Thanks for the info.

Pro tip: go to file info , if it says Durango XboxOne you can play it off of the hard drive. If it says Scarlett XboxGen9 you can only play it off of internal or expansion card. Example2: both games are series x optimized - AC Valhalla can only be played off of SSD(internal/expansion card) but AC Origins can be played off of HDD

Awesome vid! Deffinitely earned a Subscriber today

I’m glad this can be done

This video really calmed my anger. I bought a wd hdd for like 170 pound tried to use it and it didn't work. This has helped massively knowing I'll be able to just download things to it and move them around as I want

Dope video man

Thanks for the info.

Thank you! I liked the video 😅👍

Great stuff

Good stuff bro, thanks!

Thanks for this vid!

Thank you man!

Great video, I LOVE my series S. I keep telling people it's the best value you will get out a next gen console! Just gained a new sub!

This is the only video that explains it perfectly 🤗. You got a 100% like from me.

Good information. You my friend just got a subscriber

Hey, great video man, this feature definitely isn't talked about as much as it should be! You do get practically the same loading speeds running games from an external drive is you use an external SATA SSD instead of an external HDD, same for transfer speeds too.

Awesome 👏

I thought I was tripping too when halo worked on my external. But the loading time on it isn’t bad. I might have to put for honor internal because that is one slow ass game probably the slowest game ever. Db fighterz is one game that loads up really quickly off the external still. Forza runs super fast on internal that was probably the best upgrade so far for me.

Great info! Saved me some money

Dude thanks explaining this!!!. Just got my hard drive trying to download cod cold war the game wouldn't launch because like you said certain games you can play optimized for X/S. I realize that before going to your video lol.

Thanks Jeremy

thank you! i didnt know that i had to transfer some games but not others because they were optimized. kinda sucks tho because you cant play those games if you dont have enough space on internal storage but now i know.

THANK YOU❤🔥🔥

Good video thanks

Great info thank you save me some time and money

Vey nice! I'm using an external 1 tb ssd. It does have de quick resume and fast loadings, its amazing!

Thank you!!

Thanks for clearing this up. About to buy a series s. Already have a ps5 but the game pass has me sold

I was wondering about this. I still have my 1x with an external hdd(xbox seagate ). Tbh i was scared i would break my xsx by doing this lol. So now i can just put all the optimized games internal and run older games from hdd. Thanks for the info.

More people should know about this. Thanks.

I think there may be a few games that a microsoft studio exclusives that are enhanced that can be played off a external hard drive for the series s/x . However majority have to have the expansion card because for true optimised expansion it's specifically worked with the custom ssd In the series s /x models made by seagate

I have an 4tb seagate external hard drive that I bought prior to getting the Series S (My first Microsoft console). Doing a little research and not willing to buy the $220 SSD, I knew this would be the best bet to stretch out my storage until the SSD price comes down and more next gen games are in their line up. I also played it smart and purchased the Xbox one version of Call of duty Cold War knowing that was gonna be a storage killer.. As I expected, I'm playing it right out of the external drive no problem. I was pleasantly surprised to find out as I was playing via game pass to see that optimized games still played out the drive as well as the ability to still use quick resume. It simply speaks to the amazing capabilities of this machine. Very impressed.

Underrated

Hi love your content do you think I can run fifa forza and cod on the main system

Good video I’ll buy it and a hard drive now 👍

The ported xbox one games will work. Future games built specifically for the series consoles will require internal storage

1:26 another way to see if you can play a game off the external drive is by looking at the title pic, if ts has those 2 arrows then it needs to be transferred before you can play the title.

Bro thank you soo much bro I was confused and was going to return a 5tb sea gate drive that I got because it wasn’t letting me play destiny 2 and gears 5. So then does that mean that the games that I can play on my external drive is limited once my internal storage is taken up by the games that are only optimized for the Xbox ?

The two little arrows on the bottom right corner of the game icon tells you lmao

I just bought my 2 TB seagate hard drive for my series s for $85 on amazon and so far its great definitely get it if you're on a budget its all you need. ill buy the ssd once the hard drive stops working or the ssd price drops.

I just bought one with turtle beaches, a 1440p MSI gaming monitor an the series S can't wait to set it all up

I picked up a 60 dollar seagate 1 TB . And I’m installing almost eveeeeery single game I’m considering playing😎👌

THANK YOU... needed room for Rainbow Six... moving Sea...

Thanks man

Great video ! Question, I bought a Kingston A400 480gb SSD a year ago for my xbox one , all games crashes after 1-10minutes and sometimes my xbox doesnt figure that theres an SSD plugged in , anyways i sold it and im getting the series s soon , will i have the same problem with it with same SSD ?

Just subscribed to help out your channel ! Thanks for the videos ...

I just bought a 8tb external seagate hard drive, so worth it

Clutch!

Will xbox one and xbox 360 games work on any external hdd? I'm planning on buying a USB 3.1 external hard drive, will it work or it has to be the Seagate xbox certified? Thanks for updating the video man, it cleared some of my initial questions, keep up

That brings some hope. Thanks for sharing your findings. However, my understanding is that you take a disc onto the Series X for installation, or even if you buy the digital game, the console will download the Series X "Optimized" version, which is weightier and bigger. Since you have no option to choose what version to install/download from the get go, I think the Series X will interpret that such game is actually a Series X patched/optimized game, not a Xbox One X game. Then it won't let you run it from the hard drive and will force you to move it to the SSD. I am actually looking forward to play Biomutant on my Series X because the frame rate looks amazing in there. Biomutant is one of those "optimized" games, it's not a fully next gen game, and can of course be played on the Xbox One. Would this work for that game? Could I run it from the hard drive directly? I am really not worried for exquisite 4K graphics but rather the frame rate.

Many of my games cannot be played from the HD, even my Sea of Thieves must be installed internally to play it. The new COD and Halo also need to be internally installed

What a relief

I did a quick search for this kind of thing as I’ve just found out Sniper Elite 4, which is optimised also plays off an external HDD. Didn’t know Master Chief Collection could be played off an Ex. HDD. That’s good to know as I’m running out of space. And a side note, Alien Isolation is best played on either the internal or expansion card as you lose all the stuttering and laggy loading you’d get from a standard HDD.

I’ve got a PS5 and an Xbox Series X but I don’t know what platform to get cross plat games on. Obviously I know what platform to get exclusive games on but idk which ones to get cross plat games on. Tbf I’ve always been a PlayStation person as my first ever console was a PS3, then I got a PS4, then I got an Xbox One S because I wanted to try Forza and then I also got into game pass. The only thing is I don’t find the PS5 controller comfortable but I love the features (adaptive triggers and haptice feedback). Currently I’m using the Xbox Series X for exclusives, game pass games and 120 fps because I have a hdmi 2.0 tv and I can play at 1080p 120fps on my Xbox Series X which I can’t do on the PS5

Thank you, getting a 4tb HDD today

Just got a series x without knowing about this, if I knew I wouldn't have gotten one

Hi, the M2 enclosure will works on somk enhanced games ? There is a list of games that wokrs on a external drive?

Nice video!... I got a question, can you play MW Warzone (X/S Optimized) in ssd\hdd external storage??

I found the hard drive for Xbox at wal mart 4tb on clearance for $58 and the 2tb was $51. Of course I grabbed the 4tb one. And learned this the hard way so I just put all my Xbox one games on it

How long will it take to transfer a 70gb game from a normal external hard drive to the console to play it? Also, If i play like Halo MCC off the hard drive, will i get to play the next gen version? Like 120 fps and all?

Jeremy, while I have a Seagate 8TB Hub drive for my legacy games, I bought the Seagate 1TB Barracuda SSD which is even faster for games that I want to load very quick but also bought the Expansion Card for the X|S optimised games. If you can get X|S games to play from an HDD, you probably really only lose the Quick Resume. Good video!

Do you know if some next gen sports games like mlb or madden work on the hard drives

Youn can also buy a 7200rpm HDD and a 3.5 HDD enclosure that has a usb 3.0

Wait so are you saying that Series X and S enhanced games don’t work on Seagate ? And how do I know wich of them work on Seagate ? Cuz Halo master Chief collection in your video was also enhanced for the series X/S

Yesterday my resident evil 2 and 3 were upgraded, but I supposed that I still had the Xbox one versions which I thought would launch since they were still on my external hard drives but I noticed I had an option for Ray tracing and higher frame rates so I had thought these remakes were installed on the internal drive but to my surprise, I searched my drives and found them still on external. It was pretty rad though resident evil village still needed to be on the internal drive.

If you look at the file info and it says Durango you can play it on. A external drive if it says scarlet you can't

Wow. I just watched a few videos trying to find someone that would speak about this.. I just bought a series S and wondered do I have to buy these games again

Just got my series s yesterday along with a 4 terabyte hdd hard drive from sea gate!! Well worth the money and I’m also new to Xbox!!

You can download them into your hard drive then transfer to SSD when playing it if you have too many games

Don't forget about CoD MW19 and Warzone. They work absolutely fine on an External Hard Drive.

is there a list of games that can be playable on the hdd?? for example the more popular titles

So when a new game drops i.e. starfield which drops next year, will you be able to install it on the HDD?

I have a wd black SSD and most of the s / x games won't even play on it but I am able to transfer them to my console so I'm not too upset and I can play halo the Master Chief collection and a couple s/x titles but it is very limited on the ones that will work on external storage.

the new upcoming games will cause a problem if you play with a slower hard drive. They have introduced new features in sdk and x box architecture which leverages very fast ssd.

Would it make a difference with an external NVME? I have an enclosure for an NVME. If it works I might use it.

The way I see Series X|S games are partly compatible with XB1 games and that's why some Series X|S games can transfer external HDD storage. And games that are only Series X|S do require console storage or Expansion Card (SSD), but I rather get an adapter SSD for an Expansion Card or upgrade console storage to the maximum TB as it can either 2TB, 8TB, or more whatever it can. I have 2TB HDD external storage only for XB1 and older-gen games and I'll get Expansion Card (or adapter) for Series X games