The Xbox Series S allegedly comes with a paltry 364GB of usable storage

If you're in the market for a next-generation console but on a tight budget, it's best to think twice before buying the Xbox Series S. A Reddit user seems to have received their copy a week before the console's official release date. It appears that the console comes with a paltry 364GB of available storage space.

Although the Xbox Series S has a rated capacity of 512GB on paper, the actual value is almost always lower than advertised. The console also lacks a disc drive, meaning that the only way to play games is via a digital medium. Unlike the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, the Xbox One S runs inferior hardware to its elder sibling, making it look even worse in perspective. However, we should treat this information with a healthy dose of skepticism. After all, it is little more than a random image posted on the internet.

As pointed out by several other commenters in the Reddit thread, 364GB is barely enough to install Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on the Xbox Series S. The game's monstrous ~100GB patches only make matters worse. At best, you will be able to squeeze up to five to six next-gen games on the console before running out of space. Things will get progressively worse in the coming years, as better graphics will result in larger file sizes. The only way out is to purchase a US$220 hard drive, which is a somewhat frustrating addition to a US$300 console.