Seagate's 8TB Game Drive Hub expands Xbox One connectivity and storage capacity

By Kevin Parrish Published June 12, 2017

Just days ago, Seagate introduced an external hard drive for Xbox One console owners packing free one-month and two-month subscriptions to Microsoft’s new Xbox Game Pass service, depending on the model (2TB or 4TB). Now Seagate has teamed up with Microsoft again to sell another storage solution for the Xbox One console, the Seagate Game Drive Hub, to handle your massive library of games.

Arriving in June for $200, this external storage device will provide 8TB of additional space on top of your Xbox One’s current internal capacity. It plugs into one of the console’s USB 3.1 ports (Micro-B 10-pin to Type-A) and will be instantly recognized, providing a near-immediate expansion for downloading and storing hundreds of games from Xbox Live after a brief setup.

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In addition to the massive capacity, Seagate’s Game Drive Hub includes two USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports on the front so Xbox One owners don’t “lose” a connection. This comes in handy when using wired controllers, other Xbox accessories, and even charging mobile devices. But if 8TB isn’t enough storage? Just connect another Xbox One-optimized Seagate external drive to one of the hub’s two ports.

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“With 8TB of capacity, Game Drive Hub for Xbox has plenty of room for 200-plus Xbox games,” Seagate says. “This kind of space easily takes care of gaming storage needs and makes deleting old games a thing of the past. Plus all that extra storage space is useful for the sizeable game-save data and downloadable content.”

Unfortunately, Seagate does not provide the specifications of the hard drive mounted inside, such as its rotation speed (5,400RPM or 7,200RPM), and its read/write speeds. However, the hub appears to be a compact version the Seagate Backup Plus Hub outfitted and optimized for the Xbox One console. The specifications of the larger non-gaming version show a maximum data transfer rate of 160MB per second.

That said, Seagate’s Game Drive Hub for Xbox measures 4.646 by 1.614 by 7.8 inches and weighs 1.962 pounds. It ships with a four-foot USB cable and a power adapter, meaning this hub will need to be plugged into an electrical outlet in addition to a USB port on the Xbox One. What you wont’s find in the kit is a free subscription to Microsoft Xbox Game Pass service.

Launched just several days ago, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription takes the Netflix approach by offering a rotating library of more than 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 digital games for one monthly price. Subscribers download and install these games just like they would with any other digital purchase, thus they are not streamed across the internet like Sony’s PlayStation Now service for the PS4 and Windows 10.

According to Seagate, the average Xbox One game is between 35GB and 50GB, with many recent games eating up more than 100GB each. Just like a good buffet, that all-you-can-consume Xbox Game Pass library can fill your console up rather quickly, hence the need for external storage devices like Seagate’s new Game Drive Hub.

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