The Xbox Series S is "TRASH" (and that's fine!)

The recent announcement of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard games and franchises in tow for $69 billion dollars is a significant event in the gaming industry. Nice they ain't flying around, discounting the classic people just like things because they do or hate things because they do. People pledge allegiance to brands for a multitude of reasons. The biggest one by far is that they like the games that the platform provides.

Easy access to these games is another reason why people might be loyal to a particular brand. Another one might simply be goodwill from previous generations they bought into or simply they just like the controller layout or maybe all of their friends are on one of the platforms. Whatever it is, boil it all down - all of these reasons play into this idea of an ecosystem.

Ecosystem is a word you hear thrown around a lot in tech nowadays but I didn't really see it or internalize it in the gaming context until I started dissecting my interest in Xbox. There's a really excellent mkbhd video on this very subject that I often go back to. The ecosystem and it breaks down what tech nerds mean when they use this term. Marquez points it out as a group or community of interacting products and services.

Very short and sweet, now love them or hate them the best most talked about example of the ecosystem at play is Apple - the iPhone and other tentpole devices such as the iPad, the Mac, and Apple Watch. Not only interact with each other with useful features like AirDrop and AirPlay but also with the company's own accessories and services like AirPods and Apple Music.

iCloud and iMessage all working together in seamless harmony. The thought is that once you live in the ecosystem and get used to the way it functions and especially experiencing the conveniences it can provide, it spoils you. And honestly makes it tougher to have things any other way. But the massive benefit to the ecosystem is that the user is incentivized to use the platform more and more frequently.

The deeper in they are. That's what Phil Spencer and Xbox are trying to accomplish here. Where Sony and Nintendo are mostly building singular experiences for their consoles, Microsoft is literally thinking outside the box with their ecosystem of games, devices, and services. Whether you own a Series S or X, a PC, or even any of the Xbox Ones.

The experience between everything is seamless. The controllers work across all of your devices. First-party AAA exclusives are almost always multi-platform, and even the cloud saved data hops between all of your devices without even breaking a sweat. But the real kicker is Game Pass for $15 a month. You have access to most of what's been good on Xbox from its massive catalog since well, the original Xbox all the way to current-gen as well.

As well as their new upcoming heavy-hitting exclusive or cross-platform titles from day one. From personal experience, I've spent more time playing Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite in the past month than I have gaming in the past five years. And a huge reason for that is because I didn't have to shell out $120 immediately for something that I might not have even liked.

Plus with the Activision Blizzard acquisition I mentioned earlier, this is especially a shot in the arm for Game Pass. While there are no specific details just yet, imagine a new Call of Duty or Destiny or Overwatch 2 being included. The potential is there, and I'd honestly be shocked if they don't take full advantage in making those games available with your sub.

Circling back to the main point of this video, the Xbox Series S is an attractive entry-level gateway into the Xbox ecosystem and its fruitful-looking future. If you don't already own a decent gaming PC or maybe you're thinking about dipping your toes into the Xbox side of things this generation without committing a ton of cash.

Or maybe you need a stop gap for Series X until the prices actually come back down to earth, or maybe you just want a secondary console for another room in your house or for travel. Whatever the reason is, the Series S is something to consider and if you don't think so or even think that it's absolute trash, you know what that's totally fine too.

Because one man's trash is another man's treasure. I love you too - or in this particular case, it's units on store shelves for people that actually want it. Or maybe I'm off base. Let me know what you think about the Xbox Series S in the comments below, and otherwise, I'll catch you on the next Denki video. Thanks for watching. Take care.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enbuying game consoles in today's climate is tough but one is defying the odds constantly available in stock online on store shelves for msrp and at retailers that we trust like target and best buy and our friends over at micro center that console is this the xbox series s and it is probably sitting on store shelves because it is trash kind of at least if i'm going off of what i've seen scrolling on twitter but here's why those guys might be onto something and why that might be a good thing hello and welcome to denki channel my name is ken and it should be no surprise to anyone at this point that the market for anything tech is all sorts of messed up due to chip shortages supply chain bottlenecks and scalpers just being the absolute worst but with over a year into this new console generation there is only one outlier the xbox series s which is define the odds in its availability there are a few reasons for this including apathy towards its existence but i think that people are genuinely sleeping on the xbox series s and they shouldn't be and here's why you might actually want one for yourself but first let's get the low hanging fruit out of the way even though the series s shares the same amd zen 2 based architecture as its bigger brother the xbox series x and its first cousin once removed the ps5 the xbox series s is underpowered by comparison where the series x targets 4k 60fps gaming by design the series s targets somewhere between 1080p to 1440p60 to allow for one less power consumption two housed in a way smaller chassis and third and best of all it is available at a more affordable price point at 299 dollars now if we stop the argument here the xbox series s is certainly more affordable than its higher end brothers but it's not exactly enticing in the scheme of 4k next gen gaming i mean sure it might be a whole 200 cheaper than both the xbox series x and the disc version of the ps5 but sony also competitively priced its digital version of the ps5 at only 100 more than the series s retailing at four hundred dollars but while little timmy is groaning about his 300 paperweight that's sitting in his bedroom when mom could have just forked over an extra benjamin we don't exactly live in a vacuum not only is the ps5 difficult to purchase at retail for reasonable prices but the cheapest ps5 is by far the hardest one to find and is basically just as expensive as the disc version at markup on average we are talking a whole 400 difference between the readily available series s versus both versions of the ps5 and even the xbox series x but then this begs the question are you really getting 400 more console in the series x and the ps5 compared to that series s but before i get to the meat and potatoes of that question please consider subscribing to the channel and hitting that bell icon to get notified on when i upload videos not only does it help us fight the youtube algorithm but it also lets my boss know that i'm actually working and not using an xbox video to justify buying myself a xbox series s i love you too while the series s might not be everyone's first choice for next-gen performance it's not exactly a slouch either a few weeks ago we did a video on the austin evans channel doing a definitely scientific blind comparison between the xbox series s and the xbox series x it was really fun to make and the gist of it was that austin and i noticed visual differences between the two consoles but felt that the graphic performance was acceptable especially when playing on a monitor or 1080p tv on the scale it performs similarly to last gen's powerhouse the xbox one x but with the added benefit of a native ssd and features like quick resume top between game instances lightning fast with minimal feature trade-offs outside power and peace of mind that games will be developed for it throughout the generation it really is a baby series x now i don't want to speak for everyone but for me it feels kind of silly paying for a marked up console when i can just waltz into the target down the street and buy one right on the spot i know it sucks to settle but the series s is a worthy stopgap console until prices get better think about it another way you can make out like a bandit by first getting a series s at retail right now and then later on get the console you really want when prices come back down to earth all for the price of one flagship console at markup then what you do later is up to choice you can certainly choose to recoup costs and sell your series s later or for reasons i'll get to in just a moment owning multiple xboxes is not as crazy as it seems the thing is gaming hardware such as consoles are in many ways an investment into the next five to seven years of gaming now i don't want to open up the can of worms figuring out what the hell the next 10 years of gaming even looks like but if we're basing purchase decisions on what is happening now and what the future is looking like from here credit where credit's due xbox has a lot going for it especially with the recent announcement of microsoft's acquisition of activision blizzard games and franchises in tow for 69 billion dollars nice they ain't flying around discounting the classic people just like things because they do or hate things because they do people pledge allegiance to brands for a multitude of reasons the biggest one by far is that they like the games that the platform provides easy another one might simply be goodwill from previous generations they bought into or simply they just like the controller layout or maybe all of their friends are on one of the platforms whatever it is boil it all down all of these reasons play into this idea of an ecosystem ecosystem is a word you hear thrown around a lot in tech nowadays but i didn't really see it or internalize it in the gaming context until i started dissecting my interest in xbox now there's a really excellent mkbhd video on this very subject that i often go back to the ecosystem and it breaks down what tech nerds mean when they use this term marquez points it out as a group or community of interacting products and services very short and sweet now love them or hate them the best most talked about example of the ecosystem at play is apple the iphone and other tentpole devices such as the ipad the mac and apple watch not only interact with each other with useful features like airdrop and airplay but also with the company's own accessories and services like airpods and apple music icloud and imessage all working together in seamless harmony the thought is that once you live in the ecosystem and get used to the way it functions and especially experiencing the conveniences it can provide it spoils you and honestly makes it tougher to have things any other way but the massive benefit to the ecosystem is that the user is incentivized to use the platform more and more frequently the deeper in they are and that is what phil spencer and xbox are trying to accomplish here where sony and nintendo are mostly building singular experiences for their consoles microsoft is literally thinking outside the box with their ecosystem of games devices and services whether you own a series s or x a pc or even any of the xbox ones the experience between everything is seamless the controllers works across all of your devices first party aaa exclusives are almost always multi-platform and even the cloud saved data hops between all of your devices without even breaking a sweat but the real kicker is game pass for 15 a month you have access to most of what's been good on xbox from its massive catalog since well the original xbox all the way to current gen as well as their new upcoming heavy hitting exclusive or cross-platform titles from day one from personal experience i've spent more time playing horizon 5 and halo infinite in the past month than i have gaming in the past five years and a huge reason for that is because i didn't have to shell out 120 immediately for something that i might have not even liked plus with the activision blizzard acquisition i mentioned earlier this is especially a shot in the arm for game pass while there are no specific details just yet imagine a new call of duty or destiny or overwatch 2 being included the potential is there and i'd honestly be shocked if they don't take full advantage in making those games available with your sub circling back to the main point of this video the xbox series s is an attractive entry-level gateway into the xbox ecosystem and its fruitful looking future if you don't already own a decent gaming pc or maybe you're thinking about dipping your toes into the xbox side of things this generation without committing a ton of cash or maybe you need a stop gap for series x until the prices actually come back down to earth or maybe you just want a secondary console for another room in your house or for travel whatever the reason is the series s is something to consider and if you don't think so or even think that it's absolute trash you know what that's totally fine too because one man's trash is another man's treasure i love you too or in this particular case it's units on store shelves for people that actually want it or maybe i'm off base let me know what you think about the xbox series s in the comments below and otherwise i'll catch you on the next denki video thanks for watching take carebuying game consoles in today's climate is tough but one is defying the odds constantly available in stock online on store shelves for msrp and at retailers that we trust like target and best buy and our friends over at micro center that console is this the xbox series s and it is probably sitting on store shelves because it is trash kind of at least if i'm going off of what i've seen scrolling on twitter but here's why those guys might be onto something and why that might be a good thing hello and welcome to denki channel my name is ken and it should be no surprise to anyone at this point that the market for anything tech is all sorts of messed up due to chip shortages supply chain bottlenecks and scalpers just being the absolute worst but with over a year into this new console generation there is only one outlier the xbox series s which is define the odds in its availability there are a few reasons for this including apathy towards its existence but i think that people are genuinely sleeping on the xbox series s and they shouldn't be and here's why you might actually want one for yourself but first let's get the low hanging fruit out of the way even though the series s shares the same amd zen 2 based architecture as its bigger brother the xbox series x and its first cousin once removed the ps5 the xbox series s is underpowered by comparison where the series x targets 4k 60fps gaming by design the series s targets somewhere between 1080p to 1440p60 to allow for one less power consumption two housed in a way smaller chassis and third and best of all it is available at a more affordable price point at 299 dollars now if we stop the argument here the xbox series s is certainly more affordable than its higher end brothers but it's not exactly enticing in the scheme of 4k next gen gaming i mean sure it might be a whole 200 cheaper than both the xbox series x and the disc version of the ps5 but sony also competitively priced its digital version of the ps5 at only 100 more than the series s retailing at four hundred dollars but while little timmy is groaning about his 300 paperweight that's sitting in his bedroom when mom could have just forked over an extra benjamin we don't exactly live in a vacuum not only is the ps5 difficult to purchase at retail for reasonable prices but the cheapest ps5 is by far the hardest one to find and is basically just as expensive as the disc version at markup on average we are talking a whole 400 difference between the readily available series s versus both versions of the ps5 and even the xbox series x but then this begs the question are you really getting 400 more console in the series x and the ps5 compared to that series s but before i get to the meat and potatoes of that question please consider subscribing to the channel and hitting that bell icon to get notified on when i upload videos not only does it help us fight the youtube algorithm but it also lets my boss know that i'm actually working and not using an xbox video to justify buying myself a xbox series s i love you too while the series s might not be everyone's first choice for next-gen performance it's not exactly a slouch either a few weeks ago we did a video on the austin evans channel doing a definitely scientific blind comparison between the xbox series s and the xbox series x it was really fun to make and the gist of it was that austin and i noticed visual differences between the two consoles but felt that the graphic performance was acceptable especially when playing on a monitor or 1080p tv on the scale it performs similarly to last gen's powerhouse the xbox one x but with the added benefit of a native ssd and features like quick resume top between game instances lightning fast with minimal feature trade-offs outside power and peace of mind that games will be developed for it throughout the generation it really is a baby series x now i don't want to speak for everyone but for me it feels kind of silly paying for a marked up console when i can just waltz into the target down the street and buy one right on the spot i know it sucks to settle but the series s is a worthy stopgap console until prices get better think about it another way you can make out like a bandit by first getting a series s at retail right now and then later on get the console you really want when prices come back down to earth all for the price of one flagship console at markup then what you do later is up to choice you can certainly choose to recoup costs and sell your series s later or for reasons i'll get to in just a moment owning multiple xboxes is not as crazy as it seems the thing is gaming hardware such as consoles are in many ways an investment into the next five to seven years of gaming now i don't want to open up the can of worms figuring out what the hell the next 10 years of gaming even looks like but if we're basing purchase decisions on what is happening now and what the future is looking like from here credit where credit's due xbox has a lot going for it especially with the recent announcement of microsoft's acquisition of activision blizzard games and franchises in tow for 69 billion dollars nice they ain't flying around discounting the classic people just like things because they do or hate things because they do people pledge allegiance to brands for a multitude of reasons the biggest one by far is that they like the games that the platform provides easy another one might simply be goodwill from previous generations they bought into or simply they just like the controller layout or maybe all of their friends are on one of the platforms whatever it is boil it all down all of these reasons play into this idea of an ecosystem ecosystem is a word you hear thrown around a lot in tech nowadays but i didn't really see it or internalize it in the gaming context until i started dissecting my interest in xbox now there's a really excellent mkbhd video on this very subject that i often go back to the ecosystem and it breaks down what tech nerds mean when they use this term marquez points it out as a group or community of interacting products and services very short and sweet now love them or hate them the best most talked about example of the ecosystem at play is apple the iphone and other tentpole devices such as the ipad the mac and apple watch not only interact with each other with useful features like airdrop and airplay but also with the company's own accessories and services like airpods and apple music icloud and imessage all working together in seamless harmony the thought is that once you live in the ecosystem and get used to the way it functions and especially experiencing the conveniences it can provide it spoils you and honestly makes it tougher to have things any other way but the massive benefit to the ecosystem is that the user is incentivized to use the platform more and more frequently the deeper in they are and that is what phil spencer and xbox are trying to accomplish here where sony and nintendo are mostly building singular experiences for their consoles microsoft is literally thinking outside the box with their ecosystem of games devices and services whether you own a series s or x a pc or even any of the xbox ones the experience between everything is seamless the controllers works across all of your devices first party aaa exclusives are almost always multi-platform and even the cloud saved data hops between all of your devices without even breaking a sweat but the real kicker is game pass for 15 a month you have access to most of what's been good on xbox from its massive catalog since well the original xbox all the way to current gen as well as their new upcoming heavy hitting exclusive or cross-platform titles from day one from personal experience i've spent more time playing horizon 5 and halo infinite in the past month than i have gaming in the past five years and a huge reason for that is because i didn't have to shell out 120 immediately for something that i might have not even liked plus with the activision blizzard acquisition i mentioned earlier this is especially a shot in the arm for game pass while there are no specific details just yet imagine a new call of duty or destiny or overwatch 2 being included the potential is there and i'd honestly be shocked if they don't take full advantage in making those games available with your sub circling back to the main point of this video the xbox series s is an attractive entry-level gateway into the xbox ecosystem and its fruitful looking future if you don't already own a decent gaming pc or maybe you're thinking about dipping your toes into the xbox side of things this generation without committing a ton of cash or maybe you need a stop gap for series x until the prices actually come back down to earth or maybe you just want a secondary console for another room in your house or for travel whatever the reason is the series s is something to consider and if you don't think so or even think that it's absolute trash you know what that's totally fine too because one man's trash is another man's treasure i love you too or in this particular case it's units on store shelves for people that actually want it or maybe i'm off base let me know what you think about the xbox series s in the comments below and otherwise i'll catch you on the next denki video thanks for watching take care