- It's not just about the name or the fact that people are
already buying the wrong console or the whole pre-order
experience in general. What about the games? What exactly does Optimized
for Xbox Series X even mean? And what about the Series S? The Series S is less
powerful than the One X, but will play next-gen games? Wait, what even are the next-gen games? Can I play these things wherever? What about the consoles we already own? With the X being discontinued and the S still being out there, will the other X and S be
playing the same games? Or will we get one version on the Ss and a different version
on just one of the Xs? Yeah, Microsoft already,
isn't making this easy for us, but we're gonna break it
down and try to make it as simple to understand as
possible for both of us. (upbeat music) Oh, this video is sponsored
by Skillshare. (laughs) Butts, butts, butts, butts, butt. Hey, what are your hobbies? You like doodling? Maybe you like amateur photography? Maybe you wanna start
your own YouTube channel? Well, instead of watching
videos like this, why don't you go take a class that'll help sharpen that skill? For less than $10 a month, you can learn something entirely new or sharpen that skill you've
been doing for funsies and turn it into a real professional tool. They have courses ranging from
graphic design, animation, creative writing, film and
video music, and even marketing. Like for example, Filmmaking
From Home by Penny Lane. Even if you just wanna be a YouTuber, storytelling in video is so important. And you can just try it for yourself and see how you like it. For a limited time,
people who click the link in the description below
will get a free trial to Skillshare's Premium membership. So go on over there and start sharpening that skill
you've been trying to learn. And I'm gonna go finish editing
this really awesome video. Butts, butts, butts, butts, butt. Let's get this out of the way first, so we're all on the same page. Current generation, Xbox
One S and Xbox One X. Next-generation, Xbox
Series S and Xbox Series X. Microsoft already isn't
making this easy for us, but this is probably the simplest
thing to understand here. The Xbox Series S is their new console that they announced just
two weeks ago by accident. Everybody already heard the rumors of a smaller, less powerful
next-generation Xbox code-named Lockhart. Hard proof of this leaked
into late into the night on September 7th, forcing
Microsoft's hand on September 8th. It was supposed to be
announced a week later, just one week before pre-orders
would have been available. A new console being announced just one week before
pre-orders are available is mind blowing. Despite this, the pre-order
process was a hot mess and all the console sold out like crazy. It took me about an hour to
pre-order, both consoles. I had a tab opened up for basically every major online retailer. Best Buy just straight up didn't
have any consoles available like they were supposed to at 11:00 a.m. Target and Amazon were
both completely broken. GameStop took me about 20
minutes to actually checkout with the Xbox Series S, but when I tried to add
the Series X to my cart, it was too late and they
were sold out of that. But then eventually,
Xbox.com started working, and I got a Series X from there, an hour after pre-orders launched. PlayStation 5 pre-orders were a hot mess because Sony said that pre-orders
would start the next day. And then every major
online retailer decided, "Nah, we'll just do it whenever we want." But Xbox pre-orders were a hot
mess for the opposite reason. There was supposed to happen at one time and then they were delayed
by all the retailers. And I shouldn't have to say anything, but whenever I mention
that I got both console's people inevitably ask me why? There's no reason to get
a Series X and a Series S, I'm only doing it because I'm gonna make videos on both consoles. You only need one of them. There's no benefit to having both. This whole pre-order process
wasn't just a (beeps) show because consoles weren't available to everybody who wanted them. They were also a (whooshing) show because sales of the Xbox One X jumped up by 747% on Amazon. A console that Microsoft discontinued in order to pave the way
for the next generation. A console that was selling on
Amazon for upwards of $600. It is nowhere near worth that much money. It's also $100 more than the
Xbox Series X is going to cost. This mistake was probably
caused by the similar names, but also because the Xbox One
X comes up right underneath the Xbox Series X in the Amazon search. Once you know the differences,
it's pretty easy to say that this is a stupid mistake to make, but remember that not everybody
watches tech breakdowns on YouTube before they purchase something. But it's also possible that
people bought the Xbox One X with the thought that it
could play the same games as the Series X. Now, this is harder to fault people for. It's enough to be confusing for people who do spend their time watching
tech breakdowns on YouTube. Hell, it's enough to be confusing
for people who make them. Back in January, Microsoft's
head of marketing, Matt Booty, said, "As our content comes
out over next year, two years, "all of our games, sort of like PC, "will up and down that family of devices. "We want to make sure that
someone invests in Xbox "between now and Series X, "that they feel that they
made a good investment "and that we're committed
to them with the content." That makes it sound like you
can just get any Xbox console and play those games anywhere. They've since walked
back those statements, but it took them a really
long time to dismiss that. On May 6th, Microsoft unveiled their new Optimized for Xbox Series
X emblem for game cases. This is intended to
let you know full well, if a game is for your next-gen console, however, it just adds to the confusion. Does optimized mean it'll
still play on older consoles, just not as well? They've revised their
messaging on their site to include the S but
never changed the emblem or the news article
specifically explaining what that emblem means. In fact, not even the manufacturers have changed their box art
to include Series S yet. Now there are outlets running articles saying that the Series S will
run the Xbox One S version of some games. This is technically true,
but also misleading, and not misleading at the
fault of these news outlets, but misleading because Microsoft is just making their ecosystem
so goddamn confusing. I'm going to try to explain
this as simply as I can, both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will be playing next-gen games. Some games will be playable
across generations, no matter what version you get. These will have the Smart
Delivery logo on them. Games that are only for Series X or S will probably just say Xbox Series X/S in this part right here. However, I have yet to see a publisher add S to their box art. There are currently 49 games that are Optimized for Xbox Series X/S listed on this page on Xbox.com. This means that you'll
benefit from enhancements on the next-gen hardware, like higher resolutions and faster frame. Of these 49 games, I could only find 10 that have no sign of
availability on Xbox One. Most of those games
are a year out or more. The Xbox Series S is only capable of 1440P at 120 frames per
second, because of this, if you're going to play an
Xbox One game on this Series S you will be playing the Xbox
One S version of that game and not the more optimized
Xbox One X version. This feels like unnecessary information that should concern no one, but it did confuse a lot
of people into thinking that the Xbox Series S
was only going to play last-gen versions of games, and it didn't help that
those news articles had really scary looking headlines. I think it's great that
Microsoft announced a cheaper, less powerful console. It lowers the barrier to entry for the next generation by a lot. I just don't know what this
means for this generation way down the line. I see the Series S as a Game Pass and Xbox Game Streaming console. If a game way down the line
requires that extra power, and you have a Game Pass
Ultimate subscription, just stream it. Will Microsoft remove
the S from game cases if it does require that extra power? I shouldn't have to be
making assumptions here. It's kind of ridiculous that Microsoft doesn't have the messaging
down well enough to just say, "There will be games "that are only available
on the next generation "and this is how you can tell." Also, it seems like Microsoft
is specifically avoiding certain messaging. Messaging like all next-generation games will be available on this
Series X and Series S. Buried in their article
announcing the Xbox Series S, Microsoft said, "Games built
for the next generation "will be optimized for both
Xbox Series X and Series S." That should be at the
top in big bold letters. And insinuates that down the line, no matter how technologically
advanced the games are, they will still be playable on the S. The Xbox One X was discontinued in order to quell some of the confusion, apparently to no avail. The Xbox One X is somewhere in between the Series S Series X in terms of power, so it should be able to play
some of these next-gen games. The only problem would
be the hard drive speed, which is much faster
on the next generation. So it does make sense that they took this off the store shelves so that things like this don't
happen this holiday season. So if you wanna get one
of these next-gen Xboxes, you wanna make sure you see
the word Series in the title. If you wanna make sure
your game is playable on the next generation, you wanna look at the game
case in the top left corner and see what console it says it's for. You could also look for the Optimized for Xbox Series X/S emblem, but we haven't seen what that looks like with the S included. The worst thing that you can do is blindly assume that your
game will work just fine, especially if it's a third-party title. And I mean, honestly, good luck finding one of these
consoles this year anyway. What do you guys think about
the next-generation Xboxes? Are you just gonna go with the PlayStation 'cause this is all too much? I'm excited for this next generation. I think things are gonna
be really interesting. Microsoft going all service-based. That seems really cool
that they have all of these publishers down for
their streaming service, and they just basically
bought up everybody. Microsoft also has the cheaper console, but PlayStation just
has the messaging down. PlayStation 5. Here it is. These are the games. Take it or leave it anyway. Anyway, let me know your thoughts in the comments down below. Add me on Twitter, any and all this other social media garbage. And also thank you to Skillshare for helping support this video. You can check them out in the description, also that also helps support us. We've got new videos here all the time, still working out the schedule. I'm trying to do Thursdays, but who knows? And we got streams over
on Twitch.tv/WULFFDEN. Go put notifications on over there, so you know when I go live. I'm tryna play it
through "Mario Sunshine". I'm not having a great time. That's why the watermelon's there. Oh my God. Oh my God. (Mario screaming) But of course, the most important thing that you can do to help support us is just subscribe to the channel. That's it, turn on those notifications so you know when there's new videos. And make sure you're subscribed and not relying on YouTube suggested feed to feed you these videos 'cause you're probably not watching an Xbox video from me, 'cause
I'm normally the Nintendo guy. But to help you could also
share this video with a friend, a friend who's maybe interested
in these new consoles and wants to figure out what games they can even play for it. Thank you very much. Have a good week.
