The Xbox Series S Rules Black Friday 2021

Microsoft’s Xbox Series S console is leading game console sales this Black Friday. The console’s success is due to a combination of two factors: its price point and its availability.

While Sony’s Playstation 5 is far and away the most sought after next-generation console on the market, the flipside to the system’s desirability is its extreme scarcity: the console typically sells out in seconds, with new supplies being weeks or even months away.

Microsoft’s $300 Xbox Series S, while being less coveted, is much more readily available, making the console a hit on the biggest sale weekend of the holiday season.

According to Adobe’s Digital Economy Index, U.S. retail sites have been experiencing heavy traffic, with over “one trillion visits” being logged by the index–and the Series S is topping the charts.

The console is all-digital, which means that it has no disc slots and does not support disc versions of games or DVDs– but all of the latest titles are available digitally through Microsoft’s game marketplace.

Microsoft’s Xbox Series X, a larger, more powerful version of the Series S that supports discs, comes in at $500, making the Series S a much more attractive option for those just starting out with next-generation consoles.

Play ‘Hades’ on the Xbox Series S

Hades is a roguelike Greek mythology videogame developed and published by Supergiant games. The game was initially released for MacOS, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch on September 17, 2020, and quickly took the gaming world by storm. The game swept the end-of-year lists of major publications like IGN, Entertainment Weekly, Time, and the Washington Post. Within three days of its official release date, Hades sold over 1 million copies.

The game was recently re-released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S consoles in August of 2021. This means the new Xbox Series S supports the massively popular and highly lauded game– if you’re not sure which title you should start with on your new console, you should definitely consider making it Hades!

The game centers around Zagreus, the son of Hades, as he attempts to flee the Underworld and reach Greece’s Mount Olympus.
Along the way, he encounters many iconic figures from Greek mythology. The game engages with its mythical sources, as players can engage in conversations with gods and goddesses which reflect events and relationships found in Greek mythology.

In order to reach Mount Olympus, Zagreus must take on a variety of mythical enemies. As an immortal, he doesn’t die when defeated, he just wakes up back where he started in the Underworld.

Even though this feature leads to a gameplay loop, in which players battle through the same stages, the conversations between Zagreus and other characters are never the same, making each escape attempt an exciting new layer to the story.