Well, that's one prediction that came true in a hurry, since I only made it a few days ago!  The first current-gen bundle (that doesn't raise the price) is out, and it is indeed a Series S bundle.  Comes with some in-game currency for both Fortnite and Rocket League.  Those games are free, but coming with in-game currency for those games adds value.  And that bundle is squarely aimed at the casuals, which makes sense since hardcore gamers would generally prefer the Series X.

In Canada, in general:

If you live in or close to a large city your internet will be decent if not great.

If you live in or close to a small to medium sized city, your internet will be so so.

If you live in a rural area, a town, even a large town, your internet will be terrible.

There are exceptions, both positive and negative, but those are rare. Best part is, instead of trying to bring everyone with terrible or so so internet up to speed, the com giants just keep upgrading the large cities. Locally here, near a very small town, we just got upgraded from 5mbps DSL to 25mbps max wireless with 250GB data cap recently. Meanwhile the GTA was already far ahead of that a decade ago and is getting upgraded to unlimited gigabit.

It won't get much better where the internet is terrible and maybe so so either, because StarLink is going to take them all anyway eventually, so the big coms very likely won't bother much going forward. Problem with StarLink is it's going to take a while yet for broad coverage, plus there are still cold, ice, and snow issues, and that's a problem for 6 months in Canada, especially for online gaming or streaming.

Can't really agree with you since PS gives several of those things for free (currency, avatars, etc) for same or similar games and even more for PS+ members. But well perhaps the market see it like that and is happy =]

You can't agree with what?  That adding V-bucks for Fortnite (and whatever the in-game currency for Rocket League is called) to the Series S is going to be more appealing to at least some people than a Seres S without those things?

Game Pass subscribers also sometimes get perks along those lines too.

Amounts of in-game currency provided through perks are generally very small, especially when tied to free services.

At any rate, Fortnite is an enormously popular game (Rocket League perhaps somewhat less so, but also has its fans).  These games rake in obscene amounts of money from people purchasing their in-game currency.  Clearly fans aren't getting anywhere near enough in "free" perks in these games, and are buying lots more.  That strongly suggests that currency has a lot of value in the overall marketplace and will be seen by players of those games as a significant value-add.

Fair enough, I gave an overly simplistic answer based on the fact that the majority of Canada's population lives in or near big cities these days.  And that also in BC and Alberta, Telus offers smart-hubs with huge data caps and reasonable prices (and decent latency) over their LTE network in the rural areas within their wireless coverage footprint.  But yes, the rural areas in the other provinces have it far rougher with Xplorenet, etc., from the sounds of it.

Ultimately, I agree with you that there are some people that won't have a good game streaming experience, and won't for a while yet.

Just figured I'd fill a little more in.

The entirety of rural Southern Ontario is supposed to be FTTH by 2040, which is a long way yet for some, but I worry a bit that because of StarLink, that program may get paused or cancelled. If StarLink can figure out the cold issues for the most part then it would probably be doable, but if that remains a problem, everyone who's a rural gamer would be out of luck. You'd have no choice but to wait and hope FTTH happened eventually or move to a city.

I can't agree that it should be looked as the first bundle that adds value without increasing price, because well as you said yourself it is a free game not everyone play and there also other ways that gives that currency for free. And as I also said, but if customer bases sees as added value and buy because of it no problem.

Most ways to get it "for free" require subscribing to some kind of service, so not really free.  And even at that they're buying more still.  Buying a corresponding amount of virtual currency would cost about $20 USD.  The fact that the game is free doesn't matter.  The fact that you can occasionally get small amounts of digital currency in other ways doesn't mean they wouldn't also need even more, and therefore would place a value on getting it with the console.  If Sony were including it with one of the PS5 SKUs, and not the other, I'd consider that a legit bundle.  It doesn't matter whether the virtual currency is for a free game or a paid game.  It doesn't matter if there are other ways to get it (including purchasing it).  It only matters that most people get it by buying it, and that therefor some console purchasers would attach a value to it.  There are always going to be bundles that some value and others don't.  If you're a Fortnite player who regularly buys V-bucks, and you're looking to get a new console, then this would undeniably increase your perception of the value getting a Series S.  Hence it's a value add.  Same as if it was a bundle that included a game that you don't want, or could get as part of some other subscription as well, it doesn't change the fact that some people will want that game, or won't have a subscription that gets them that game some other way.

I didn't deny your logic because I understand where you are coming from.

I denied calling it a value bundle because well for me MTX as a whole isn't even something that should exist, and you aren't getting a product in the bundle just some "useless" currency.

But again, I said that for the market or customers it can be seem as value added bundle, but that it wouldn't apply to me. Anyway the premise of Series S likely being the first to have free games included is one I do agree since it is the only one that have been more readily available in stores.

As stock of Series S continue to build up in the supply chain faster than Series X and PS5 stock, it lends credence to the idea that Microsoft will want to do something to make the Series S more desirable. There are the classic ways of doing so, via bundles and price cuts. I think bundles are more likely (especially given the fact that there are some unconfirmed, but likely to be true, reports that Microsoft may subsidize the Series S more than the Series X), especially since we're in our first significantly inflationary environment in decades. A bundle that includes first-party software, or x-number of months of Game Pass, could be a good way to hold the line on their already industry-leading price, while moving more units. So I think that's exceptionally likely in the near future as stock continues to build up in the channel. But... (next point in its own post)