The Xbox One is out and maybe someone you know picked it up. Or maybe you’re considering picking one up for someone this holiday season. Here’s some advice before you crack open your wallet.
DO grab them a subscription to Xbox Live Gold. Amazon usually has some great one-year deals for a fair price. You won’t be able to access the Xbox’s best online features and multiplayer gaming without the subscription.
DO either get them a second controller or pick up one of those charge and play cords. Chances are they haven’t had too much time to accessorize with their newest console, so you can consider some kind of charging station made by your brand of choice.
DO get an Xbox One owner a Kinect mount for their TV. It’ll put the camera up higher and make it easier for it to scan the entire room, and clear space in front of the TV screen.
DO consider starting them off on a cable subscription with a gift card of some sort if they don’t already have the service. The Xbox One integrates with a cable box pretty well, can do a picture-in-picture “snap” mode and can even be controlled with the Xbox One’s Kinect 2.0.
DO share your Netflix account information (if you’re a subscriber) so they don’t have to buy their own.
DO pick them up Dead Rising 3, Battlefield 4, maybe Ryse and some other available launch games you think they might like.
DO buy an Xbox Live gift card. It can be really nice to have a chunk of cash in your Xbox Live wallet, and will make it easier to make the sorts of impulse movie rentals and game-downloads that the best lazy Sunday afternoons are made of.
DON’T pick them up an actual Xbox One just yet, unless you know for sure they want one. The console’s still got some issues to iron out and there aren’t too many must-play games on it just yet.
DON’T buy an Xbox One owner a high-end gaming headset like one by Astro or Turtle Beach. The headphone-surround audio and chat won’t work with the console yet. Better to wait until Microsoft fixes it in a patch.
Let’s build this guide out more in the comments below…
Comments
22 responses to “Xbox One 2013 Holiday Buyer’s Guide”
DO or DO NOT, there is no try.
Seriously? Do get them a gift card toward a long term subscription to cable TV? Unless they want to spend money on cable TV monthly, this would be the shittest gift ever.
american article… things are VERY different over there
This isn’t america, they need to clean the article or it needs to GTFO. We get far too many stupid copy paste jobs.
Not really, cord cutting is becoming pretty massive over there, people don’t want to pay for it and are getting their media other ways. Remember they have Hulu, Netflix, Amazon instant, etc. Young people especially just aren’t signing up to cable anymore.
Im sorry but this is on Kotaku AU, telling any aussie to pay for cable(i.e foxtel) is like telling them to go give $100+ a month to a junkie, your pissing your money away for no return.
Having the kinect on most recent tv’s is also a big no no, the thing weighs over 1kg and alot of people have thin Tv’s (The battery pack from the controller is fatter than the top of my tv, having kinect up on it is crazy talk).
Telling people not to buy an xbox one in and xbox one buying guide?
You don’t buy them a high end gaming headset because they don’t work on the controller not because of audio issues which can be 100% bypassed (by having optical into your tv instead of the console so your headset will work on EVERYTHING connect to it instead of one device), but because almost nothing will plug the mic into the controller.
This article could have just been never made for all the help it gives =/
That’s the mounting kits job. It makes a little shelf on top of a super thin TV for the Kinect sensor to sit on. The only real issue is wall mounted TVs that are super thin and super close to the wall, although in that case I’d consider putting a shelf above the TV anyway.
Yeah, I’ve plugged an optical cable into my amp, just plug any old headset into the amp and voila.
DO get them a Blu-Ray rack. Some genius decided that Blu-Ray cases should be shorter than DVD cases so if they were playing primarily on the XBOX 360 and weren’t watching Blu-Ray movies last generation, they’re probably going to need new racks this generation.
Seriously, it’s a easy practical gift for someone you know just brought an XBOX One or PS4. Especially if you know nothing about games but know what their lounge room looks like.
I know they thought changing the size would make it so people could tell the difference between Blu Ray and and DVD. They underestimated the idiots, had a friend who worked in retail at a store that sold both Blu Rays and DVDs. People we’re always coming in and yelling at him because the disc did not work. Turns out it was a Blu Ray and not a DVD.
And I very much am annoyed by the fact that now I need multiple sized racks for my game collection.
I’m actually tempted to go out and buy a box of 100 empty green DVD cases and another of blue. The only thing stopping me is that I know it’d bug me that the inserts don’t fill up the entire case. =P
DO grab them a subscription to Xbox Live Gold. OZGAMESHOP usually has some great one-year deals for a fair price. You won’t be able to access the Xbox’s best online features and multiplayer gaming without the subscription.
DO either get them a second controller or pick up one of those charge and play cords. Chances are they haven’t had too much time to accessorize with their newest console, so you can consider some kind of charging station made by your brand of choice.
DO get an Xbox One owner a Kinect mount for their TV. It’ll put the camera up higher and make it easier for it to scan the entire room, and clear space in front of the TV screen.
DON’T consider starting them off on a FOXTEL subscription.
DON’T share your Netflix account information BECAUSE IT’S NOT AVAILABLE HERE YET.
DO pick them up Dead Rising 3, Battlefield 4, maybe Ryse and some other available launch games you think they might like.
DO buy an Xbox Live gift card. It can be really nice to have a chunk of cash in your Xbox Live wallet, and will make it easier to make the sorts of impulse game-downloads that the best lazy Sunday afternoons are made of.
DON’T pick them up an actual Xbox One just yet, unless you know for sure they want one. The console’s still got some issues to iron out and there aren’t too many must-play games on it just yet.
DON’T buy an Xbox One owner a high-end gaming headset like one by Astro or Turtle Beach. The headphone-surround audio and chat won’t work with the console yet. Better to wait until Microsoft fixes it in a patch.
There, localized for Australia.
Don’t bother with the Play And Charge kits if you were happy using AA’s with your 360 controller.
When I bought my Xbone, the guy at EB Games told me that I “HAD to buy a play and charge kit” because the new controllers are so power hungry that it’d chew through a set of AA’s in a day, so stupid me bought one. Decided to use up the batteries that came packed with the console, and yeah, turns out he was full of shit.
I’m still on my Day One batteries for my Xbox One controller. Meanwhile I’m charging my DualShock 4 every 2-3 days. That fucking blue light absolutely canes the battery life…Idiots!
Yeah im finding the ps4 controller gets me 5 hours of game time, xb1 is closer to 30 on my new rechargeable’s (old pair closer to 20), plus after the amount of battery packs i had die last gen makes the whole battery pack a ajoke.
Even if they lasted as long as standard rechargeables they cost 4x as much as the play and charge kits (can get 4 AA’s for $15 or less easily), plus why do i want a wireless controller that needs to be plugged in 1/4 of the time?
Sanyo Eneloops black XXX seem to be the best aa rechargables on the market at the moment
I don’t think he was just trying to get you to buy accessories you don’t need. Play and Charge kits beat AAs in pretty much every way. Seems like a waste to use AAs, even if they lasted an entire busy week. If you want to do it that way that’s fine but for most people it’s a must buy accessory.
One nice design choice with the XBOX One controller is that it can switch between AAs and the charging pack a lot easier than the XBOX 360 controllers could. On the off chance you need to use the wireless functionality of the controller but your play and charge pack is dead you can just open it up and throw some AAs in there. No need to dig around for the original back plate.
Who doesn’t just own a battery charger and 4 – 6 rechargeable batteries for the multitude of stuff we own that need them.
I’m struggling to think of anything I own beyond remote controls that even take AA batteries. Back in the 90’s I used rechargeable batteries for a while but they were such a pain in the butt with remembering which ones were good, which ones were charged, which ones needed charging, having a set of AAs and a set of AAAs, waking up and realising I forgot to put them on the charger.
Now everything I own plugs in and charges while I use them. My phone lives in the docks. Same for the Wii U controller (which replaced my TV remote). My 3DS charges off USB at home and power pack at work. My wireless mouse at work charges via USB. My toothbrush has a charging dock. My Surface Pro has a built in battery. I use play and charges kits on all my controllers. If it wasn’t for Guitar Hero and the Wii remote I don’t think I’d have touched a AA battery since like 2003. =P
Granted I don’t have kids. Do toys still all require stupid amounts of batteries or did they get on the internal rechargeable batteries too?
Actually, now I think about it I do have a set of rechargeable batteries someone brought me in one of the out of the way draws in the kitchen. Still, way too much of a pain in the butt compared to just plugging in my XBOX One controller when I’m not using it. For me USB replaced the AA, AAA, C, D standards. Now instead of having a draw full of batteries I’ve just got a bundle of Mini, Micro, etc USB cables.
You have to admit not having to take the back plate off and on all the time to switch batteries is a nice bonus. I treat my stuff pretty well but it always seems like someone will come over the second my remote batteries die and snap the tabs on the cover trying to replace them.
I have 4 kids…..shit load of toys use AA batteries…also my camera uses AA, I hate shity polymer batteries and try to keep to AA
What’s wrong with the play and charge? Mine lasts me a week or so between charges depending on how heavily I’m gaming and how much force feedback I’m using (ie, forza or battlefield). I’d rather plug my controller in than swap AA’s in anything.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it. I’m just saying that if anyone is happy not to have one, they should not feel forced to get one because of some bullshit a sales assistant told them.