Dumb question but can anyone explain how the Xbox S Series works? I won one back in December and the kids have been nagging to set it up but I'm not sure how it works. What do I need to purchase for them to be able to play? I've seen there are ultimate passes, gold passes, live passes etc. But have no idea what to buy haha. Bonus if there are any specials or tips and tricks to make it cheaper.
Thanks in Advance
^ This for sure
I don't even think they know really haha
I know that they like playing any sort of games and they vary in age 5, 9 & 11.
Wow that's really cheap, thank you. Does this option give them access to a big selection of games?
For a list of all games currently on the service click here https://www.xbox.com/en-nz/xbox-game-pass/games?xr=shellnav
There is a core number of titles that are always available on Gamepass, mainly ones published by Xbox Game Studios and EA Games, while the rest of the library is revolving with some titles leaving the service as new ones are added. Currently there are over 450 games available on the service and it feels like they're always adding more games than they're removing each month.
Just be aware that the games offered can vary in age ratings from G to R18, so if you don't want your kids playing overly violent, scary or games that explore adult themes, then there are parental controls on the console that you can set up that will mean they'll have to get your permission to play titles of a certain age rating or higher, https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/family-online-safety/fam…, you can set up separate profiles for each child so the older one can access more mature content on their profile than the youngest can on theirs.
Thank you so much for all this information. Will definitely look at the parental controls, thats awesome and good to know I can create different accounts and different controls for each child.
join xbox game for pc for $1, then upgrade to game pass unlimited for another $1. You end up having 2 months xbox game pass unlimited for $2. Enough for you to try out…
Hi baishishun, how do I do this?
does it have a disc bay or is it discless?
Series S = no disc. Series X = disc.
I thought both had a disc and discless version
No disc bay, like the ps5 digital. You buy/download your games from the store. ~360GB of usable space out of the box, thats enough for 3 or 4 large games then you have to remove them to add others.
Biggest issue with the Series S/X is adding storage space is expensive, adding PS5 storage is cheaper as theres a variety of SSD's compatible and you don't have to buy a device made by Seagate for Xbox and priced where they want it. Xbox is like $400+ PS5 ~$250 for 1TB.
you can use an external hard drive for some games ( usually older games )… newer games all seem to want to be in the internal SSD.
Not for xb series s/x titles, only xbox one afaik
Don't they both need series 5 nvme or something? (the same standard of ssd?)
Xbox has it's own custom ssd produced by seagate which inflates the price of it. PS5 does need a certain spec ssd yes hence why the cheapest compatible is about 250 NZD right now
Does that mean even when purchasing the gaming passes they can only realistically play 3 or 4 games at a time?
If they are large games on the series s yes(ie CoD is 100GB+ iirc), but with fibre 100 or faster and a wired connection games shouldn't take longer than an hour or two to download. Most people don't switch between that many titles at any given time and can plan around it but it's annoying to me.
If you think lack of storage space will be a problem I suggest grabbing yourself a cheap portable usb 3.0 ssd, I use a 960gb Adata one that I picked up new for $80, and using that to increase the storage. You'll be able to run all games off it apart from X/S exclusives that need to be on the faster internal drive, among the games on mine I currently have the X/S versions of AC Valhalla, Craftopia and The Lost City and they all run fine, but you can also use it as pure storage for games that won't run off external, like The Medium for example which is around 23Gb and requires the faster internal ssd to run, and all you do when you want to play it is copy it over from external to internal which takes around 1 minute, once you've finished playing the game you then delete it off the internal drive and just copy it over from the external again next time you want to play it. It's the quickest, easiest & most cost effective way to increase your storage.
I have an Xbox Tahi and I downloaded all my kids games from the Xbox store. The Lego games are great and they go on sale frequently, sometimes as little as$10.
A wired fibre connection is the best option for Downloading.
Other games I bought on sale were Rayman, Crash Bandicoot, Moving out…
Heaps of free demo's as well.
Discs get damaged too easily in my household.
Lego Star Wars 2 is 5 bucks at the moment.
https://www.xbox.com/en-nz/games/store/rayman-origins/brbvzf…
Rayman origins is a great game for kids, good price at the moment.
I recommend reading one of the many online guides on how to buy digital Xbox games from overseas Microsoft stores, you'll save a lot of $$$. Once you buy the games from overseas you then download them from the NZ store as you would games purchased through the NZ store. I usually buy all my digital Xbox games and DLC from Brazil and currently Rayman Origins is around $6.04 on there which is about a 40% saving over what it is in the NZ store at the moment, and while $3.86 isn't a huge amount of money to save all those little savings soon add up over time, and for higher priced new releases I'll give you a couple of examples, the new Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga is $104.95 on the NZ store and around $71.14 from Brazil, Elden Ring is around $93.15 from Brazil and $119.95 from NZ. It's worth it.
Eneba currently have Elden Ring for around $50nzd (cost me $49.95 with Paypal fees). It's from the Argentina Xbox store so you'll need a VPN to redeem the code. https://www.eneba.com/gb/xbox-elden-ring-xbox-live-key-argen…
Monster jam steel titans 2 is $17.99, down from $39.99.
Drive around wrecking your car, what kid wouldn't like this?
https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/monster-jam-steel-tit…
https://www.xbox.com/en-NZ/games/store/the-lego-movie-videog…
Lego movie game $11.48. Another great kids game.
How many games do you reckon your kids will play?
I paid around $140 roughly for 3 years of Xbox Gamepass Ultimate using the instructions in this link:
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/672910
Definitely one of the better options.