X-box complete newbie

You say that you want to get them an Xbox S for christmas. Just know that there are different consoles that you might be referring to.

There is the Xbox One S which is the prior generation of console. Xbox One S

There is also the newest generation of console. The Xbox Series S This newer one does not have a disc drive so it can only play games that are downloaded to it. It cannot play games from discs.

Hello Anna,

When you're buying a new console for children, it's a good practice to make sure you research the games they will play on it beforehand. Since the kids will be sharing the console, you can use the keyword "xbox games for 2 players" for your research (here's a good list to get started with) - you'll get a list of the best games which can be played simultaneously by two players on Xbox. However, you should be aware that most of those games are not suitable for younger players because they're too violent. Minecraft is an obvious choice, of course - you can't go wrong with the 3D sandbox played by millions of children and adults all over the world. Also, I recommend you check out a pirate game that's super fun and appropriate for children - it's called Sea of Thieves. It's a beautiful game which can be played by two people simultaneously on one Xbox and it has a player base of more than 15 million registered players.

Thank you and welcome to the Xbox Community!

Hi there Anna welcome to the community forum! Christopher here, an Xbox fan just like you and has been on Xbox for years already. I would really love to make your day by helping you out. First, as you said you will need a second controller for them to play. Secondly, they will need Microsoft accounts so be sure to create two accounts, one for each one. Then as an advise I recommend buying a Gamepass subscription, that way they will have a pretty big catalogue of games to choose from! https://www.xbox.com/xbox-game-pass

You can buy games physically or digitally! They will be able to share the games without any issues!

Hi there,

I'll try my best to explain some steps to prepare the console for use.

As a first thing to get a good overview on the steps is to see this video (created by Xbox Support) it's an older video so things might not look exactly the same, but it does cover the basic steps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0oXb7T6TQY

Accounts:

Since the children will be sharing the console it is best to have separate accounts for every child, also keep in mind that a child account will need a parent account, the parent account can control what a child account can play and how long etc.

So you will need an account for each child and one for yourself as the parent. Each account will be a Microsoft Account. These accounts can be set up via the console or via the web. Steps on how to create a Xbox Account can be found here:

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/account-profile/manage-account/create-an-xbox-account

When child accounts are present then these are managed by an adult account via a 'Family group'. More information on that can be found here:

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/for-everyone/responsible-gaming

Console:

When the console us used for the first time it will require an update, downloading and installing the update can take some time, this will be depending on your internet speed and console type (Xbox Series S|X consoles install updates fairly quickly compared Xbox One consoles)

During setup accounts can be added, but can also be added at a later stage.

Games:

Each game needs to be installed, any digital games need to be downloaded, be aware that games can be quite big so downloading a game can take quite some time depending on the download speed. (Keep in mind that some consoles are digital only, they don't have a disc drive)



I can understand it can be quite overwhelming, the most important part in my opinion will be the accounts setup.

If you yourself or the children already have a Microsoft Account (for example via outlook) then that can be used as basis for the Xbox Account. Keep in mind that the date of birth on an account will determine if an account is an Child account, only child accounts can be controlled by a parental account. Keep any security details (email, password etc) of an account safe, since you may need it again in future.

When the accounts (and family group) are setup then the rest usually is the 'easy' part.

If you have any additional questions then feel free to reach out.