To ask for xbox advice

[PumpkinPie2016]

My son has just turned 12 and would like an xbox for Christmas.

I have established that the s series is suitable.

Beyond that, I'm so bloody confused 🤯

I gather he will need a game pass to be able to access games as it doesn't have a disc drive, but, I can't fathom whether the smaller storage capacity is OK or if the 1TB is better as I can't tell whether you need to download the games and save to your xbox?

Then, if he wants to play with his friends when all are at their own homes, does he need a gaming headset?

If anyone can help, or had a teenager who can help, I'd be so grateful because my brain is fried 🤯

Yes, he'll need a gaming headset as the key difference compared to normal headphones is that they have a mic to allow the players to speak to each other.

I'd probs go for the 1tb as the games will need to be downloaded to play them, unlike traditional consoles where the game is stored on the disc and only additional data/save games are stored on the console.

It depends what he wants to play. The latest Call Of Duty games can be around 100gb so you'd only get five games like that on the 512gb. However, most games are much smaller. It depends if he'll be playing games like Fortnite because games like this take up much more space due to the need to download large playing maps.

You can get an expansion card up to 2tb and it's unlikely he'd ever need more than that and the inbuilt drive, but they're like £120 so might be cheaper getting the bigger version from the start.

Gamepass used to be £10.99 a month. Not sure what it is now. You get the first party releases on day one (these usually cost like £50) and there's absolutely loads of games to choose from. However, being able to download free games means he'll likely be using up storage space much quicker than if he was getting a game at a time, so the bigger storage is worth it - he could download ten games on day one if he wanted.

Also, check parental controls because there will be some quite violent/adult games in the library. You can restrict what he can access. I was playing a horror game where you're trapped in a house where a guy had murdered his family. It was really good but pretty dark.

Get 1TB if you can as a lot of it is turning digital with games downloaded etc which obv takes up more memory.

we have a gold pass. It’s a little more but the cost of the normal pass is included. You get loads of free games to play from which I recommend. Even family games you can play together.

make sure you have a chat about communicating with people online.

we have the X. I’m not sure why but the S wasn’t suitable. DP doesn’t even really play games anymore but he for the x 1TB. We watch tv through it more than anything 😂