Do you own or are you considering buying an Xbox One this Christmas? Share your top tips for getting the most out of your Xbox One with Microsoft. £300 Love2Shop voucher to be won. NOW CLOSED!

[ZaneMumsnet]

Across the festive season, Microsoft Xbox would like to hear the top tips Mumsnetters have for getting the most out of Xbox One for all the family.

Here’s what they say: “Providing hours of endless family fun, the Xbox One is home to the greatest games – including family favourites ‘Minecraft Xbox One Edition’, ‘Forza Motorsport 6’ and ‘Ori and the Blind Forest’ – as well as popular entertainment apps such as BBC iPlayer and Netflix Kids.“

They’ve even included a tutorial video to help you set up your Xbox One. You can view it below.

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So how do you and your family get the most out of your Xbox One? Do you gather round the sofa to build a virtual world together on Minecraft? Maybe you challenge each other to FIFA football competitions? Perhaps you use the apps on your console to watch Christmas movies as a family? Have you any advice for parents considering buying an Xbox One this Christmas? Whatever your tips are, Microsoft wants to know.

Everyone who posts on this thread with their tips will be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

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It's great for family games and interaction, as opposed to everyone using personal devices.
My top tip is to get the best membership you can afford.

We use our Xbox a lot, I love the fact that you can set up each family
Members profile so it's got age appropriate content.
We use our for everything, Sky, I player, Netflix and Amazon prime
Video is all streamed through it and YouTube too.
We have a huge world built in minecraft that we all dip in and out of or all sit and play together and my children love playing Fifa with their friends, the graphics are fantastic and it's not full of swearing or violence.

When the children are in bed DP and I carry on playing only we switch to Fall out 4 and Tomb Raider.
It's a great multi purpose console.
I really like the connect so I can tell it what to do even when the controller has gone walkabouts.

Downloading games in advance is a definite if there is an impatient child waiting to play!

Being able to play games as a family is good, give me some hope that my DD will interact with us past the age of 6.

We use ours a lot for streaming Netflix or Wuaki. Really looking forward to trying out some of the XBox 360 backwards compatible games on it - though that may be a while away with 3 week old DC2!

I find the Xbox one less user friendly than the play station and I find the account security difficult to navigate. Also setting up profiles is hard - I want to limit time each day and can't find a way to do this. I also can't set age stuff differently within a profile for RC, film, games , Internet.

However it is very good for Netflix and now tv and finding games. It is used a lot and the voice commands are ace

My boys (and husband) would love one but we just can't afford it at the moment as I'm on maternity leave.

My kids love playing mine craft together. They have got so much out of it.

If you're buying an XBox One (or any console) as a gift, it may be worth:

1. Getting it out and seeing if there are any system updates before wrapping it up, as updates can take a while. Same is true of the games themselves - they can sometimes require lengthy updates, especially if they're online-based. Yes, Destiny, I'm looking at you. -_-

2. Getting familiar with the parental controls if there are younger people playing it - one of the great things is that you can have access to loads of content (movies, TV shows, games), but you have to bear in mind that that this includes content that may not be age appropriate for kids unless the appropriate settings are activated.

3. If you're not a gamer yourself, getting familiar with any titles that have been asked for. PEGI ratings are the game equivalent of the BBFC ratings for films, so are for content, not difficulty! Ask on here, watch YouTube videos, etc - some 16 rated games can actually be pretty tame, whereas others are more violent. Some have no voice chat or in-game communication with strangers, others have it switched on as standard, etc.

4. Bearing in mind that some games require a permanent online broadband connection and subscription to the console's online service (in XB1's case, Xbox Live). If you do subscribe, again remember any parental settings, and that there will be regular free games offered as part of your subscription!

5. Don't forget it's not just games - there's movie and TV streaming, digital downloads, etc.

6. Buy and play Transformers Devastation, it's ace.

Xbox live gold is a bargain in my opinion. Two free games to keep forever for the 360 and four games a month for the Xbox1 if you have membership.

I like how membership isn't fixed and you can set up regular payment, the Microsoft themselves or buy vouchers but if you can afford it a whole year in one go is the cheapest option. Our cash is limited so we pay monthly. The free games you get make it worth it but some titles may be unsuitable for younger ones.

Make sure your children understand that things cost real money, as if you have a payment method linked, it's possible they can end up racking up a big bill, even little things like buying clothing for the avatar cost money and it's easy for a child to get carried away.

Research games, make sure they are suitable, there's loads of youtube videos with footage of the post popular ones. If you don't want dc talking to strangers you'll have to check settings/chat options etc

It's not just a games system, we use it for DVDs Iplayer, Netflix, youtube etc.

We have all the consoles but the Xbox is what's used the most, backwards compatibility is what made us upgrade from the 360

Downloading games in advance is an absolute must - for the children and husband!

We use our for playing DVDs on and the Kinect is fab for all the family!

It's an excellent media centre but not as good for games as the PS4. So a decent family investment for Netflix etc but a bit limited for gaming.

I don't think it was ever aimed at gamers, hence the uproar and back peddling. Shoddy treatment for loyal gamers.

For the first time im considering a ps4 as an addition and I still use my original Xbox. It won't do no harm to branch out, I just don't trust Microsoft anymore. My telly is all the media stuff I need. I don't need a console for any of it.

New XBox One a hit - 12 hours for the new game to load was not a hit...

My top tip is get the Kinect - it's easily the best thing about the Xbox One. It's really cool if you feed your TV signal through it and be able to control it with voice commands, "Xbox Watch BBC1" etc.

Definitley if using the first time, download the game first as they sometimes take ages to sort out

Amazing multi media player, get one you will not be disappointed!

Ours is used for watching YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime as well as gaming.

I think it's great you can access Netflix through it and also play DVDs. There are also other fantastic apps you can use. :)

Watching Netflix you tube and using it online

So versatile. We use ours for watching things on YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime too.

Project Spark community is free and folks have been busy working on original user-generated content, there's already tonnes of stuff to try out or collaborate on.

Always set a time limit for how long they are allowed to play on it.

Don't provide yout credit card details to avoid any nasty surprises!!!

Sadly all everyone is talking about today is their kids in tears as it wouldn't down load.

Lubkily ours worked fine. I'm going to watch Netflix

We have been using it for a free Now tv trial so am watching as many films as possible during this period. We will try games afterwards