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

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

I may have developed a slight obsession with Guitar Hero Live on our new Xbox. We got it as a family present from Santa after cashing out a ton of Nectar points, with games to suit everyone---namely Fifa16, Minecraft and Guitar Hero. There are a few games on Rare Replay, which came as a bundle with our console, which are great to play. DS(7) loves Grabbed by the Ghoulies.

We haven't played around with other aspects of it (streaming video, on demand, etc) as we already have a Sky box.

we use it to watch netflix through. Also having an hour of family games every now and then

I think the list of available games changes each week??

The free titles change around the first and the fifteenth of the month.
There's one free 360 game which you keep forever and two free Xbox one games which you need active membership to play. Six free games a month isn't bad.

For anyone who doesn't have an Xbox one yet, and thinks they may get in future, it's worth claiming the free Xbox one titles as although you can't download and play on the 360 they will be added to your collection and be available to download if you get an Xbox 1. We have dozens ready to dload from locking in licenses for the freebies over the last year.

Me and my DH baught our first Xbox one in June 2014. Since then we've built a huge collection of games on demand! We've even added games from the 360 emulator to our collection so we can play old classics on our upgraded system. My DH uses the Xbox one daily to keep in touch with his friends who live in his home town 3 hours away - he said without keeping in touch with them through Xbox live parties and playing co-op games he would of felt lost. We're also enjoying watching Sky go app through the Xbox , and catch up with tv through it in our free time. My DH enjoys shouting 'Xbox record that' to the Kinect which saves game clips to his library which friends can watch and rate! Great entertainment system. DH is currently glued to the new game 'Ark' . Recommend Xbox one to all ages, it can suit everybody's entertainment factor

My husband would be better placed to share his top tips than me.. all I use it for is watching Netflix! I'll be checking back on this thread to educate myself :)

I don't have an XBoxOne but, with the 360, you can use it along with your PC as a PVR (if you have a tuner card installed), as well as to stream music and videos. As it connects to the net, it can also be used to connect with your Netflix subscription and other online accounts.

Do what I do - ask my teenager !

It's a brilliant family addition, this xmas has been great as we have been able to use it for Netflix and also to play games as a family.

DS2's face as he used the kinect controls to feed the giraffes and wash the rhinos and make faces at the chimps in the zoo we'd just made - was worth getting one just for that :)

Am at the stage of getting to grips with it and feeling that as a family we are using maybe 2% of its capabilities. So far so good though.

We use to watch Netflix too 😃

Great advice from reading the xbox forums on the internet, some great advice there

I love the Xbox forums. 'I've just spent a fortune setting my kid up and he's been suspended until 31 Dec 9999, I supervise him and he hasn't done anything???!' Answer 'he turned his avatar blue' brilliant

One word...NETFLIX! Seriously, it's amazing.

In my house it's all about FIFA. The kids have tournaments and family members come over and take part too for a lump sum of money. It's always madness.

I totally agree about Netflix, absolutely brilliant. Watched two films via it last night and the picture was amazing. I am going to watch Netflix through the Xbox in future. .....even if I do have to ask DS to show me how to get back to the home screen afterwards,

We buy all our games from trading shops like cex and cash converters.This saves money and the children love taking their old ones in to trade for something new.

DS has been asking for one for ages, but the clincher is going to be Netflix I think. We are getting one shortly to be able to subscribe to Netflix.

My most important tip for parents considering buying any console for their child/grandchild for Christmas is to check age ratings on games, they are their for a very important reason. By their very nature, children will often want to play on age inappropriate games if at all possible, don't be hoodwinked, the ratings are there to protect our children.

Allow plenty of time to learn to use it before you actually want to use it! I always found it great to have games nights, its a good way to have lots of family fun! But not to overdo it time wise as it can get a bit frantic!

Do yourself a favour and download the free SmartGlass app for Xbox One (make sure you don't download the Xbox 360 version by accident, as they look quite similar). With it, your phone becomes a remote control for the Xbox One, that's perfect for navigating the console's Internet Explorer app as you can pinch, zoom and click on links far more easily than you can with a controller. The SmartGlass app also offers up extra content for some apps and games, and you can use it to check on your Achievement progress when you're away from your console.

Do yourself a favour and download the free SmartGlass app for Xbox One (make sure you don't download the Xbox 360 version by accident, as they look quite similar). With it, your phone becomes a remote control for the Xbox One, that's perfect for navigating the console's Internet Explorer app as you can pinch, zoom and click on links far more easily than you can with a controller. The SmartGlass app also offers up extra content for some apps and games, and you can use it to check on your Achievement progress when you're away from your console.

I'm not into gaming but I have to say, our Xbox One has been brill! You can't go wrong with the Lego games for kids - my 8 yr old daughter has several of them now and loves them. It's also been very good for streaming and watching DVD's - we use Netflix through it and our DVD player packed in a couple of months ago - no prob as we had the Xbox!

My only gripe is that there aren't many games aimed at 'girls' (I use the word loosely as I don't like to gender stereotype!) My daughter loves the Lego and Minecraft games, but it would be good to see some games that cater to some of her other interests :)

Don't own an xbox but ds1 (10) had an xbox or ps on his christmas list... ds2 (7) hasn't really heard of them or know about them.

DS1 didn't get one - mostly because I've always thought that they are for much older kids, there seem to be a lot of adult games and not much choice of things for kids, so figure it is something that I'll revisit when he's maybe 15 unless I hear lots of good things about them (and the price becomes more reasonable or I find an excellent bargain!)...

We have a wii that we've had a long time and it seems the games for that are just beginning to dry up - guess they want you to buy a wii-u instead.

There also seem to be different xboxes so I would worry about getting the right one or knowing what the difference is.

oh and We bought the dc a ps vita last christmas that they have both enjoyed using. I know that it links in with a playstation should we get one, so that it can be used as an extra controller and games played on either...

I have no idea if there is anything similar that the xbox has related to it, because knowing how expensive games and controllers can be, I do like the idea of being able to buy the smaller hand held game first, which seems to have more age appropriate games, and then as they get older, it still has some value as a controller and games for the younger ds.

It's meant that I may well end up buying a play station rather than an xbox in years to come because the ps and xbox seem to be pretty similar but because I've already got some investment in ps through the ps vita it's a better thing for us overall - even though when I bought the ps vita I had no idea that it would send me down that route years later, if that makes sense!

Xbox one is an amazing device and my top tips would be to avoid long and annoying installation times to pre-load games before their release so as soon as they are released you are good to go, also another great thing is to download a free app ( SmartGlass app) that mkes your phone becomes a remote control on the xbox one. Use "Xbox, select" voice command will bring up a full list of contextually relevant voice commands, highlighted in green. This is definitely handy for when you can't remember a particular shortcut
ENJOY!