Microsoft's long-awaited Xbox Series X and S have arrived just in time for the holiday season and, with them, comes a wealth of potential gift ideas for owners of the new consoles. The Series X is the most sophisticated Xbox that Microsoft has ever produced and, needless to say, it would make a great — but expensive — gift for a gamer. But there are still plenty of less pricey options that will improve the gaming experience for new owners.
The Series X has more storage, more processing power, and a higher resolution (4K) than the Series S. The Series S isn’t as powerful, but it still offers Quad HD and is cheaper. The Series X can play discs as well as digital games while the Series S only plays digital games. In fact, both systems come with pre-installed digital games ready to play. The Xbox Series X is also backward compatible with a large number of games for older Xbox models, but not the entire library.
As you'd expect for such a swish piece of kit, there are a lot of accessories available to use with the Series X. While this can make gaming an even more expensive hobby, it also means there are plenty of options when trying to decide what to buy for a gamer in your life. The three below would be great additions for any new owner of an Xbox Series X.
Another Controller
The Series X comes with a ton of great features, but it only comes with one controller. A second controller, of course, means that gamers can play with someone else — the much-anticipated Halo Infinite is coming soon, for example, and that will have a multiplayer mode — but it also means they have a spare for when the battery dies in their first controller. New controllers aren’t cheap either, so any recipient would be grateful for that too.
Buy Xbox Wireless Controller (Amazon)
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Subscription
Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service that gives players access to a wide variety of games from different publishers and even other premium services like EA Play. Xbox Game Pass is already available on the Xbox One and Windows 10 and it will now also be adopted for the Xbox Series X. Players can enjoy over 100 games on Game Pass with popular titles like The Outer Worlds and The Master Chief Collection.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is recommended over the base subscription because of all the features it comes with. The Ultimate pass gives access to over 100 games on console, PC, and even on Android phones. The pass also gives exclusive discounts and deals, extra perks, and a subscription to Xbox Live Gold, which allows access to online multiplayer gaming.
Buy Xbox Game Pass subscription (Microsoft)
Seagate Storage Expansion Card
Solid-state drives (SDDs), like those in the new Xbox consoles, are much faster than the hard disk drives of older models. The problem is that to make up for this speed the consoles had to sacrifice storage space. To remedy this situation, expansion cards will be made available, like the Seagate Storage Expansion Card. It's roughly the size of an old PS2 memory card and can hold up to 1TB, effectively doubling the Series X storage space. There’s a port on the back of both consoles where the card goes. And with modern games getting bigger every year, the extra space will be welcomed.
Buy Seagate Storage Expansion Card (Amazon)
Those are some of the best gifts you could give a new Xbox Series X owner. Keep in mind too that the console has barely been launched yet, meaning there will be plenty more tech and accessories to come in the years to come that will provide more opportunities for Series X gifts.