Essential things to do after you got your first Xbox console

Whether you already bought or are going to buy an Xbox, don’t forget these essential things to do. You need to spend a little more money to get the best gaming experience. While there are many accessories and subscriptions to supercharge your Xbox, only essentials have been added.

Get a Gamertag

A gamertag is what represents you in the gaming world. Because you’ll play with multiple players online. Gamertag will distinguish you from the others. This small string shows your attitude, aggression without describing a bit.

For example, a Gamertag is: “D@rkHosr$e”.

Anyone can guess I’ve got a dark horse kinda attitude,

Not to mention, it helps the Xbox server to create a profile with your tag and store your ranks, trophies, win counts, etc. Gamers can easily see your gaming level just visiting your profile.

However, there are some restrictions while creating a gamertag.

1. The maximum number of allowed characters in a gamertag is 12.
2. You can change your gamertag only once for free. Later, you’ve to pay extra charges ($9.99 US) for it.
3. If your gamertag already exists, xbox network will automatically add a number or a hash symbol as a suffix to it. This makes your gamertag look ugly. That’s why use name generator services like uniquegamertag to get fresh unused gamertags.
4. You can choose characters from more than 200 languages.

If you want to know more about gamertags, check out the official page.

Get Extra Controllers

Xbox works great for online multiplayer games. However, sometimes you’ve to play with your closed ones like friends or family members. At that moment, you’ll need an additional controller for it.

You can connect up to eight controllers at once to Xbox. That doesn’t mean you will buy 7 extra controllers. Get one or two extra controllers max.

Xbox controllers cost $40 each on an average. Never buy fake Chinese controllers to cut the cost. They can damage your console. If you need more functionality buttons and better experience, go for a perfected controller which costs 4 times more than regular ones.

The controllers can be charged with the USB port or AA-size batteries. Don’t forget to buy an additional AA size rechargeable battery and charger for it in case you don't want to buy AA batteries frequently.

Create an Avatar

A gaming avatar or gaming pic makes your profile stand out from the rest. By default, Microsoft gives a pre-made avatar to your profile pic. These avatars are 3d animated characters displayed on the Xbox live profile. You can customize the avatar as per your needs. However, for some props or styles, you may have to pay.

Recently, Microsoft allowed us to upload custom pictures for our avatar. Make sure your image size is exactly 1080X1080.

To change the avatar, head over to the profile section. Then select change gamerpic.

The avatar will be displayed in a circular shape. So, optimize your image to fit even after being circular cropped.

Get Xbox Gold Live Subscription

If you’re going to play online and multiplayer, consider choosing a live game pass subscription. With game pass subscription, you will get access to thousands of games on a subscription model. Without paying the full price, you just rented the game.

Also, you can buy a GOLD pass, which will give you tons of extra features. The gold pass is console-bound means other profiles on the same console can access the gold features too.

Where to purchase?

You can subscribe to gold and game pass in two ways.

• Directly subscribe via console.
• Purchase codes from online or offline retailers.

If you got the code with the 2nd method, activate it on the "redeem code" page located inside the store.

You can cancel the subscription anytime visiting the Microsoft account services page.

Get a gaming headphone

It doesn’t matter whether you are a console gamer or pc gamer, it’s always nice to have a proper gaming headphone with you; so that you don't miss the enemy footstep sounds. This is a must addon for any gamer.

The headphones also help to maintain the silence of the room and don’t disturb your family. Moreover, it helps seamless voice communication over the network.

The gaming headphones are slightly different and better versions of regular headphones. A decent gaming headphone starts at $100. There are many good brands that make gaming headphones such as turtle beach, hyperx, etc.

If you have a good budget, consider choosing noise cancellation headphones.

That’s all folks!