Xbox One 500GB Console – The LEGO Movie Videogame Bundle

I picked this bundle up when Amazon was offering their bundles + a game for $349 plus a $50 Amazon gift card. For $299 for 2 games, the bundled LEGO game and a game of my choosing, I couldn’t pass that up!

I looked at the various other bundles, things like Forza or Call of Duty, etc, just didn’t sound fun. I’ve never played those games, nor was I particularly interested. But, when I saw there was a LEGO game bundle, I knew that would be fun. Something my whole family could enjoy.

The game itself is extremely fun. My 5 year old had no problem beating it by himself. The puzzles are just the right balance of difficult enough to be engaging for even an adult, but not too difficult that young elementary school children will get stumped.

I also enjoy that this bundle includes the physical version of the game, as opposed to a download code. I forget exactly how large the game is once installed, but it’s on the order of 25-30GB. Even with 12mbps internet that’s not going to be something we could have installed quickly had the physical disk not been included.

I have a PS4 and a Wii U, I put off buying an Xbox One because I had heard there are a lot of features you can’t use without a gold subscription to Xbox Live. Which is very true. That being said though, if I could go back and buy the Xbox One first, I probably would have skipped buying the other 2 and saved some money. The Xbox One is by far my favorite of the 3 systems.

I wanted to create a guide to help those interested in purchasing an Xbox One, since there are so many bundles, and offers change constantly. I’ll attempt to keep this up to date as the bundles change. This is NOT a comparison to Playstation 4 or Wii U.

Amazon’s taking $50 off each bundle for Black Friday (matching most retailers), with sporadic other offers with added stuff. The best I’m seeing is from Microsoft Store, which includes the discount, a $60 gift card, and an extra game for any bundle in stock. Dell has the Gears bundle with the discount, an extra controller, and Fallout 4. Best Buy has the Tomb Raider bundle with an extra controller..

A short list of features that may interest you, shared by all Xbox Ones (more details can be found in product descriptions and Microsoft sites) –

HDMI pass through. You can hook up an HDMI device to the back of an Xbox One to view the content from that device without changing inputs or leaving the X1 interface. This allows for split screen viewing and if a cable box or the official TV tuner, you can view the channel guide, watch TV, and set recordings.

It is backwards compatible with some Xbox 360 games. This is great for those with backlogs (like me…) or those who want to revisit finished games without having another console plugged into the wall/TV. In the fall, owners of publisher approved disc or digital 360 games will be able to play them emulated on the X1. Some X1 games also include their 360 precursors with purchase for play on the X1 in case you missed them. Gears or War Ultimate Edition includes all 4 Xbox 360 Gears games and Fallout 4 includes Fallout 3, for example. List of games and other info here -[…]

It will stream content to Windows 10 devices.

Xbox Live Gold now applies to households instead of individuals; meaning that multiple accounts on the same console can have access to the same features but have differing account restrictions (I.E. parental controls). So you can let your kids play Garden Warfare online, but not Gears of War.

External USB 3.0 storage. This is great because, 1) you don’t need to open the console and replace a hard disc to add storage, just plug in and the X1 will format the drive, 2) even disc-based games have compulsory installs and can be upwards of 50GB each, eating storage space quickly, 3) external drives can be spacious and cheap, and last but not least, 4) USB 3.0 is actually faster than the internal hard disc interface. This means that a game on an external drive will load faster than one on the internal drive, usually by a significant amount.

The bundles-

The bundles can be split into 3 different groups based on time of release. The upcoming and current bundles include a newer controller that has a standard 3.5mm audio jack built in and output both game and chat audio through it (excepting the new Kinect bundles). Legacy consoles include an older controller without the standard audio jack (excepting the Forza 6 bundle) and shouldn’t be expected to be widely available at the suggested price (and some I haven’t included, due to their rarity at this point). There are no other functional differences. All bundles include a controller, HDMI cable, chat headset (with exceptions), and a 14 day Xbox Live Gold trial membership (paid $60/year service to play online and download the Games with Gold, a monthly rotation of full games you’re free to download and keep (forever for 360 games and as long as you have Live Gold in active subscription for X1 games).

Upcoming bundles (with rating based on what you get for the money. Star and letter ratings are intended for the suggested price listed next to the bundle, not whatever current prices are.) –

Xbox One Elite 1TB bundle. $499. Includes a console with a 1TB hybrid SSD and hard disc for quicker load times for the items you access the most and the Elite controller, which has replaceable/customizable sticks, buttons, and triggers for the professionals or tinkerers. While the internal storage on this will be better than the standard HDDs in other X1s, the performance increase PROBABLY won’t match external USB3.0 drives, due to the continued use of the SATA interface. There’s little information about the size of the SSD partition and many hybrid drives don’t allow you to choose what content is on which partition. The elite controller has been released to wide acclaim (modifiable professional controllers can easily go for twice as much), but is scarce at present. If you want the best/most storage and best controller out of the box, this is the bundle for you, but you won’t get any games with it, or a headset, from the looks of it. B rating. Also note that this version releases earlier if purchased from the Microsoft Store or Gamestop.

Current bundles –

Fallout 4 1TB bundle – $399. Includes 1TB console, Fallout 4 game confirmed to be a disc (!), a download of the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3, and a chat headset. B+ rating. Two open-world RPGs for grownups.

Rise of the Tomb Raider 1TB bundle – $399. Includes 1TB console, downloads of Rise of the Tomb Raider, DLC, and its predecessor, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and doesn’t appear to include a headset. Releases November 3rd. B+ rating. The Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 was pretty good and I expect the sequel will be even better. Great for adults who love action adventure.

Kinect 500GB Bundle – $399. Includes 500GB console, the Kinect camera, a chat headset, the old model controller, and three Kinect-focused game downloads: Dance Central Spotlight, Kinect Sports Rivals and Zoo Tycoon. Finally another Kinect bundle! The X1 UI is made better and more easily navigable with the Kinect, and there are fun, energetic games to be played with it. A rating. Great for those who want to move and enjoy motion and voice controls, but it has little storage.

Holiday 1TB Bundle – $399. Includes 1TB console, Gears of War Ultimate Edition disc (as well as all 360 Gears games as downloads if you play online before the end of the year), Rare Replay disc, and Ori and the Blind Forest game download, the new controller, and doesn’t appear to include a headset. Releases October 27th. A rating. Something(s) for everyone in this bundle, with 36 games included.

Halo 5 Limited Edition 1TB bundle. $499. Includes custom console with Halo sounds, and custom controller, with the Halo 5 Limited Edition (steelcase, guardian figure, game download and add-on content). Why a limited edition would come without a physical game is beyond me… It may not bother some, but it will upset many. This is a higher premium than the Forza 6 bundle (charging an extra $100 for an extra $40 package). For Halo aficionados/console collectors only.

Lego Movie 500GB bundle – $349. Includes 500GB console and the Lego Movie Videogame and no headset, apparently. C+ rating. Game is a cheap one and good for kids, but little value in this bundle compared to others.

FIFA and Madden 16 1TB bundles. $399. (I think these are being phased/sold out) I’m grouping these together because other than the type of football you prefer, they are the same. Both include either the latest Madden NFL or FIFA soccer game download and a year of EA access, a paid ($30/yr) service which allows Xbox One users early access to EA releases, extended demos with progress that can be saved if a full game is purchased, discounts on EA games, and free access to the Vault, currently 14 full games. Great if you like EA’s games. A- for each. With the live Gold card and Forza Horizon 2 download (separate product pages) A rating.

Gears of War 500GB bundle (also in white). $349. Includes Gears of War Ultimate Edition download (as well as all 360 Gears games if you play online before the end of the year). This 500GB model includes the new controller, but does not include a headset. B+ rating. With the live Gold card and Forza Horizon 2 download (separate product pages) A rating.

Legacy bundles-

Forza 6 1TB Bundle. $399. Custom Forza-inspired console with racing sounds and custom (new, with 3.5mm audio jack) controller, and download code for Forza 6 and extra content, and a chat headset. A- rating, though some may not like the custom design and sounds.

Halo Master Chief Collection 1TB bundle. $399. Looks like this being phased out. Standard console, plus download code for the Master Chief Collection (the four numbered Halo games in a single package). B rating.

Halo Master Chief 500GB bundle. $349. If you can get it at the retail price, I’d consider it an A-, since the cost to upgrade storage to 1TB or greater is around or less than the $50 to get the 1TB model, and it’ll perform better.

Keep in mind that the lowest prices and best bundles tend to happen around the winter holiday season, so unless you really want to get one now, you’re probably best served waiting till around Black Friday, when multiple stores will be trying to entice you with lower prices and more pack-ins. This is especially true since Sony recently cut the price of the Playstation 4.

At this point, I think the best offer for the holidays for an X1 bundle will be for $50 off current price point, plus an extra game and second controller (Dell at least, will offer such a deal). The risk is availability and whether the bundle or extra game would be one you’d want.

Hope you found this useful.

I purchased this during a FANTASTIC sale prior to Black Friday for my 8 year old son as his Christmas present this year. He absolutely LOVES his Xbox One! The graphics are fantastic, and he’s able to play all of his favorite games with his buddies online. I just wish the Kinect for the Xbox One was a bit more affordable like the Xbox 360 version…

The only con that I have, and this is with all of the current next gen consoles, is that most of the games are rated M these days. That’s not the really fault of Microsoft or Sony, it’s just the state of the current game design industry. As the father of an 8 year old son, it would be nice to see some more fun, non-sport, titles put out for younger gamers. That’s not me trying to keep them from making games for adults, by no means. It’s just that they need to nurture along the next generation of gamers with more fun and exciting titles. Trust me, building up your brand loyalty with these little kids will mean very strong support from them as they get older and move onto more mature titles when they, and their parents are ready.

I like this bundle for my son as I wasn’t keen on him playing the more violent games offered in other bundles. Got at a great price as well. He’s going to be overjoyed at Christmas!

Great machine, I love that you can play Blu ray movies on it as well. We were able to download some of our previously purchased games from the Xbox 360, but not all of them. That would be my only advice, if you are upgrading from the 360 check first which games you will be able to redownload on this machine. Otherwise, a great little machine!

He helped save money for this for quite a while, so he was ecstatic when it arrived! It’s the first thing he mentions when he gets off school. I have a feeling the games might break me, though!

I much prefer Xbox to Playstation. Super easy to set up. There are cheaper Xbox One bundles but The Lego Movie game is good for kids and aint too bad for adults either. Be warned tho, if you want to play Xbox online, you will need Xbox Gold which is a monthly subscription and more $$$ to spend.