Xbox One Deals

If you’re planning to play Xbox One games online, you’ll need an Xbox Live Gold subscription, which is normally £17.99 for three months, or £29.99 for six months, although you can sometimes find them cheaper on offer.

In addition to granting access to otherwise restricted features such as online gaming and in-game voice communication with friends, Xbox Live Gold gives you a number of free games each month through Games with Gold, plus exclusive member discounts of up to 75% off games in the Xbox Store.

Normally, four Games with Gold titles are released each month – some are only available on Xbox One, while others are playable on Xbox One and its predecessor, Xbox 360. Microsoft says the service offers up to £500 in free games during a year of membership. They’re free to download, play and keep as long as you have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription.

It’s worth noting that Xbox Live often isn’t the cheapest place to buy Xbox games. However, even based on the cheapest prices elsewhere, in one month alone you could make up the £49.99 paid for your annual subscription in free games.

Warning: Subscription may automatically renew

If you buy a prepaid Xbox Live Gold subscription (eg, at a supermarket or online retailer), you’ll receive a code to activate your membership, which will automatically expire at the end of your term. However, if you pay for an Xbox Live Gold subscription either on your console or PC you'll need to use a credit card, debit card or PayPal account attached to your Microsoft account, which will automatically renew your membership and bill you at the end of your term unless you cancel it beforehand.

There are also a couple of ways to get a free one-month Xbox Live Gold trial. If you get a free trial via a prepaid code included in a game or console bundle, your membership will have limited features such as no access to Games with Gold. Alternatively, you'll need to register payment details and your free membership will automatically turn into a paid subscription that renews monthly by default following the end of the free trial period unless you cancel it beforehand.

Subscribe to online service EA Play and you’ll be able to download and play a growing library of Xbox One games for £3.99 a month or £19.99 a year.

The games are all published by Electronic Arts (EA), the company behind major gaming series such as FIFA, Battlefield, Titanfall, Mass Effect and Need for Speed, and there are over 50 currently available - see ‘more info’ below for a full list.

What games can you get?

Most of the titles are several years old although there are a number of more recently released games, including Mass Effect: Andromeda, FIFA 17, Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2. Other EA Play titles released in the last couple of years include Mirror's Edge Catalyst, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 and Star Wars Battlefront.

EA Play also offers two other notable benefits. Subscribers automatically save 10% on EA digital game purchases on Xbox One (this applies to full games and downloadable content), plus they can access exclusive trials of new EA games before they launch, with any in-game progress automatically carrying over to the full game should they subsequently choose to buy it.

Warning: Subscription may automatically renew

If you buy a prepaid EA Play subscription (eg, at Amazon), you’ll receive a code to activate your membership, which will automatically expire at the end of your term. However, if you pay for an EA Play subscription either on your console or PC you'll need to use a credit card or debit card attached to a Microsoft account, which will automatically renew your membership and bill you at the end of your term unless you cancel it beforehand.

Anything else I need to know?

While you don’t require an Xbox Live Gold subscription to become an EA Play member, you do need one to play Xbox One games online, and many of the games included with EA Play have online features.

Buying Xbox One consoles and games can be expensive, so we've rounded up a number of purchasing tips and tricks designed to cut your costs.

• Pick a bundle. Bundles offer pre-selected or pick-your-own combinations of consoles, games and peripherals that cost less than they do bought individually, so they’re a good way to start your collection. If you're unsure where to start, check out console-deals.com for a range of cheap consoles and console bundles.

• Buy refurbished. See if you can play for less by picking up a relatively cheap refurbished console with a 12-month guarantee via Tesco's eBay outlet* or at a popular retailer such as Amazon*. We've seen refurbished Xbox One consoles for as low as £130.

• Buy ahead of release. You can sometimes get a bargain by pre-ordering a game at a promotional price ahead of release, so if you really want a title on launch day, keep an eye on prices before it's available.

• Or wait a few weeks. Game prices often drop significantly a few months (or sometimes even weeks) after release, even in the case of blockbuster franchises such as Call of Duty and FIFA, so don’t buy into the launch day hype and you could make a saving. See our Xbox One games price round-up.

• Buy physical rather than digital. Most new games are more expensive to buy as digital downloads than they are as boxed copies. And unlike physical boxed games, digital ones don’t have re-sale value.

• Buy pre-owned. The cheapest second-hand items will often come from individual sellers online, but you'll minimise risk by purchasing from established companies, so look for bargains at high street retailers such as Game (12-month guarantee) and CEX (24-month guarantee).

• Trade in games. Retailers including CEX and Game will offer cash for your old games and consoles, but they’ll give you more in store credit to put towards other products. 

• Play Xbox 360 games on Xbox One. Backwards compatibility allows you to play a growing number of Xbox 360 games on Microsoft’s latest console, meaning you can sample some of the best games of the previous console generation at a fraction of their original price.

• Free-to-play. The Xbox Games Store is home to a number of free-to-play titles including World of Tanks, DC Universe Online and Killer Instinct. While these downloadable games themselves don’t cost a thing to play, they’re supported by additional features, functionality or content that comes at a price.

• Try before you buy. Look out for the chance to sample pre-release betas, game demos and trials, as they can give you a good idea if you’ll want to spend time and money on the full product or not.

• Get Xbox Live Gold. Costing £5.99 per month, £14.99 for three months, or £39.99 for a year, this subscription service gives you a number of free games each month, plus exclusive member discounts of up to 75% off games. It's also required to play Xbox One games online.

• Want more? If you’re interested in PlayStation or Nintendo console and game deals, or just want more general game-related buying advice, check out our PS4 deals page and Nintendo Switch deals page.

• Had a problem with Microsoft? There’s a free online tool you can use to complain – it helps draft, manage and if necessary escalate your complaint. It’s offered by a firm called Resolver, which we like so much we work with it to help people get complaints justice – you can use it to complain to Microsoft*.

If you spot any hot deals out there we have missed (we are human after all!), please let us know in the MSE Forum, email us at msedeals@moneysavingexpert.com or via Twitter @MSE_Deals.