Set Up That Gaming Console Before You Wrap It

Video game consoles make great gifts (assuming you can find them—they’re in short supply). But they’re not necessarily easy gifts.

Someone who has received a new video game console may end up doing a lot of frustrating waiting. The servers that video game manufacturers and platform holders use to support those games and consoles often buckle, sometimes for days at a time, as new owners trying to set up their consoles join millions of existing players who are gaming during their time off around the holidays. New consoles and games can sit unusable for days as their exasperated owners wait for the opportunity to update them.

Thankfully, there’s a good solution: Update the consoles (and games) you’re planning on giving ahead of time.

This means taking the consoles out of their boxes, hooking them up and turning them on, and then walking them through their initial setup processes. This also means that we recommend giving physical copies of games—unless the console you’re giving is a digital-only, disc-drive-less console.

The process can take a bit of time and effort, but there’s a strong possibility that just a little planning on your part can save the morning (and maybe the afternoon and evening) of the person on the receiving end of your video game gift.

Setting up the console

When you first set up the console, it should connect to the internet for the first time. Then it will start to download the necessary updates to make sure that it’s stable, that it has the most current features available, and that it works with all the new games that have been released since it was manufactured, put in its packaging, and then likely left on a shipping container for at least a month or two on its way to where you bought it. We suggest doing this setup a few days to a week or so before giving the console to make sure there isn’t another update release after you complete the setup process. Here are some step-by-step instructions:

Gently remove the console from its box. Take care not to damage the packaging—this is a gift, after all! Part of the fun of a new system is the unboxing experience (see the millions of unboxing videos on YouTube for some examples), and ideally, you should try to preserve as much of that as possible for the recipient. For example, have a hobby or craft knife handy to cut the tape rectangles that hold modern console packaging closed—peeling them back often tears the box. Also, save the bits of softer packaging that hold the controllers and cables so that you can put everything back the way you found it.

Connect the console to your television using the included cables. If you have a wired network, we also recommend connecting the console directly to your router, as it’s the faster way to download updates and games. Wireless is an option in a pinch, but downloading the updates might take longer that way.

Optionally, use the console’s dedicated app to speed up setup. The new Xbox and PlayStation consoles have Android and iOS apps. Use one—this can make setup faster, allowing you to follow prompts on your phone rather than using a controller to complete setup. If you don’t have access to a smartphone or the app for the new system, keep a wired USB keyboard handy for any necessary data entry—text entry via controller is kind of the worst. The Nintendo Switch doesn’t have a setup app at this time, but the setup process on that console is fairly simple and self-explanatory.

Keep in mind that the Xbox app will ask for an Xbox account to finish setup after you choose the power settings. If you have an account, log in here (you’ll remove your account before you box the console back up). If you don’t have an account, you can skip this step. If you have the account info of the person you’re buying for, you can enter that here to speed up their ability to get into playing as quickly as possible, but be careful: Entering the information usually sends a notification to the email address connected to the account, which could very well spoil the surprise of a new console.

Update the console’s firmware. Every console’s setup is a step-by-step process that works almost automatically, so just boot up the console and make your way through those steps. If need be, you can consult information about updating the firmware on an Xbox console, a PlayStation 5, or a Switch.

Transfer existing accounts and games for the recipient. If your giftee already has a previous version of the console (and you have access to it), you can transfer their existing accounts and games to the new, upgraded version—but you might want to let them do this part, as many consoles and devices will send a message to the primary account email address when the account in question is put on a new device. That said, you can find information online about this process for Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch. Just keep in mind that the Switch transfer process itself is relatively painless but can be complicated by certain game-specific restrictions. If there’s a particular game the giftee has put a lot of time into, such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, we recommend Googling the specific process for it. Friendships have ended over less than losing someone’s island.

Once you’ve completed these steps, you can move on to installing and updating games. If you’re not giving any games, you can box the console back up and consider it ready for the big holiday morning.

What to know before buying games

Giving a new console gets especially tricky when you add games to the equation. Let me try to dramatically simplify this for folks who don’t have time to earn a degree in video game console marketplace policies and account design.

First, unless you’re giving a disc-drive-less console like the Xbox Series S or the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, we recommend giving physical copies of video games. If you have access to all of your giftee’s account information, including their password, you can buy digital versions of games and install them on the console before wrapping it up—but we don’t recommend doing that. Redeeming a gifted digital game usually alerts the main account email address, which spoils the surprise.

It’s also almost impossible to return a digital gift purchase of a game. So even if you have the recipient’s account info to put on the new console, you might want to skip a digital game purchase if you’re worried about whether the game you’re planning on buying is a game the giftee is interested in playing. Instead, buy a physical, disc-based version of the game—but don’t open it. Most retailers don’t offer refunds or exchanges on physical games after they’ve been opened. Always read the retailer return policies (whether it’s Amazon, Best Buy, Target, or Walmart) before making your purchase. (Walmart’s official policy about video game returns is difficult to find online, but forums and blogs suggest that Walmart will exchange open retail games only for the same game on the same or another platform.)

That said, our team thinks it’s probably okay to assume that the giftee won’t want to return or exchange your gaming gift. Just pay a bit of attention or talk to loved ones to make an informed choice if you can. If you can’t and you’re worried about it, don’t install the game on their new hardware ahead of time.

If you’re buying a digital-only console for someone and want to give them something to play, consider a gift card for that platform (Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo all sell them) or a subscription to something like Xbox Game Pass—luckily, every new Xbox console includes a trial of that service, too.

Installing games

Nintendo Switch

Physical Nintendo Switch games almost always work right out of the box, with no installation required. This is true even if updates are available and Nintendo’s network is either offline completely or intermittently available. With one of these games, you don’t need to worry about updates—you can even leave it in its box so the gift recipient can be sure they want it before opening it up (making it ineligible to be returned).

For any games that do require an update, carefully remove the shrink-wrap from the game box. Remove the game card from the box and place it in the Switch, which should be connected to the internet. You should see a notification that an update is available for the game. Once this update is complete, eject the card, put it back in the box, and slide the shrink-wrap back over the box carefully.

PlayStation

Most PlayStation 4 and 5 games can be installed and played from a disc without an update, though not all work this way. Many games have important updates available that make the game work better or add new features or content.

PS4 and PS5 games allow you to update them without signing in to a PSN account (though you’ll need to create a username in order to use the console). Once you’re signed in, open the physical copies of the games you’re planning to give and remove the discs. We recommend carefully removing the shrink-wrap on these boxes so you can put it back on—taking it off is part of the experience of getting a new physical game. Insert each disc and follow the installation prompts.

We also recommend booting up the game at least once to make sure it updates to the latest version, which, assuming the PlayStation console is connected to the internet, should happen automatically.

Eject the disc once you’re done updating, put it back in the box, and, if you were careful, slide the shrink-wrap back over the game. Repeat as necessary.

Xbox

Xbox One and Xbox Series X games all need to be installed to a console before they can be played, and in many cases they absolutely will not function without an update. To update games on Xbox, you need to be signed in to an Xbox account on the console.

We recommend signing in with your own account if you have one (and if you don’t, you can create one following these instructions). But remember: If you sign in to a new console with an Xbox or Microsoft account, a notification will be sent to the email address associated with the account, potentially spoiling the surprise.

Once you’re signed in, open the physical copies of the games and remove the discs (and again, we think keeping the shrink-wrap to put back on the game boxes is neat, though not required). Insert each game and install it as prompted. When you’re done installing the games, press the guide button on the Xbox controller (the button in the upper-middle area of the controller with an Xbox logo on it) and select My Games and Apps > See All. From that library, on the left side of the screen, scroll down to Manage > Updates and update all the titles you see in that area. Once the games are updated, you can remove your account from the system; this won’t uninstall the games or updates on the system.

Once you’ve installed the games, you can then carefully repackage the console and prepare it like any other gift. And now you can hand it over on the big day with 80% to 90% certainty that the recipient will be able to jump right into playing, even if the millions of people who are simultaneously trying to do the things you did ahead of time manage to bring the whole system crashing down!