Xbox one vs Xbox 360 for an 8 year old?? Suggestions please!

Normally I would suggest the 360. It will still be going strong for a few years because there are still so many people using it. Plus, like you said, there are already a bunch of games out there you can get him, and pretty cheap at this point.

But, you may want to wait until backwards compatibility released on the One in the next few months to see what kind of games will be available for that. Then you would be able to get the One for future content, but he can still play some of the older games as well.

If you get your son an Xbox 360, make sure it is not the 4GB version as it won't be sufficient for very long. I would advise getting your son the Xbox 360. There are still games that will be released, and the console is not going anyway. With a large backlog of family-friendly games, the Xbox 360 will be a great starting point for your son.

I myself do not have an Xbox One and finding plenty of enjoyment with my 360. There's still plenty of life left in the console. As for Minecraft, the Xbox 360 community is still quite strong with that game.

Even if no new games come out by 2017 for Xbox 360, the Xbox LIVE servers will still remain for quite awhile, allowing online capabilities.  Xbox One is adding backwards compatibility for many Xbox 360 games, so the servers will probably not go down anytime soon as well.

Thank you for the responses.

I'm leaning towards the xbox 360. I saw the 4gb for $149 which is outstanding. Can I add memory to this unit? Like a flash drive? The 500gb run about $250 so I'm not sure which is the better value?

You can use an external USB drive (up to 2TB and 2 plugged in at a time). However, there are some games that require an Xbox hard drive, so you would need either a 250gb, 320gb, or 500gb if you run into those issues.

I will stay away from the 4gb version. Hopefully there will be some good deals as we get closer to the holidays.

Thanks for all the input.

Xbox 360 would be my suggestion. It works right out of the box and without being connected to the net, and will likely still be playable decades from now. Even when online services go dark... Which with XBL happens pretty regular these days.

That's good info, Thanks!

So will new games stop being made the end of this year, 2015? Or will Microsoft continue to produce new games in 2016?

Also, will the downloadable games at the Xbox store still be available long after the new games stop? Or will I need to hurry up and download games before they are gone? Thanks

There really hasn't been any official word on if/when new games will stop being made for the 360, but it's mostly been up to the publishers as to whether or not they make them for both or just the One.

Downloadable games should be around for as long as Live sticks around for the 360. So you wouldn't need to hurry to buy them.

Talk with other parents who have kids with a 360 and set up a swap program for old games. Also check out gamefly ( game rental program).  Also check yard sales for cheap games.  At 8 years old, I would allow only Teen or lower rated games in the house. But check out the Teen games. Hit the various game sites online.