Will a US XBOX work in the UK?

Can we use my son's XBOX in the UK? what will we need to buy in order to get it to work? and where? He just got it a couple of months ago and will hate to leave it behind.

We got a UK power supply for our wii but we aren't sure about the XBOX.

Thanks!

Yes- However: There may be an issue with downloadable content from the internet.  If your kids like to play online there could be issues as well.  If he just likes to play his games though, buying a UK version of the power cord (amazon or Ebay) should be all you need to get started.  You can also purchase a step down voltage adaptor if your worried about that. We got one for my son's US playstation 2 and it works like a dream.  The Wii and Xbox work fine without it though. 

You can't buy a UK powercord for a US xbox, they run on different voltages and the power convertor is external, eventually they'll blow up or melt, if they don't do so immediately.
I work with 360s everyday in an international company and face this problem every week.

You'll need to buy a transformer in order to be safe.

You can't buy UK games for a US xbox, you'll have issues with DLC and with Live, you can't buy MS points in the UK as they're region locked.

All in all, you'll be better off selling it and buying a new one.

The PS3 and the Wii should be fine, Ps3 works the best internationally as there's no rgion locking.

Thanks for the replies. It really sucks because he literally just got it last month  and we can't return it to the store anymore. I am annoyed because I told him to wait until we move as he would have problems but he decided to buy it anyways (his own money) so here we are

The main reason he got it was to play online with his friends here in the States and it looks like it won't be an option. Another lesson for him to learn for not listening to mom.

Thanks for the replies. It really sucks because he literally just got it last month  and we can't return it to the store anymore. I am annoyed because I told him to wait until we move as he would have problems but he decided to buy it anyways (his own money) so here we are

The main reason he got it was to play online with his friends here in the States and it looks like it won't be an option. Another lesson for him to learn for not listening to mom.

Get him to chuck it on ebay, then save the money, shouldn't be too much of a difference to buy a UK one when he moves over, and he can still play with his US friends.
But you're right, probably not the most prudent of buys :/

Get him to chuck it on ebay, then save the money, shouldn't be too much of a difference to buy a UK one when he moves over, and he can still play with his US friends.
But you're right, probably not the most prudent of buys :/

cheesebiscuit, we followed your advice and I sold the Xbox yesterday on Craigslist. We lost only $20. We were lucky and what a relief! we can now buy a UK one

I'm trying to determine if this is possible as well because I'm moving to London in a few weeks with a nearly-new Xbox and many, many games.

The region lock on the games doesn't bother me because I will just have games sent from the US. But the MS Points region lock is news to me, and might be a deal breaker for keeping my US Xbox.

Are you sure buying a 240v power supply won't work? I've read that the actual Xboxes are identical, and the only difference is the power regulator.

Otherwise, I'm willing to do a step down converter, but I had no idea that MS Points are region locked.

Of course you can, I made it up...no wait I'm absolutely sure 

You can buy a step down convertor...BUT...the 360 is notorious for overheating so make sure you buy a decent one, not a cheapy one, also if yours goes RROD you'll have trouble sending it in  and you'll get "Excuse me, but were you operating this US 360 in the UK with a step-down convertor? That isn't covered by our warrant program"

Yup MS points are region locked specifically so you can't buy them in "cheaper" countries with the exchange rate behind you or import them, I don't know if this applies to ones bought through the guide however, as I've never tried.

Thank you. I didn't mean to question your knowledge. I had just been getting conflicting advice from others, particularly regarding the new Xbox 360 Slim (even from the Xbox support folks, who claim that a 240v power brick will work, but won't sell me one until I'm in the UK).

All-in-all, very confusing.

I think a nice quality step down converter will be the way to go, and since the new Xboxes don't have the RROD, maybe I'll get lucky... or smell smoke. ;-)

Many thanks,

Jordan

I am going to have this problem too - I have had my Xbox for a long time and have tons of games for it plus DLC for a lot of those games, so it would cost me a fortune to replace everything with the UK version. I'm planning on buying a step-down converter but I'm curious about exactly what difficulties we'll have with Live and DLC - I know that Netflix and ESPN won't work anymore but I'm ok with that, but if playing online is going to be a problem that's bad, we're hoping to play online with our US friends as it would be a nice way to keep in touch while we're in the UK.

We have friends in the US who have offered to buy US Microsoft points and Xbox Live Gold and email us the codes if we paypal them the money so that isn't an issue. They're happy to mail us any games that we want from the US too so the region locked UK games aren't a problem for us. Are we going to be unable to buy US DLC even if we have MS points though? That definitely would be an issue.

I know this is an old topic, but for those who might be in the same situation (US-UK XBox)...

Since the power supply (the whole brick, not just the cord) is external, it is absolutely possible to buy the UK version of it (again, the whole brick, not just the cord) to run your US XBox.

There are still the issues of region-locked games and content, but if you don't mind ordering everything online from overseas it might not be as big a deal as some would make it out to be.

With the exchange rate the way it is, it might just be more cost-effective to work it that way.

Thanks for posting IANP. I agree with you, I think Cheesebiscuit is wayyyyyy off base here. And he even posts the message as if he encounters frying machines all the time. Then he even follows up with another post to try to dismiss this. Amazing...especially seeing that he IS COMPLETELY WRONG.

What a shame, I'm glad the original poster only lost 20 bucks. Always research the web for other answers and use a bit of common sense. I find most people lack it.

Anyways, IANP is absolutely correct, all you need to do is purchase the UK power supply. No need to waste money on a step down transformer. Especially given the watts this sucker will pull, that would be one expensive (and stupid) purchase.

Basically you just need to make sure of a few things. Check the back of your xbox and current power supply (that big ugly gray thing). Xbox has two different models, the slim and fat (the original fat version). They have different power supplies. Basically the ebay and amazon ads will spell this out for you. But I will provide some helpful TRUTHFUL information here.

On my xbox on the back side it states 12V==12,1A and 5V--1A. And on the power supply itself it states Input 100-127V-4.7A with output of 175W, 12v-14,2A 5V--1A.

So basically you just need to purchase something like this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Official-Microsoft-Xbox-360-Power-Supply-Pack-175W-Brick-Adapter-UK-Power-Cord-/251101465715?pt=UK_Video_Games_Cables_and_Adaptors&hash=item3a76d04c73

And the ad clearly states the input is Input AC: 200V-240V ~ 2.5A, 47-63Hz, which is your UK power from the wall. And the output is your 175W which is what your Xbox needs. The only other thing to check is the design of the connector. In this add you will see the photo of the connectors, make sure yours is the same. If it's the 175w power supply then it should be.

That's it! For 15 pounds you have yourself a Xbox that can plug into the wall and play. It's kind of silly MSFT doesn't sell these power supplies that handle 100-220volt like pretty much every other electronic device I have. I guess they just assume you wont be traveling on holiday with your XBOX so they will save the cost to manufacturer a power supply that will run on both 100 and 220.

I hope this will help. I just wanted to further explain the logic so even a monkey would agree with what IanP and I are stating. I couldn't just let a thread sit open with complete bullshit. I have lived on 3 different continents for the past 8 years, I think that should qualify me for providing an answer you can rely on.

He?