Early March seems to be the time frame that Microsoft wants to uplift the social experience on the Xbox One. As we mentioned in a previous article, Microsoft will be releasing a handful of Xbox One system updates over the next few weeks. Along with this, new information on the official headset for the console has been revealed.
Inching ever closer to the Xbox One launch and Microsoft continues to listen to the critical feedback on the "features" that were announced on the system to date. Today Microsoft have announced that the Kinect peripheral, while still required WITH every box, won't be required to be turned on for the console to actually function.
Sometimes it boggles the mind just how out of touch designers can be, complicating a situation that doesn't need to be complicated at all. Such is the situation with the upcoming Nintendo Wii U and how you'll be voice chatting with friends in co-op games...that support it.
Did you perhaps pre-order Dark Souls on the 360 thinking "ahah, now I can use the XBL party interface to chat with my friends as we're getting slaughtered in co-op together!"? Well, From Software has apparently anticipated your completely unreasonable desire for human contact as you rage and/or whimper your way through the game. Not only is voice chat unsupported within the game, but if you even try to start a Party Chat session through the XBL Party interface, Dark Souls will kick you out of your game right back to the start menu. It will reprimand you with the message: "Cannot continue game while you are in party chat. Returning to title screen..." So there you have it. You get the comfort of your friends' avatars at your side, and that's about it. Skype, anyone?
The first of many benefits of the discontinuing of the original Xbox Live will be realized this fall when the Xbox 360 voice chat capabilities get upgraded with a higher quality codec allowing better and more understandable voice communication. The current codec being used was put in place in 2002 when the original Xbox Live launched - at the time - broadband wasn't nearly as fast as it was today.
