Details continue to emerge on the Xbox One, following yesterday’s news that the new console will be able to function without Kinect attached, a change in direction from Microsoft's earlier policy.
A bit more info has now bubbled forth, this time about communicating with friends on other consoles. Chief Xbox One platform architect, Marc Whitten, told IGN – as part of an ongoing ‘Ask Microsoft Anything’ panel – that, even though friends will be able to see each other’s presence on Xbox Live, voice chat won’t be supported between the Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles:
Is there cross-console Party Chat? i.e. since it’s all ‘Xbox Live’, can people on Xbox 360s Party Chat with their friends on Xbox One?
For a variety of technical reasons, including the sound quality that I talk about below – we don’t support voice chat between the two systems. You will still be able to send and receive text messages to friends on both systems, however.”
The “sound quality” aspect that Whitten mentions refers to the improvements that Microsoft has made in improving audio chat on the Xbox One. Whereas the Xbox 360 headset worked with 16kHz downstream / 8kHz upstream at 14-bit compressed, the Xbox One’s headset (which will be included in the box with the console) streams 24kHz audio at 16-bit resolution uncompressed, both upstream and downstream.
Incidentally, as TechRadar mentions, Sony won't have any problems with cross-console chat between the PlayStation 4 and its PS3 predecessor. According to the big cheese at Sony UK, Fergal Gara, when asked about chat between the two consoles, he simply replied: "It's there."
Source: IGN | Images via Microsoft
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