Report: Microsoft to Ditch Xbox Live Voice Chat with Skype for Durango

By Catherine Cai
published

Microsoft might be ditching Xbox Live voice chat...

Recently, Microsoft announced that it would be retiring Windows Live Messenger for the much more popular voice chat service Skype.

Now, according to a source close to CVG, Microsoft may be scrapping Xbox Live voice chat in favor of Skype for its next-gen console, codenamed Durango.

“You might jump to the conclusion that we’ll see asynchronous voice and video messages in next-gen Xbox Live,” the source stated.

Considering that Microsoft's been trying to consolidate its platforms, it's not surprising that it's trying to make Skype the uniform service to use. Recent Microsoft job listings, calling for team members for the Skype Xbox team, indicate that this rumor isn't baseless.

A Microsoft spokesperson only offered this comment to Tom's Hardware: "We are always thinking about what is next for our platform, but we have nothing further to share at this time."

Microsoft is expected to unveil Durango sometime this year, though it's unclear whether or not it'll do so at GDC in March or E3 in June.

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Catherine Cai
10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Northwestern
    It's nice that they're trying to combine the Microsoft ecosystem at least.
    Reply
  • holdingholder
    I hope it remains fundamentally the same. The party chat system is probably the biggest reason I played my Xbox 360 far more than PS3.
    Reply
  • ojas
    Maybe PC games will get Skype voice chat built in too, then?
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    If nothing else, I do like that MS is simplifying their lineup with the release of win8. Having a unified interface across devices is a good thing, even if Metro would not have been my first choice. Having less redundant services and bringing hotmail, live mail, and outlook all under a single email platform is a good thing, but it has made my MS ID a bit confusing as I have different services under different accounts. Moving chat, messaging, and voice under a single head is a good thing, though skype is a bit of a beast of a program in its current state and needs some fat trimmed off of it.

    Now we need to see their multimedia sorted out. I have Music and WMP on my PC. They do not talk to eachother, they do not view my music the same way, and they mess with each other's libraries, which is annoying. Personally I like the UI of Music better... but I cannot get it to display all songs of a CD together, and it will not recognize the song order of all of my old music (opting instead to alphabetize everything). I have 20+GB of music... am I supposed to re-rip all of those CD's? And what of the MP3 CDs purchased off of other services like Amazon? Will those simply always have my songs out of order? I would simply use WMP by default, but Music is what is used by my phone, and is the platform that MS is going to keep developing, so I kinda need to get this all sorted.

    And why can't we get a media player that can handle TV shows and Movies properly the way we have songs on a CD? Is there just no nice way to group a bunch of files into a folder and call it a TV episodes or a movie series other than manually making a ton of playlists? If my phone can automate the process of collecting and merging contacts with a pretty high accuracy rate, then why on earth cant my PC automatically figure out that when a folder is called "Lord of the Rings" and it has 3 movies in it, that those might somehow be related?
    Reply
  • rebel1280
    CaedenVAnd why can't we get a media player that can handle TV shows and Movies properly the way we have songs on a CD? Is there just no nice way to group a bunch of files into a folder and call it a TV episodes or a movie series other than manually making a ton of playlists? If my phone can automate the process of collecting and merging contacts with a pretty high accuracy rate, then why on earth cant my PC automatically figure out that when a folder is called "Lord of the Rings" and it has 3 movies in it, that those might somehow be related?+1 this!
    Reply
  • esrever
    Can't wait for this.
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    CaedenVAnd why can't we get a media player that can handle TV shows and Movies properly the way we have songs on a CD? Is there just no nice way to group a bunch of files into a folder and call it a TV episodes or a movie series other than manually making a ton of playlists? If my phone can automate the process of collecting and merging contacts with a pretty high accuracy rate, then why on earth cant my PC automatically figure out that when a folder is called "Lord of the Rings" and it has 3 movies in it, that those might somehow be related?You can get one, it does everything you have asked for an more
    ...
    It is called XBMC
    Reply
  • Spooderman
    ojasMaybe PC games will get Skype voice chat built in too, then?
    Nah, Skype is a third party program.
    Reply
  • susyque747
    NorthwesternIt's nice that they're trying to combine the Microsoft ecosystem at least.Tool, What ever MS I will never buy one of your Crapbox consols that have a person pay for your service and can't or won't even play a Blue Ray movie and Win 7-64 is the last OS for gaming I will ever buy too. STEAM on Ubuntu and OS X along with the Playstation 4 will be my platforms of choice.
    Reply
  • susyque747
    holdingholderI hope it remains fundamentally the same. The party chat system is probably the biggest reason I played my Xbox 360 far more than PS3.Another MS tool
    Reply