Microsoft has launched a new user feedback tool called Xbox Player Voice. It will give players another sounding board to share their concerns and requests. Most importantly, it’s supposed to provide transparency about which improvements and changes to the platform Microsoft is prioritizing and why.
“When you submit feedback, teams review and organize it so it can be understood and considered alongside other work,” a new blog post about the tool reads. “In some cases, ideas will move forward. In others, they may take longer to implement or may not be something we can act on. When there are meaningful updates, we’ll share them.”
This new tool replaces the Xbox Cloud Gaming feedback portal and is clearly meant to be more expansive. Players submit ideas for how they want Xbox to evolve, and then the company will provide confirmation of the status of those requests. “Better visibility helps close the gap between what you tell us and what you see happen next on Xbox,” the company writes.
It’s certainly a more organized way of funneling feedback than having random people message Xbox CEO Asha Sharma on X with requests. The current top requests on Xbox Player Voice are “Exclusives,” followed by “backwards compatible,” followed by, “Make Online Multiplayer Free To Access.”
“Online multiplayer availability for all games across all generations of Xbox should be free and all the features of game pass into one subscription for 9.99 like Xbox gold BACK IN THE DAY,” wrote KrisKlicks. The post alludes to Sharma’s “return to Xbox” promise as well as a growing frustration that console gamers have to pay for online multiplayer access while their PC counterparts, playing the exact same games, do not.
The new CEO had previously said she’s not rushing decisions on the company’s stance on exclusivity either, leaving room for the possibility of a third-way consensus position in which first-party games like Gears of War: E-Day come to Xbox Series X/S and PC first, followed later on by a port to PlayStation 5. That’s the approach the company is currently taking with Forza Horizon 6.
