According to âA person familiar with the matterâ, website CVG is reporting that, as part of Microsoftâs continuing efforts to consolidate Skype (which it now owns) as the standard communications platform for the companyâs products, itâll âbecome the default chat service on the next generation Xbox consoleâ.
https://gizmodo.com/microsofts-confirmed-that-messenger-will-be-retired-on-5974416
What would this mean, exactly? Who knows, the report doesnât go into much more detail than that. What it could mean, though, is that everyone using the next Xbox online would need to tie a Skype account to their gamertag (Windows 8, for example, already ties a Microsoft account to a Skype account). Youâd also expect some form of Skype branding to exist for the consoleâs communications, rather than the more vague âmessagingâ terms used now.
One thing the source does say thatâs interesting, though, is âYou might jump to the conclusion that weâll see asynchronous voice and video messages in next-gen Xbox Liveâ. Which would be pretty neat.
Weâve contacted Microsoft for comment, and will update if we hear back.
Microsoft âto replace Xbox Live voice chat with Skypeâ [CVG]
