For as much as the launch of the Xbox One was met with tremendous fanfare and a 1 million unit sales tally in the first 24 hours, the console is still very much a work in progress. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the game's party system which, to the say the least, is significantly flawed.
Luckily, Microsoft is well aware of the Xbox One party system's shortcomings, and are apparently doing all they can to correct them in a future update. In fact, the powers that be recently held a meeting to discuss that specific topic, among others.
On Monday, Microsoft's Larry Hyrb (a.k.a. Major Nelson) revealed a meeting took place during which the powers-that-be discussed improving the Xbox One user experience. Hyrb also added that he passed along a link to the Xbox Feedback website, which lists a dozen or more helpful suggestions on how to improve the Xbox One. While Hyrb couldn't say when gamers can expect these improvements to hit, he wanted to stress that Microsoft is listening.
"I had a meeting today about much of this and I can say that things will get better. I can't offer a timeline of a list of what till be addressed first, but we are aware of the issue and things will get better."
While the experience varies between users, the long and short of it is that the party system on the Xbox One is archaic in its design, and a bit confusing. In order to give some much needed flourishes to the system — like labeling a chat with the game being played — Microsoft instead made switching games, inviting party members to games, and even communicating a lot more difficult.
Say, for example, a party host wants to get together with their friends to play a multiplayer match in Battlefield 4, they can do so, but only with their 8-player party. Getting more friends into a multiplayer match is a little more complex. The best answer is to invite the party to a game, cancel the party, and then invite a new party, but that's obviously not an easy solution.
Similarly, simple tasks like switching between games and migrating parties is not as easy as it should be. More importantly, the whole process is a step down from the Xbox 360's party system, which, while not all that elegant, got the job done.
Although a lot of the Xbox One's functionality works as intended, give or take, there are still clearly ways that Microsoft can improve. The party system is a great place to start, but the hope is that the changes will extend throughout the entire end-user experience.
What problems have you experienced with the Xbox One's party system? What changes would you like to see Microsoft make?
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