In less than two weeks, the Xbox Series X will commercially launch throughout the world. Although, for how much the gaming community has been informed of the Xbox Series X and its many features, there is still quite a number of qualities about the console that are still being revealed. The most recent of which being a permanent change to the Xbox party chat system.
Xbox party chat has conceptually existed since the 360 era, but it didn't start to become a streamlined part of the Xbox experience until the Xbox One released. Party chat is essentially the core foundation for having large groups of players communicating together at once. However, with this system came a pretty big problem that affected a number of users.
For the longest time, Xbox party chat ran on a peer-to-peer connection system that allowed players to connect individually using their own Wi-Fi connections. Certain video games actually ran online using this very same system, such as Nine Chronicles. Though, the problem with having a P2P system is that it actively exposes the IP address of every user, leaving them vulnerable to hacking and denial-of-service attacks from other players.
Clearly, this is an important issue. One that Xbox engineers like Bill Ridmann have been actively trying to address with the production of the Xbox Series X. Ridmann recently replied to a Reddit thread complaining about the P2P implementation and stated that the P2P system would actually be phased out entirely by the time the Xbox Series X releases. Ridmann explained that a larger percentage of parties will be running on dedicated Xbox servers, ensuring that players won't be directly connecting to other player's IP addresses.
For those using the Xbox mobile app to play online, Ridmann stated that the app has only ever been server based. Therefore, users are not susceptible to hacking through the Xbox app. Ridmann and the other engineer's ultimate goal is to phase out P2P party chat entirely and have everything be server based. For anyone that uses Xbox Live in any capacity, this is very good news. Having said this, Ridmann did not state whether or not these same changes would apply to the Xbox One as well.
It will be interesting to see whether Microsoft continues to accommodate the Xbox One now that the Xbox Series X is so close to releasing. With Sony's president recently affirming users that Sony would not be giving up on the PS4, it makes one wonder if the Xbox One will phase out faster than the PS4. In any case, hopefully these same changes made to the party chat will apply to the previous console generation as well.
The Xbox Series X is set to launch on November 12th, 2020.
Source: Reddit