Xbox is rolling out voice chat recording for its report system in the hopes of catching toxic gamers in 4K.
Xbox player services CVP Dave McCarthy unveiled Xbox Voice Reporting in a blog post today. The feature will let players record a 60-second clip "of an in-game voice incident that they believe violates our Community Standards and submit it as evidence to our Xbox Safety Team for review." It sounds like it will only "capture the last 60-seconds of gameplay activity," so players may need to be quick on the draw.
Xbox Voice Reporting will be available on Xbox Series X | S and Xbox One. The new report feature, which will initially be available this week to Xbox Alpha and Alpha-skip users via the Xbox Insiders program in English-language markets, was built to save quick recordings and allow users to pull them up after they clear their current game to finish reporting the offending player.
Clips captured this way will be saved for 24 "online hours," and you'll get a reminder from Xbox if you don't finalize the report within that window. Xbox says it has also updated its notifications to tell players whether the company "took action on the report submitted."
A few Xbox Ambassadors, who are generally content creators or community leaders who've climbed aboard the Xbox ship, make some valid points about the absolute state of voice chat in multiplayer games.
"As a woman online, I often find myself staying silent in online multiplayer to avoid abuse and harassment," writes CamicaziBoss. "I am excited for features like this that can help give people like me their voices back. Nobody should miss out on interaction with their fellow gamers because they are afraid to speak."
"The improvements we are making to reactive voice moderation are for everyone – those who experience toxicity, and for those who witness it," adds McCarthy. "We cannot be bystanders of bad behavior; we must do the right thing, have empathy for our fellow players, and build a safer and more inclusive community together."
How this feature improves the speed and reliability of user reports, and how it affects the punishment that reported users receive, remains to be seen, but cracking down on toxic gamers is always a good idea in my book.
Late last year, Overwatch 2 began transcribing voice chat in order to address its own community's behavior.
