Microsoft has finally listened to your feedback, Xbox One gamers, and upped the Party Chat limit. As of Tuesday, everyone on Xbox One and the Xbox app on Windows 10 should have access to 12-person Party Chat, Xbox Live’s Larry Hryb announced.
Until now, you could only have up to eight people in a party, which wasn’t always sufficient when playing games like FIFA 14 and Battlefield 4, gamers said. They argued that when playing online with a full team in FIFA, for instance, you’d often be forced to split into two separate parties.
“It would be much easier to get games organized if we were able to have more of our friends in the same place at once,” a user with the handle Masternader21 wrote on the Xbox Feedback forum in July 2014.
More than 2,200 gamers voted since then to increase that limit, and now Microsoft has listened. The increased limit is available for all Xbox users, including those using the Xbox app on Windows 10 and the New Xbox One Experience Preview.
Microsoft said it’s making the tweak server-side, so there won’t be a visible update for your app or console to worry about. Meanwhile, those in the New Xbox One Experience Preview should have received an update yesterday that brings several new features, including party text chats, a streamlined game DVR experience, new animated avatars, an updated menu for quick access to common actions, and access to new settings in the Guide.
Microsoft said it combined the functionality of the Game DVR snap app and the former Upload app into one app called Game DVR, letting you view your game clips and screenshots as well as start and stop recordings.
With this update, the menu button on your controller now lets you pin an app or game to Home, launch a recently played game, or quit an app with a single button-press. You can also now turn your console off or restart it directly from the Guide.
“We hope you enjoy these new features and thanks for all the feedback,” Hyrb wrote.
