Xbox Gaming in South Africa

Xbox Live Studios Jerry Johnson has confirmed that Microsoft is looking to significantly improve the sound quality over Xbox LIVE with the next console update, according to a Eurogamer.

Speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival yesterday, Johnson explained that the update would upgrade the codec and audio infrastructure used for player to player communication, improving the overall sound quality and making it clearer for gamers to hear each other over Xbox LIVE.

"The codec we used when we first launched was a low bit rate codec and we stuck with that," said Johnson. "We launched and we said we required broadband. We required a 64k connection, which not many people think of as broadband any longer. But that was the minimum requirement to run the service at the time. It's time for us to move on. Especially if we want to think about broadening - a crackly headset on the top of your head – not what people think of when they talk about popular entertainment."

Sounds great, but how does this affect us bandwidth starved gamers in South Africa? Well, for the most part, most gamers won't notice a difference. Microsoft still lists the minimum connection for Xbox LIVE as "high speed broadband", which is commonly defined as a minimum connection of 256 kbit/s. So it's doubtful that Microsoft will push up the bitrate to an extend that it will affect those users, meaning anyone with ADSL in SA should be good to go. Those with 3G (excluding HSDPA) or low-end wireless connections on the other hand may see a slight increase in lag. But let's be honest, trying to play on Xbox LIVE with 3G is already a lagfest anyways.

Personally, I don't think the current sound quality is that bad, and I don't particularly want to hear that guy who can't stop singing Celine Dione in high quality audio, but I guess we've gotta keep up with the times.

Expect the Xbox 360 update with improved headset sound quality to go LIVE just before Kinect releases in November.