Xbox launches new Player Voice direct feedback program

Xbox's new CEO Asha Sharma wants to know what changes should be made, and now gamers have a more direct line to share their input with the company.

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Microsoft seeks to transform the Xbox brand in a new kind of modern revitalization of gaming. The company has made big moves like pulling Call of Duty from Game Pass subscriptions, as well as small moves like changing the name to a retro all-caps moniker. It wants to keep morphing and molding around what gamers actually want, and that's the main motivation behind the new Xbox Player Voice program.

The feedback program is basically a stylized forum where gamers can sign up, make posts, and share feedback. Other users can also upvote specific topics to increase visibility, not unlike Reddit. The top requests are making more exclusive Xbox games, making online multiplayer free on Xbox, to allow disc-based games on Project Helix, and to ensure more games come to the backwards compatibility program.

Here's what Microsoft had to say about the program:

"When you submit feedback, teams review and organize it so it can be understood and considered alongside other work. In some cases, ideas will move forward. In others, they may take longer to implement or may not be something we can act on. When there are meaningful updates, we'll share them."

Team Xbox won't be able to address all the feedback and requests that players make, so don't expect the new CEO to have a kind of financial magic wand to make everything happen all at once. But this gives Microsoft a direct communication path to its most enthusiastic

We want to be clear: this doesn't mean every piece of feedback will turn into a feature or result in a change. Building across a large, global platform means weighing a lot of inputs. But better visibility helps close the gap between what you tell us and what you see happen next on XBOX."