Xbox One real name IDs unavailable at launch

Microsoft's plan to allow Xbox One users to identify their friends by their real names is being postponed to a later date.

Ozzie Mejia

October 16, 2013 6:00 PM

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Sometimes you just want to call people by their real name, and not xxHaloKillerz420xx. Microsoft plans on letting Xbox One use their real names on Xbox Live, however that feature won't be available at launch.

"While real identities continue to be part of our plans for the experience on Xbox One, at launch, customers will continue to search for friends using their Gamertags," a Microsoft rep told Kotaku. "Our teams are working hard to deliver a quality experience for Xbox One. This means prioritizing some features and sometimes postponing others for a later update."

The delay is somewhat notable, given that Sony plans to implement similar real name integration into its user interface. However, other new Dashboard features, like the ability to store 1,000 friends and the optimized friends app remain in line for the Xbox One's launch.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?