One of the prominent upcoming third party exclusives for Xbox One will be Ashen, an action role-playing game developed by Aurora44. The game will have multiplayer, which will require coordination and teamwork from multiple players- but, interestingly enough, it sounds like the game won’t be supporting voice or even text chat in spite of this. Instead, the game will provide players with limited tools for communication, which they will be forced to use.
Speaking to Official Xbox Magazine (March, Issue number 161), the developers discussed their reason for limiting means of communication for players. “We don’t have voice chat, or even text chat. We won’t even have user names- so when somebody’s playing in your game, you will have an array of gestures you can use, and you will have to use those to communicate,” says game director Derek Bradely.
Basically, it sounds like they are going for the kind of experience that Dark Souls and its ilk provide- which, hey, it worked there. If Ashen is half as good, I don’t think players will be complaining here either. Thankfully, the game seems like it might just be great enough. You can check out the story for Ashen, and get more information on the game, in Official Xbox Magazine’s March issue. You can subscribe to the latest Official Xbox Magazine over here.