Xbox Live Reputation System Overhaul in the Works

Reports are floating around that Microsoft is set to overhaul its reputation system after getting lot of feedback from competitive gamers. The system right now sees each Xbox Live player get a reputation score that tells opponents how well behaved they are. However, players in some games like Overwatch are being pelted with false reports causing their accounts to be banned from Xbox Live games.

Xbox VP Mike Ybarra wrote in a forum post shared by The Verge, “Based on feedback from a number of people across a few competitive games, such as Overwatch, we’re going to change how reports of players impact the ability for people to play multiplayer in games. In short, we’ll change it so that it will have no impact on a player’s ability to join and play multiplayer.”

This change doesn’t mean that players get a pass on all poor behaviour. Microsoft will still ban Xbox Live accounts for things like online fraud and console tampering. Microsoft will also still hand out communications bans to keep misbehaving players in line.

The change of the Xbox Live reputation system will land in the next week or so and it’s not exactly clear what the change might look like. Microsoft is also overhauling the Xbox avatar system and is in the midst of working on a change to the Xbox Live achievement system. A new Xbox One dashboard is also in the works. Xbox insiders got a new home screen to check out earlier this month.