Don’t you just love how games evolve? From the times when they were just pure single player titles that had the rest of the kids waiting patiently for their turn at the controller to the modern equivalent of teamplay, where you and your gang go up against another team, keeping the lines of communication open through a headset and celebrating the true spirit of teamwork. Not all multiplayer games feature voice support at this point in time (most crucial games to offer this feature would be tactical titles), but the Station Voice service aims to change this. Powered by Vivox, this new service enables players to talk to each other in online titles, and it is currently a feature available in MMORPGs such as EverQuest II and Star Wars Galaxies. Players don’t have to fork out an additional cent for this feature to use with their current subscription plan, which is a good thing.

Station Voice will be integrated into upcoming Sony Online Entertainment titles, so you know which platform to flock to if you want to get some in-game chatter action going on. The initial launch of Station Voice will enable players to perform the following :-

• Talk person-to-person in game with any microphone and headset combo
• Chat with their party, guild or any other group in game
• Play and communicate without worry of a significant increase in game lag
• Manage group/user participation with moderator controls
• Individually mute and set volume per user
• Set up easily without the need for separate software, accounts or registration

Sony Online Entertainment does have plans to implement other Vivox services into Station Voice in the latter part of 2008, including voice fonts (how does that work?) and the ability to connect to games from Station Launcher. Looks like gaming has just gotten all the more interactive, baby!

Press Release