Xbox Removes Popular Feature After 10 Years, Gamers Mourn Its Loss

After a decade, a popular Xbox social feature is being removed, and gamers are mourning its loss.

In September 2016, Xbox Social Clubs launched on Xbox One consoles and later via the official Xbox app. These social clubs are community-driven and were a great place to not only meet like-minded gamers, but also to find players to play particular multiplayer games such as Call of Duty and Destiny.

Naturally, with the Xbox Social Clubs lasting more than a decade, there are tons to join for just about every video game series you could imagine. There are also plenty of other clubs, such as being able to share your favourite in-game screenshots. Sadly, however, the user-created Xbox Social Clubs will soon be no more.

Microsoft Is Dissolving Xbox Social Clubs

This month, Microsoft has made the decision to end all user-created Xbox Social Clubs, and while this might reduce club clutter, it means that popular niche clubs will soon be a thing of the past, which is a shame for those who use them. Clubs will also be removed from the ‘Friends & Community’ tab of the Xbox app.

Xbox Gamers Mourn the Loss of Social Clubs

“Really going to miss ‘Awesome Screenshot Club’ now that Xbox has dissolved all Social Clubs,” exclaimed Gothyanki.

“I'm going to miss posting all my goofy and awesome screenshots and browsing the communities. It made a single-player gamer feel more connected in an isolated world. Just another reason I should start looking elsewhere and look for other platforms for better social features.”

“Going to miss them, shout out to the Resident Evil club,” replied Spue.

“Had a few posts in there too, many years ago, some of them got like 100 likes, and it was nice,” added Nico_T_3110.

“I was an admin in the ‘Awesome Screenshot Club’ for a few months after it first launched. It was a great place until it became a second job,” explained TylerTried. “Clubs were really big when they first launched, but fell off quite a bit by the end. Definitely glad they happened.”

“I’m kind of glad they took it out. All the popular/good clubs turned into spam accounts sharing the same clips month after month from Fortnite, Call of Duty, Roblox, GTA and Microsoft Edge clips,” said Practical-Aside890. “Not to say there wasn't anything cool in them. There were a few profiles I noticed that weren’t spam bots.”

What Xbox Social Club Alternatives Are There?

The most obvious alternative is the ye-olde-faithful Xbox messaging system. The other alternative would be Discord or Reddit, both of which can be handy LFG (Looking for Group) locations for multiplayer squads. You could also use messaging apps such as WhatsApp and so forth.

Will Any Xbox Social Clubs Survive the Purge?

Yes, official developer and publisher Xbox Social Clubs will remain active for the foreseeable future. That being said, it will be interesting to see how long these official clubs last. Because it’s not outside the realm of possibility that all Xbox Social Clubs might become extinct one day.

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