Microsoft to Drop Clan Support on Xbox Live?

[Ridlin]

As reported by DailyGame (http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/004151.php), it looks at though Clan support is something that might not make it to the 360.

"It's just too difficult to get everyone together; the idea wasn't working," the Ubisoft representative told us during our demonstration of the forthcoming game.

Has anyone out there mantained a large clan? Ours could never manage to get together.

[Reanimated]

What does anything that Ubi Soft says have to do with Microsoft?

In any event, MS confirmed at E3 that PD0 would have clan support.

News editors really do need to start better scrutinizing the "news" posts before they go up. The BS flying around from various no-name websites is getting out of hand. At some point we're just going to have to migrate EvilAvatar over to Spong.com's domain and be done with it.

[Deadend]

well, that sucks, maybe.

Or DailyGame is completely jumping the gun and/or Ubi is wrong/talking about something else.

[Fonz]

Thats halarious, Microsoft says they promote competitive gameplay for xbox 360 yet no clan support. How is it possible that you can have online free leagues like caleague and online tournaments like cevo with anti cheat clients, which are run by volunteers in the PC arena have clan support for various games, but xbox live not have any clan support? Sounds like "noob sp3@k" to me :-p.

[Varsity]

PCs and consoles have very different communities and uses. It's (apparently) a fact that nobody uses the clan system, not something MS just decided one day.

[Adam Blue]

But even so, this was Ubi, not MS that said this. Unless someone can point me into the right direction...has MS said anything?

[jeffool]

There are pictures of the XBox dashboard and XBL screens floating around. There are no mentions of 'clan' or 'recent player' on any of them.

/edit: http://www.betanews.com/slideshow/Xbox_360_User_Interface/6/4

[King Drewsky]

Nice find, jeffool. I would be very upset if this turns out to be the case. I am currently in a 100 member Halo2 clan and the clan is the only reason I am still playing the game. I know *** is planning on creating gaming "zones" that you can be a part of, but that haven't mentioned anything about clans for the 360. This is disturbing because I highly doubt there will be a zone that I am interested in joining. They have shown zones for Pro, Family, and Underground so far, none of which are my cup of tea. I can't imagine playing Halo3 without clan support and I was hoping that the next gen would allow my personal clan to be transferred to other games so that when I purchase a new game, my clan list is already in place.

[Ridlin]

Hey guys, I'm the one who broke the story. I was interviewing a network developer for one of Ubi's games at E3 when I asked him about Clan support, and that's what he told me. He wasn't just some flunky they hired to talk about the games, he was the real deal (french accent and all). I kept his name out of it because I didn't want him to get into any trouble.

Is it true? I don't know, I just reported what an insider (accidently) told me. He was tired from working all day and probably didn't think to shut up.

[Dragos]

So people dont like using clans through Ubisofts horrible, clunky interfaces? Suprise suprise...

[netcraazzy]

I'm hoping that it's just Ubisoft that isn't supporting clans then. I was really looking forward to some form of guild/clan formation in Live, even if the clan was game specific. I hope Microsoft isn't under the impression that a friends list is all anybody needs.

[ldi222]

I think Microsoft will continue to support clans. Its just another way of organizing your firiends list for the most part anyway. I have a clan of about 30 members and its nice to be able to log on to HALO2 and almost always have someone to game with.

[jeffool]

I'd be amazed, astounded, abhorred, and other a-words if XBox Live provided a service and a First Party developer didn't take advantage of it. No, coupled with the pictures, I think this is the real deal. No more clans, just a friends list.

Not that I've ever seen any other fellow EvAv clan members online aside from one day I had off of work... Those guys "have lives" and "don't play past midnight" I suppose.

[bapenguin]

HOw many games actually make use of the clans feature of live? I'm curious...

[Dirty Harry]

HOw many games actually make use of the clans feature of live? I'm curious...
Just one game made use of clans, yur mum, shes fine like butter.

[netcraazzy]

HOw many games actually make use of the clans feature of live? I'm curious...

I was under the impression that the clan support was only in Halo2

[kid cabelgo]

I was under the impression that the clan support was only in Halo2

I think Rainbow Six 3 had support as well. At least in the expansion pack. But yeah, not many.

And I'm fairly sure the clan stuff gets used quite a bit in halo 2.

[alkalinejeebus]

The car clubs in FORZA motorsport are the equivalent of clans.

I really don't think that they are dropping clans altogether I think that Ubisoft is deciding that the feature isn't important in their products.

[sol740]

Getting rid of clan support is the dumbest idea I have ever heard. It is my strong opinion that eliminating choices to maintain community and thus shorten the lifespan of said product could only hurt a games online fun factor. If I had never joined a clan in Halo 2 I wouldn't have played half as long as I did.

[*Legion*]

So people dont like using clans through Ubisofts horrible, clunky interfaces? Suprise suprise...

Someone clearly played Ghost Recon 2. :)

I didn't just stop using the clan feature, I stopped playing the whole damn game.