Pay To Use Your Own Headset on the Xbox One

Do you have a gaming headset that you love? Maybe it’s one of those special limited edition Call of Duty headsets that are only available through tournaments and media events. Maybe it’s a swanky sound canceling headset designed for voice acting work. Maybe it’s just your first headset and you are the sentimental type? Heck, there are plenty of gamers out there that still use their old Karaoke Revolution mics as hardcore gaming headsets.

Unfortunately, you can’t use any of these on the Xbox One. Why? Because Microsoft decided to make their microphone and headsets proprietary. That doesn’t mean that the console can’t read the input from a plain old USB mic. It means it just doesn’t want to. Microsoft is doing this specifically to limit your headset selection. Business is business after all. Luckily, there is an alternative, which just so happens to also be provided by Microsoft. If you really want to use your old headsets, you can purchase a headset adapter for $24.99. The adapter comes with controls that allow you to adjust the volume of both the chat and in-game audio independently. However, the adapter does not actually allow you to send game audio to the headset. Instead, you’ll have to connect your headset directly to the Xbox One or the TV to get game audio. Otherwise you’ll just be getting chat audio.