In a post on NeoGAF, Albert Penello, Microsoft director of product planning explained that it is “a SW scheduling issue pure and simple,”

Dolby Digital is coming post launch… and I know people are disappointed, but we will have it.

According to the post, Xbox One owners with a HDMI receiver will bypass the problem as it passes “the uncompressed 5.1 and 7.1 through HDMI as well as DTS. Even if you have a Dolby only HDMI receiver (which I’m not sure exists), you will still get 5.1 or 7.1 sound since those receivers should accept uncompressed surround.”

The main problem will come with the headsets that require Dolby Digital, this includes some Turtle Beach, Sennheiser and Sony headsets (according to the website) : “my understanding is that these will work but you will only get stereo audio since we only pass Stereo and DTS through the optical port. I have not tested this myself, but I’m told it works.”

Penello went on to clarify the console’s HDMI In Audio setting defaults to stereo, however it can be switched to 5.1 audio but checking a beta setting in the setup menus.

“If you check the box, and you get Surround, you’re golden. We found some inconsistencies in [set-top boxes] during testing and decided to disable it by default to insure a good initial setup experience for people.”

Will this be affecting you? Do you use Dolby Digital sound for your gaming? Let us know in the comments.