This has got to be the weirdest thing ever to leave out. A lot of people like late '90s - early 00 receivers because some of them have build quality that can't be matched by today's new cheap stuff and they are certainly still useable. I mean, yeah, optical is a bit dated and can't carry 7 channel, but I would think this would be a given to include.

They didn't https://twitter.com/albertpenello/statuses/403189532524163072

It's coming post launch:

Xbox One Dolby Digital output via digital optical coming post launch
Until then, headsets are restricted to stereo.

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published Thursday, 21 November 2013

1
This again.
Full Dolby Digital audio via digital optical will be added to Xbox One at some point after launch, Microsoft has confirmed.

Xbox director of product planning Albert Penello took to NeoGAF after it emerged Xbox One's digital optical output only delivers sound in stereo, not a true Dolby Digital 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound signal.

"Dolby Digital is coming post launch," he said. "This was a SW scheduling issue pure and simple, and I know people are disappointed, but we will have it.

"Anyone with an HDMI receiver should be fine, as we pass 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."

Penello added it was his understanding that Dolby-only headsets will work with Xbox One, but you will only get stereo audio.

"I have not tested this myself, but I'm told it works," he said. "Regardless, I understand this is an inconvenience, but again we're going to have Dolby coming."

"This is unrelated to the HDMI-IN 'Surround Sound' beta," Penello said. "To clarify, we default HDMI-IN audio to be converted to Stereo. However, we do have a feature you can access in TV settings/Troubleshooting that enables Surround Sound in 'beta' form.

"If you check the box, and you get Surround, you're golden. We found some inconsistencies in STB's during testing and decided to disable it by default to insure a good initial setup experience for people."

Eurogamer investigated the next generation of consoles and how they work with headsets in an article published earlier this month. For more on the console itself, check out Digital Foundry's Xbox One hardware test.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-21-xbox-one-dolby-digital-headset-support-coming-post-launch

Rushed "next-gen" consoles are rushed. /thread

OK, cool.  By the way, your sig is hilarious!  Great show!  One of the only ones I can watch over and over again and still love it.

I take the audio on my games pretty seriously so this is a little bit of a deal breaker for the X1 at the moment although I'm sure it will be added in a update, with that said basic features should be there to begin with.