Xbox One was released today, but, to gamers' disappointment, without Dolby 5.1 and 7.1. digital audio support. According to a Microsoft executive, this will change eventually.

"Dolby Digital is coming post launch," Albert Penello, Microsoft director of product planning, said on NeoGAF today. "This was a SW scheduling issue pure and simple, and I know people are disappointed, but we will have it."

No official release date for the update was announced.

Meanwhile, the Xbox One will not be on the same optical audio level as its predecessor, the Xbox 360, its competitor, the PlayStation 4, or the PlayStation 3.

According to Penello, gamers will be okay.

"Anyone with an HDMI receiver should be fine, as we pass the uncompressed 5.1 and 7.1 through HDMI as well as DTS," Penello said. "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 also thinks that Dolby-only headsets will work, but with stereo audio only.

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

Microsoft is doing what it can to make the Xbox One experience enjoyable while gamers wait for the update.

"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," Penello said.

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