Most gamers complain of voice chat abuse on Xbox Live, but those complains may be coming to an end, as Microsoft has been granted a patent for real-time censoring in voice communications.

The company had applied for a patent on an “automatic censoring filter” way back in 2004. The technology will see speech-recognition software scan for what is being said in real-time and distort the audio stream if it becomes probable that the user will blurt out obscenity.

While the software is not exclusive to Xbox 360 – neither was it suggested – but the gaming community is speculating that it might be applied on Xbox Live.

It would be interested to see if it really works. And it will be a godsend for those tired of stupid 13-year olds on Xbox Live screaming out racial epithets during epic Halo 3 matches.