Xbox One Voice Commands Limited To Just Five Countries At Launch

Blair Inglis 28 Comments

Kinect was never very good with certain accents and languages, so it’s no surprise that Microsoft has revealed – in the small print of one of their pages – that the Xbox One won’t support voice commands in all countries at launch.

Point six at the bottom of the page states:

Xbox voice commands will not be available in all markets on the product release date. Voice commands will be available at launch in US, UK, CA, FR, and DE

It appears that voice control localisation wasn’t the reason for the massive delay in various European countries then, and eight countries will lose voice commands for Kinect at launch.

Given that Kinect is included with every console, and that Microsoft has stated time and time again that it’s a core part of the system, the fact that these controls won’t launch everywhere alongside console is ridiculous.

Source: NeoGAF

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28 Comments

  1. Does anyone else get the feeling this console is getting rushed out?

  2. Well that’ll disappoint all 4 people that want to use kinect.

    • To be honest, since the announcement that we are getting a £50 title free with the X1, I’m not quite as “anti-Kinect” as I was. Being charged £80 for a camera I didn’t want was one thing, but £30 doesn’t sound so bad and I’m actually looking forward to occasionally firing it up with my family.
      Can’t see myself using the voice commands very often mind you…

      • I don’t think I’ll even setup the kinect, but yeah the “free” fifa does help make up for the price.

      • its not free fifa, you can get a PS4 and FIFA for less money..

        It’s a scheme to fool idiots. Tell them it’s free, they will believe it.

      • Unless you think Football is a bunch of girly boys kicking a slab of pig skin around finely woven grass is a good “deal” then yea. :D

      • @hg that’s what the speech marks were for. And really I can get a ps4 & fifa for cheaper?! What! Nobodys pointed that out before! Only problem is you’d not have the console you wanted.

      • *Sigh* Of course its a free game! Prior to Gamescom the console was £429.99 and didn’t come with FIFA. Now its £429.99 and comes with FIFA. Guess what? That makes it free!

        Yes, the X1 is more expensive (largely due to the Kinect camera), I think that has been covered enough times already. I could buy a PS4 and FIFA for less but I wouldn’t be getting the console I wanted and would be missing out on COD dedicated servers, TitanFall, Dead Rising 3, Forza 5, Quantum Break and would also be getting a platform none of my mates are getting. You know what? I think in the grand scheme of things that’s worth the extra £80.

      • dayone edition is free fifa after there gone no Fifa.

    • Fa* **y!

  3. It says UK but I doubt kinect will ever speak Scouse or Glaswegian. One of my best mates is from Glasgow, I’ve known him almost 20 years and still struggle when we play online.

    • Can’t believe the instant I press ‘post’, your’s and Stefan’s comments appear above mine! :)

    • So it covers all the UK accents, but not Irish ones!!

  4. What’s the betting it won’t handle a Scottish accent?

    • I was going to put that in the article but my speech-to-text software couldn’t understand what I was saying.

  5. Hmmm… It says voice commands will be available in the UK. I’m actually half serious and half joking with this comment but I wonder whether that includes Scotland??? After all, Siri seemed to have a problem with the Scottish accent, where as my friends from Aberdeen are easy to understand, but a couple of my mates from Glasgow often get wound up with me as I can’t understand a word they’re on about once they’ve had a few pints. Good luck Juan!

  6. So any one outside those five countries who buys an xbox one is basicly being forced to pay extra for something that doesn’t even work? Unbelievable crap.

  7. More importantly, I thought they delayed the console in those European countries because of trouble localising Kinect? Obvious lies to hide their manufacturing problems, as some of the countries that the console is launching in on day one (Spain for example) don’t even have Kinect support.

    This wouldn’t be that important if they didn’t feel the need to force everybody who wants to buy an Xbox One to buy a Kinect also. So people who aren’t in those 5 countries are being charged roughly £100 more for something that will be a paperweight for a good few months? Awesome.

    • And to think of all the people telling me ‘the manufacturing problems don’t exist, MS said so’. Well, here’s proof that they do exist.

    • So Spain, ITaly, Brazil and Ireland won’t be getting what they pay for at launch.

      So will MS offer these countries another free game? :D

  8. Didn’t MS learn anything from the 360 fiasco?? Not as much as it should have done by the looks of things! would be interesting to know the launch day figures for both consoles! American publishers seem to be following the MS$ over the bigger user base ATM. Wonder if that’ll change if the PS4 carries on with its good start??

  9. I wonder if it is disabled to people in other countries who do speak English,seems a bit harsh if so.
    I wasn’t planning on talking to my xbox anyway as it seems right up there with VR headsets on the idiot scale.More disconcerting is the fact that were looking at another day with nothing coming out of m.s but bad news.

  10. Still no launch date? My suspicions are raised higher every day that goes past without word from MS.

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