XB1 only launching with voice recognition in 5 countries

New fact sheet up from MS (very bottom in small print)

"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."

Kind of weird, voice localization was their original reason for scaling back to a 13 country launch. Wonder how quickly they'll roll it out to the other 8 countries after launch.

It feels like Microsoft was riding the success of 360 and forgot to start the development of their new console in time. Making sure your console gets to every possible market at launch and functioning as intended should be the top priority in development.

@icemo:

I feel it's more like they set themselves up for a goal somebody knew they couldn't meet, and now they're forced into dealing with the realities of it all.

This was something they did with the original Kinect as well. It takes a lot of time to work around languages, and with a more specific voice recognition software you'd have to get pretty accurate interpretations of the language. After all, you're in a living room setting where people will mostly likely include "Xbox On" in a not so verbally acute manner. Even the difference between real English and North American English is potentially huge in the eyes of voice recognition software - things are pronounced in a completely different manner.

I'm sure people will miss those voice controls ever so much.

wgaf

Ha........ oh xbone ^^

I can imagine: "oiga apa , el kinect no jala ..... no pos sabe , a ver s box on.... s box on ... que la chingada s box on" XD

De for what? Deutschland or Denmark?

It's for Deutschland.

http://www.paladinsoftware.com/Generic/countries.htm

@jeust: DE always stands for Deutschland.

Yeah. Thanks man!

Not having voice controls is like not having a controller

Det er for dårligt, men der taler til deres konsol?

Not having a hand/arm would be like not having a controller. Not having voice controls is like not having a headset.

It's not a big deal by any stretch, but it certainly implies that they are bootstrapping the fuck out of this console to get it out in time.

Who cares... lets just hope they take it out for you folks and save you all the pain. XD

I agree, I was joking.

Speaking of voice and the Xbox One, Major Nelson has posted comparison clips of the difference in sound quality between the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One headsets. I didn't want to make a new thread about this because the forums are already being buried under heaps of Xbox One threads.

Oh, and the Xbox One voice sample does sound considerably better.

super subtle BURN!

Indeed, might as well not bother shipping the thing now. GG Microsoft, shouldn't have fired Balmer.

Doesn't really surprise me as the bundled 360 headsets are hot garbage.

I rather they make a few languages work well then make a lot of languages work badly.

Kinect 2.0 strikes again!

In a month, the news from Microsoft will be saying that only three regions will actually have games at launch, the rest will have to wait an undecided amount of time.

Do people use this feature? I heard it never really took off even among kinect owners.

Strange that Ireland isn't on that list, since we'll most certainly be getting the British localisation, anyway.

Wait I thought people said they did not want the Kinect and were not even gonna hook it up.

@the_laughing_man: @corvak: It'd be nice to have considering MS is literally FORCING you to buy the thing, and god knows it's not suitable for playing games with. Forcing you to buy a product they're not going to properly support in your region is bad form.

Im more being sarcastic about how people are finding ANYTHING to be mad about. Just like when Sony started to charge for Online play it was fine but MS is evil to do it. Or that PS4 stuff has been running on PC or Dev kits and when MS did it it was some massive lying sin.

But it would be even better that they just patch that shit in and launch globally. ( or maybe just forget about it because very few people care about voice controls )

Even better, take the kinect out of the box and drop the price by, oh, $100 or so.

This is yet another indication that the localization excuse for not launching in all countries was total bullshit, and that they're rushing this thing out the door.

There will never be support for that many languages anyways. Someone call me when the Kinect understands anything that ain't whitespeak.

so they charge 100 euros ($150) extra for a mandatory Kinect that is not even functional at launch?

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I don't want to tangent off too much, but this argument still doesn't hold any water given how much Sony is putting outside of their paywall vs. XBLG (everything except MP in non-F2P games and free/discounted games) as opposed to how much is being walled behind XBLG (everything except store access and single player games). Over 2 million people have been paying for PS+ on the PS3/Vita entirely for the IGC and bigger discounts.

Make a list of what you get with PS+ vs XBLG, and then another list of what you can do without PS+ vs. XBLG, and this argument that people were upset about it with Gold and are fine with it with PS+ is pretty shortsighted and nothing more than an inaccurate talking point.

@trafalgarlaw: Nah, you can still wave at it and have it do stuff a second or two later if that's your thing. And you might be able to set it up so you can speak french to it? Might need a router that supports VPN and a server in france to install openvpn on, so worth it though.

@marokai said:

People kept talking about how easy it is to do voice recognition games and how it's no big deal. Reality check is a bitch.

From a post by Albert Penello (Higher up in the Xbox Division) on Neogaf:

First, people should understand – I don’t always know every detail happening with the program. Even though I run Product Planning (I'm not in PR!), that means we set the stage early for the features and HW, but a lot happens going through the development process. I stay very close as we approach launch, but I don’t always know the specifics when things change, so sometimes (frequently) I have to ask someone on the team. I also don’t run PR or Marketing, so I don’t see every piece of material that makes it to the public. In this case, there was an inconsistency between some small print on Xbox.com, and what I understood was happening – so I went to get more details.

Turns out the answer to this question is… complicated. It’s been an education for me as I’ve been looking into it.

There is no way that I could do justice to it in a post, so the marketing team is working on a chart that gives clarity on what locales, languages, and voice features are available in each country. Trying to write it down would be confusing. Stay tuned for a more detailed explanation, but just to give clarity:

In November

- We will launch in 13 geos

- 10 of those geos will support some voice features

- We support 8 languages

The 8 Languages at Launch are:

1) English – US

2) English – GB (WW)

3) French

4) Spanish – MX

5) Spanish – ES

6) Italian

7) German

8) Portuguese

NOW – the nuance to this is that some voice *features* won’t be available in all countries right away. “Xbox On”, for instance, is only available in 5 (hence the confusion on Xbox.com in the small print).

BigDug13

– the FAQ is correct, for launch. When you choose a language for your console, you will be offered the list of countries it is supported in. Using your example, if you choose Italy as your language, you only get Italian. We will continue to add more supported combinations over time. For example in Canada we will support English and French. The opportunity to “mix-and-match” languages and countries is something we’re looking to do post-launch.

Again, sorry for all the confusion on this. Look for a more detailed explanation coming. Will most likely come through Xbox Wire, or Xbox.com.

So the entire spin about "We have to make the system ready by localizing it for those regions and make sure the Kinect understands voice commands" in the countries that aren't the first in line in Europe is all bullshit? You bet your ass it's MS having trouble with privacy laws in those countries. We're not even getting that FREE game either.

It's also worth noting that it was Microsoft who got us all used to the idea of paying for multiplayer in the first place. That's why we all shrugged, not because Sony is a little blue angel we love. Plus PS+ is wild man. Wild.

When has MS ever made Brazil a priority? What's the cost of a launch XB1 there anyways?

Who cares as long as it recognizes American.

When has either of them? They're both making it a priority this generation. Obviously something took place that we don't know about in terms of sales this past generation and the trend is moving up for Brazil. Otherwise neither Sony or MS would be so adamant of keeping Brazil as a launch country.

So, the PS2 officially launched in Brazil in 2009. I don't even know about PS34. At least MS is doing something about that.

Don't worry...they can't launch in Switzerland either because no one there speaks German, French or Italian. :)

A lot of people are not excited by Kinect 2.0. Now those people are being told a reason why it isn't launching in their region is Kinect 2.0. What reaction did they expect?

@blu3v3nom07: doesn't matter. As you probably know by now, anything that Microsoft does is pure evil and terrible in every way possible. Sony however is a gift from the heavens and we as a species should be thankful it exists.

People just need a reason to bitch, especially the Sony fanbase. They dont love their console, they just hate everyone else's. Personally, I live in America and xbox one could launch with all that functionality in one territory. As long it's mine, I'm fine. Yeah, if it was something that actually affected me in some way, it would be worth getting worked up about. People who take the time on the Internet to mock a company or product because of decisions that have zero impact on them are a waste of space.

It's cool, just wait until a couple weeks later when they backpedal and change it due to public outcry. :D

@syed117: nice smear bro.

Just activate it for Australia with English US or English UK and let us deal with the accent stuff. Bah.

And what does that make you, considering you've just taken the time on the internet to bitch about something that has zero impact on you?

To those who are arguing about brazil getting the shaft. Sony will be releasing the PS4 there on the 29th of November.