Xbox One Voice Commands Only Available In 5 Markets For November Release

One of the main reasons as to why the new Kinect was mandatory for the Xbox One is that it allows users to perform task simply by talking. With the November release approaching, the much touted voice commands may be more of a let down for some users than the exciting next-gen console claimed. Xbox One's voice command capabilities will be limited to 5 select markets at launch.

The news that voice commands will only be available in 5 markets only cam to light recently, when Gamespot discovered some fine print on Xbox One's website. The fine print informed potential consumers just who would be lucky enough to experience the vice commands alongside the November release, "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."

So Xbox One's Kinect enabled voice commands will only be available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Germany when it ships sometime in November. Which suggests that the other 8 primary markets, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand and Spain will not receive the voice command capabilities until a still unspecified later date.

Albert Penello, Microsoft's head of product development, did shine some light on potential reasons for certain market delays. Penello cited language localization as the primary cause for the systems delayed availability in select markets. "People assume there's a volume issue which in fact there isn't. You're actually seeing pre-orders pop back up now because we're able allocate the countries' volumes back in. It's there, the problem is localization. And once people see the system and how integral it is, it's not just text integration" Penello told OXM.

Through the use of the new Kinect sensor, users will now be able to control multiple aspects of Xbox One's software through voice commands. Users will now have the ability to power on the system, switch to different programs, and launch apps.

Penello believes that the new voice command will become less of an accessory and more of a habitual command. "I think people are using the way [voice] works on Xbox 360, which was an accessory we built five years after release, as how it's going to work here," Penello, told OXM. "But it's so much more elegant and so much more integrated, and in many ways it's a lot faster and more convenient. Whereas on Xbox 360 it's a lesser version of doing the thing you're used to doing on your controller.

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