Xbox One Voice Commands Limited to Five Countries At Launch

[Andy Chalk]

Xbox One Voice Commands Limited to Five Countries At Launch

The Xbox One voice controls that Microsoft has so enthusiastically touted as a core feature of the system will only work in five countries when it launches.

Remember how cool it was when Microsoft demonstrated how the Xbox One can be turned on by simply saying, "Xbox on?" And while Microsoft has since stepped back a bit from the lofty aspirations it carried into E3, there's no question that voice controls feature largely in its plans for the future of the console. In fact, the Xbox One "Get the Facts" page specifically states that "advanced voice and motion control open up new game experiences like never before," and that it can be turned on, off and controlled in various ways using voice commands.

But as the sharp eyes at VentureBeat [http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/29/xbox-ones-touted-voice-commands-will-only-work-in-5-countries-at-launch/] noticed, the promise of an ultra-convenient voice-controlled future carries with it a pretty big caveat: It will only work in five countries at launch. From the fine print at the bottom of the page: "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."

That's the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany, for those unfamiliar with the abbreviations, adding up to just three different languages and suggesting that perhaps the initially launch [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127201-Xbox-One-Launch-Delays-Not-Caused-By-Supply-Shortage-Microsoft-Says] from 21 to just 13 are rather more troublesome than anyone thought. At the same time, it's strange that Microsoft doesn't include English-speaking nations Australia, Ireland and New Zealand in the list, or Austria, in which the official language is German. Trouble with accents, perhaps?

Whatever the reason, it raises some serious doubts about just how effective the Xbox One voice command system will be, and it really doesn't look good on Microsoft, which at this point appears to be trapped in a flat spin of climbdowns and PR disasters. The way things are going, by November we'll be writing news posts about how the Xbox One will shoot your dog and set your house on fire if you look at it wrong.

Source: Xbox.com [http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/get-the-facts?xr=shellnav]


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[jericu]

If accents were an issue, the thing wouldn't be supported in the UK at launch. Have you heard a Scouser accent? Sheesh.

Seriously though, this is pretty bad. I mean, 5 countries? It's the 'future' of video games, but one of the things you're touting, voice control, is only gonna work in 5 countries?

 

[Simple Bluff]

"5 countries" is a bit incorrect considering the UK is made up of 4 on its own (5 if you count ALL of Ireland, which you shouldn't, but I'd imagine it is here), but that's still pretty bad. Voice commands could actually be really cool if they could get them to work. The technology is there (at least in English, as far as I know), so it's not too much of a stretch to hope for.

I wonder how long it will be before the launch of the X1 is actually complete? As in, the console is released everywhere and all its components are fully localized (within reason).

 

[DragonsAteMyMarbles]

A lot of Australian accents aren't that far removed from English ones, so I'm not sure that's the issue.
That said, I wouldn't be surprised if we in Britain would need to fake an American accent in order to get the damned thing working.

I'm just waiting for MS to come out and tell everyone the Xbone only actually works for whoever led the voice-interface team.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

You know, when I read that the DRM was gone, I was a little sad.
After hearing all that MS was doing and how they kept digging themselves deeper, I was expecting the rest of the year to be a slow motion train wreck for the X-Bone, but with with the 180 MS made, I didn't get the sweet payoff at the end.

But at this rate, I'll get my horrible crash after all!

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

I wonder if the XBone can recognize 'redneck' accents? Seriously, even in upstate New York...we have people like that.

All in all, this bit of news just made me giggle a little and helped to remind me how shallow Microsoft's thinking on the XBone is.

 

[Antari]

You see Microsoft, this shit storm your dealing with. It is what happens when you are caught in a LIE.

 

[search_rip]

If accents were an issue, the thing wouldn't be supported in the UK at launch. Have you heard a Scouser accent? Sheesh.

Seriously though, this is pretty bad. I mean, 5 countries? It's the 'future' of video games, but one of the things you're touting, voice control, is only gonna work in 5 countries?

it would also not work in the US, people in Loussiana, Missisipi, Texas, Brooklyn, Utah, etc. surely have diferent accents... I swear it feels like Microsoft does not want us to buy it's new console, anyway, I have enough of this downward spiral news I will be canceling my Xbone pre-order later on today...


Edit: aaah ninja'd by CrazyCapnMorgan about the US accents

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

Whatever the reason, it raises some serious doubts about just how effective the Xbox One voice command system will be, and it really doesn't look good on Microsoft, which at this point appears to be trapped in a flat spin of climbdowns and PR disasters.

Dear Microsoft,
If you can't walk the walk, don't talk the talk.

Half a year later and it sounds like all xbox complaints are back to square 'One.'

 

[Teoes]

Feature required
Feature not required
Launching in 21 countries
Launching in 13 countries
Voice commands limited to 5 countries
Voice commands actually work in ? countries

I would almost be willing to bet a sizable amount of my next payslip that when it actually is launched, much of the UK finds it has to make do without the voice commands due to their accent. I don't imagine the story will be much different in the other four locales.

 

[Andy Chalk]

The accent thing was just a guess - I know regional accents can be awfully thick, but I can't imagine any other reason why english-speaking (and german-speaking) countries would be excluded. I'm certainly open to other ideas.

 

[SonOfMethuselah]

You know, I'd almost be willing to bet the money that Microsoft would have wanted me to put down on an Xbox One that the voice commands are only going to work in very small parts of those five areas. Why? As people have already pointed out: accents.

You have a myriad of accents that exist across Canada, the U.S and the U.K, despite the fact all (or a large majority, in the case of Canada) of those areas are English speaking, you've got two completely different French dialects in Quebec and France, which I'm almost certain Microsoft will not have taken into account, because most people from outside Canada seem to assume Quebecers speak Parisian French (and that's disregarding the different accents that undoubtedly exist in both of those dialects as well), not to mention the fact that Microsoft have not yet demonstrated that the Kinect 2.0 is going to recognize voices any better than the current Kinect, where the voice recognition is about as accurate as throwing a dart with your eyes closed after being spun around a half-dozen times.

That said, Microsoft could actually use this to help themselves a little bit. The console is supposed to be launching in something like thirteen countries, correct? But this tells us that, of those launch regions, only five of them will have access to voice commands. Okay, you're being very restrictive about a promised feature, but you know what? You're proving here that localization can be worked on after the console launches. So you know what you do? Get a version of the Xbox One localized for at least as many areas as the PlayStation 4 is launching in, if not more, with the promise of more features to be added later. As long as the thing functions properly as a gaming console, there will be people who don't mind waiting for the extra stuff. This will give you an increased launch market, and will at least make it look like you're trying, which, right now, I'm honestly not sure of.

 

[Vivi22]

Makes a big deal about Kinect and voice commands and charges $100 extra for the privilege.

Voice commands only work in five countries.

It's like they're trying to fuck up as badly as possible.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

I find it weird that they can't get the voice commands working on launch in all English speaking markets, no love for the Irish, Aussies and New Zealanders I guess. And no Spanish support at all which seems even more strange, I mean it's not like its one of the most common languages spoken in the world or anything.

If accents were an issue, the thing wouldn't be supported in the UK at launch. Have you heard a Scouser accent? Sheesh.

Seriously though, this is pretty bad. I mean, 5 countries? It's the 'future' of video games, but one of the things you're touting, voice control, is only gonna work in 5 countries?

In my experience electronics have a better time understanding my scouse accent than most people do. That said I now want a localised Xbox that I can switch on by saying "A'right Xbox la"

Of course the real test for Xbox One will be Glasgow. If the voice commands work there, they'll work anywhere regardless of what language they speak

 

[DiamanteGeeza]

Having written voice recognition software myself in years gone by, I can attest to the fact that it is very, very hard indeed, especially when you have to factor in other countries' lauguages, and even other dialects in the same language. When Mattrick was spouting the voice command 'features' on stage at launch (and his console was being operated by a guy backstage using a controller - there's no way they'd leave something as dangerous as voice commands live on stage to chance) I immediately thought of the myriad problems that would accompany this.

My guess is that if you have a neutral accent in any of the supported languages, you'll be okay (and by 'neutral' for America, I mean west coast). All you need to screw up voice commands is a different inflection, a heavy accent, or a bit of noise in the background. The voice commands that everybody hates when you dial your bank or whatever are extremely sophisticated in terms of the software, but they're still crap and can't understand most people for most of the time.

It's simply a really, really difficult problem to solve, nobody has properly solved it yet, nobody really wants it (I'd rather just press a button), and MS have used this massive can of worms as one of their USPs of the console. Nice work.

 

[maxben]

If accents were an issue, the thing wouldn't be supported in the UK at launch. Have you heard a Scouser accent? Sheesh.

Seriously though, this is pretty bad. I mean, 5 countries? It's the 'future' of video games, but one of the things you're touting, voice control, is only gonna work in 5 countries?

Man, as a Canadian, if this machine can understand a Newfie accent I will be super impressed. I'm not even convinced that they speak English over there!