Kinect loves the British accent

One of the reasons Microsoft has been so adamant about including the Kinect motion tracking camera in its Xbox One bundles, is that it'll give the console voice recognition right out of the box. However, that's all well and good if you're in Britain, where voice commands will be usable on launch day – elsewhere, that's not the case.

While the UK, US, Canada, France and Germany will all be able to chat away to our Xbox like it's our new best friend, many other territories won't be able to – that includes the English speaking colonies down under. However, another handful of countries will get some vocal functionality, including Portugal, Spain, Mexico and Italy, though it's not clear if people will be able to do more than just turn it on and off with a quick Fus-Ro-Dah.

Soon all Xbox One gamers will be able to shout at their TV, in their huge, empty, white rooms – like we all have, obviously. 

“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,” said Microsoft's director of product planning in a NeoGAF post (via Eurogamer). “Trying to write it down would be confusing. Stay tuned for a more detailed explanation.”

The officially supported language at launch will be: English (US), English (UK), French, Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Italian, German, Portuguese. But not all of these will have full functionality. He's right, it is confusing.

KitGuru Says: It will be interesting to think what Kinect 2.0 thinks of some of the UK's thicker accents. I really struggle to understand a strong Irish accent, but then again, people probably say the same for the West Country drawl that I dip into now and again. 

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