Xbox Addict

Kinect voice control arriving late in several launch countries

When Xbox One launches in November, it’ll be available in 12 countries. But the much-touted Xbox One Kinect voice control will only be ready in five of those countries.

Nestled deep in its promotional material, Microsoft tells potential buyers that "Xbox voice commands will not be available in all markets on the product release date." The detail goes on to say that its voice service will only be available in the Unites States, Canada, UK, France and Germany.

That leaves the following launch nations without the service - Australia, Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and New Zealand.

Polygon has contacted Microsoft to ask when those countries will receive voice control and why the service isn’t ready for launch.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that Xbox One had been pushed back to a 2014 launch in eight countries that had previously been marked for a 2013 arrival; Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland.

At Microsoft’s Redmond unveiling of Xbox One earlier this year, the company stressed the central role played by Kinect, both as a gameplay and as a UI controller, with voice a key component of the device.

Update: Microsoft director of marketing Albert Penello confirmed in a statement on NeoGAF that the Xbox One will launch in 13 geographies, with 10 of those supporting "some voice features" and that "Xbox On" will only be available in five countries at launch.

The console will support eight languages at launch: English (U.S.), English (WW), French, Spanish (MX), Spanish (ES), Italian, German and Portuguese. Penello added that Microsoft’s marketing team is creating a chart clarifying what locales, languages and voice features are available in each country.