Kinect kintroversy: voice kintrol not kinnected for Aussies, 'kinell!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 19 November 2010 15:31

Your IT - Entertainment

Microsoft's motion-controlled Kinect accessory for the Xbox 360 has come with some local kintroversy baked in: although voice controls work when you connect to a US Xbox Live account, they don't work with an Aussie account, so no voice controls for you, cobber, until next year!

Kin you believe it? Microsoft's amazing Kinect, where you are the kintroller, has hit a kink in the road.

Voice control functionality is not available in Australia, and won't turn up until early next year at the earliest!

This is despite users in Australia who happen to have US Xbox Live accounts being able to log in and use the voice commands easily enough, despite our 'Australian' accents.

Of course, as one of the world's most multicultural countries, accents heard in Australia probably surpass those heard in the United Nations, and even for those who aren't immigrants, there are several Australian accents down under, depending on your upbringing, education and place of birth.

Microsoft's Australian Xbox Category Manager, Adam Pollington, told Kotaku that Microsoft was gathering Australian accents now to give Australians a 'premium experience' which would take until early next year - at the earliest - before being locally switched on.

Sadly this is coming after Kinect has locally launched, and despite Microsoft's Australian Kinect page at Microsoft's Aussie Xbox site saying in the 'Use Your Voice' section that: 'Kinect uses advanced entertainment technology to respond to the sound of your voice. Just say 'Xbox' to reveal a series of voice commands. So you'll be able to control HD movies with the sound of your voice'”no remote required.'

So, it's nice to see that voice commands are indeed coming, but it's a shame that Microsoft waited until AFTER it launched in Australia to start tweaking and perfecting the service for local voice patterns.

And it's a shame that people found out about it AFTER they purchased their Kinects.

So'¦ this is definitely some kintroversy that Microsoft locally was probably expecting to come out sooner rather than later, but if Microsoft wants its users to feel the company is almost like a virtual next-of-kin and truly 'kinect' with Microsoft, being a bit more upfront wouldn't have hurt.

After all, the meat of the Kinect experience comes in the full motion control using your body, not saying a few commands here and there, but Microsoft will works these kinks out the system soon enough.

Until then, Microsoft's success with Kinect will undoubtedly kintinue, with the motion gaming revolution now truly only missing from one place: old fashioned PC gaming!