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Only 5 countries will have full Xbone voice commands at launch [Update in OP]

Skeff

Member
That's why it took me so long to get back to everyone. I got a very interesting refresher on how Voice works in the system, which parts are local, which parts use "the cloud" (back-end LIVE services) to process, etc.

It was actually really interesting, but summarizing it all up in text would be confusing. We decided a grid was easier, so the Marketing team is working on it.

<editorializing> - when I look at the chart, it feels like the vast majority of what we have talked about as voice support (like "Xbox, go to Ryse") works in all 8 languages. There are handful of exceptions.

And people laughed at me when I said the kinect would use natural language proccessing online. Thanks for the clarification. Out of curiosity, will "the cloud" parts require Xbox live Gold?
 

Caayn

Member
1KlcMyB.gif


(thanks Garrett 2U)


First, people should understand – I don’t always know every detail happening with the program. Even though I run Product Planning (I'm not in PR!), that means we set the stage early for the features and HW, but a lot happens going through the development process. I stay very close as we approach launch, but I don’t always know the specifics when things change, so sometimes (frequently) I have to ask someone on the team. I also don’t run PR or Marketing, so I don’t see every piece of material that makes it to the public. In this case, there was an inconsistency between some small print on Xbox.com, and what I understood was happening – so I went to get more details.

Turns out the answer to this question is… complicated. It’s been an education for me as I’ve been looking into it.

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. Trying to write it down would be confusing. Stay tuned for a more detailed explanation, but just to give clarity:

In November
- We will launch in 13 geos
- 10 of those geos will support some voice features
- We support 8 languages

The 8 Languages at Launch are:
1) English – US
2) English – GB (WW)
3) French
4) Spanish – MX
5) Spanish – ES
6) Italian
7) German
8) Portuguese

NOW – the nuance to this is that some voice *features* won’t be available in all countries right away. “Xbox On”, for instance, is only available in 5 (hence the confusion on Xbox.com in the small print).

BigDug13 – the FAQ is correct, for launch. When you choose a language for your console, you will be offered the list of countries it is supported in. Using your example, if you choose Italy as your language, you only get Italian. We will continue to add more supported combinations over time. For example in Canada we will support English and French. The opportunity to “mix-and-match” languages and countries is something we’re looking to do post-launch.

Again, sorry for all the confusion on this. Look for a more detailed explanation coming. Will most likely come through Xbox Wire, or Xbox.com.
Thanks for the clarification.

Does this mean that the dashboard/system language can be set to a different language from the locale. Like we currently can on the Xbox 360?
 
That's why it took me so long to get back to everyone. I got a very interesting refresher on how Voice works in the system, which parts are local, which parts use "the cloud" (back-end LIVE services) to process, etc.

It was actually really interesting, but summarizing it all up in text would be confusing. We decided a grid was easier, so the Marketing team is working on it.

<editorializing> - when I look at the chart, it feels like the vast majority of what we have talked about as voice support (like "Xbox, go to Ryse") works in all 8 languages. There are handful of exceptions.
Sounds good. You are really doing a good job. MS should clone you :D
 
And people laughed at me when I said the kinect would use natural language proccessing online. Thanks for the clarification. Out of curiosity, will "the cloud" parts require Xbox live Gold?
Does that mean that the voice features won't work if you aren't connected to Live?
 
To be fair, it sounds like he just means that the OP in itself is not entirely true in its most broad stroke, that some of these voice-related features will be available to those outside of the five tier-one countries.

...Now, what those actually end up being, who the hell knows. The vague PR speak is a carefully crafted tango, after all.

I made fun of the part where he categorically denied the assumption of a poster, only to then detail that the assumption was correct albeit with minor differences. Nothing against the post.

The PR speak is indeed confusing at times. I wish Albert worked there.


LMAO
 

Moozo

Member
NOW – the nuance to this is that some voice *features* won’t be available in all countries right away. “Xbox On”, for instance, is only available in 5 (hence the confusion on Xbox.com in the small print).

This made me laugh. How hard can it be to add the word 'on' in 11 different languages?
 

Theonik

Member
NOW – the nuance to this is that some voice *features* won’t be available in all countries right away. “Xbox On”, for instance, is only available in 5 (hence the confusion on Xbox.com in the small print).
"Xbox One cannot be turned on in 8 of the 13 launch countries" get Kotaku on the phone.
 

AlphaDump

Gold Member
I'm interested in their SDLC approach. Normally, in my experience, these things are meticulously analyzed in the most early phases, and tested extensively at the unit/module level, and as a whole. No way would this issue would just spring up. If it did, I would assume rushed development.

There is actually a good amount of time to get a lot of change requests in before they go live. It's crazy what people can put out during "crunch time", especially when jobs are on the line.
 

Guevara

Member
So...maybe this is a stupid comment but Kinect only really works for some things when it has an internet connection. I thought voice control stuff was all local. I certainly see why it's more complicated to get phone-home type access in every country at launch.
 
Why does English get broken up into US/UK but us Australians get left out in the cold. Damn Americans get all the attention. Could have supported 9 languages.

:(

;)
 
I actually genuinely feel for Albert Penello in this topic... he's like the Major Nelson in this situation, claiming they can't do 180s because he genuinely believes that and has been told that, and then something like this happens.

But it goes to show... shit is still very messy and fluid right now at Microsoft. They are still not ready, simply put.

BS.

The original Kinect launch was exactly the same way. I don't think this behavior is anything new for Microsoft:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...-voice-recognition-disabled-until-spring-2011

No Euro Kinect voice rec until spring 2011

By Robert Purchese Published Wednesday, 1 September 2010

Microsoft has told Eurogamer Spain that Kinect voice recognition will be disabled for mainland Europe until spring 2011.

The company confirmed rumours that the voice-recognition software will only accept American English, British English, Japanese and Mexican Spanish at launch this November. Even Canadians will have to wait until spring 2011 to be able to control the system via voice.

Deja vu.

This is not unusual for Microsoft, this is exactly how Microsoft always works. If you are familiar with Bing, Windows Phone, Xbox video/music, etc. they always are slow to roll out services to the rest of the world. If you consider this "messy" and "not ready" then Microsoft is always "messy" and "not ready."
 

Barzul

Member
Hey Albert got an ETA of when that chart might be up, any chance of seeing it today? Oh and will you be at PAX? Seems like you guys still have a few suprises for us, going by one of Major Nelson's recent blog posts.
 

EvB

Member
So why the hell does Xbox on only work in 5 countries? i'm no sound engineer or anything but just record the damn voices.

Yeah Albert , just record the damn voices....


I mean, I'm not sound engineer, but can't you just squeeze Steve Ballmer inside the cloud and have him translate voice commands to keystrokes 24/7?
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
This is not unusual for Microsoft, this is exactly how Microsoft always works. If you are familiar with Bing, Windows Phone, Xbox video/music, etc. they always are slow to roll out services to the rest of the world. If you consider this "messy" and "not ready" then Microsoft is always "messy" and "not ready."
Come on now. Even MS should understand how to retain functionality going from 1.0 to 2.0

Which, incidentally, is also supposed to be a particular benefit of the cloud...
 
Hey Albert got an ETA of when that chart might be up, any chance of seeing it today? Oh and will you be at PAX? Seems like you guys still have a few suprises for us, going by one of Major Nelson's recent blog posts.

I'll be at PAX of Friday, and I'm at the UW Microsoft store tonight for Major's meet-up.
 

Raist

Banned
If "Xbox on" is only supported in 5 countries, you might as well deduce that voice recognition will only be supported in 5 countries as the OP (and thus Microsoft's own website) says, because if it can't get something THAT basic and simple it won't get anything.

It really is not "complicated" and there's nothing to "understand" (pulling an Iwata and Square in the same post. Nice.)
 
Hey Albert got an ETA of when that chart might be up, any chance of seeing it today? Oh and will you be at PAX? Seems like you guys still have a few suprises for us, going by one of Major Nelson's recent blog posts.

I think you might be looking at one of them. :p
 
BS.

The original Kinect launch was exactly the same way. I don't think this behavior is anything new for Microsoft:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...-voice-recognition-disabled-until-spring-2011

Deja vu.

This is not unusual for Microsoft, this is exactly how Microsoft always works. If you are familiar with Bing, Windows Phone, Xbox video/music, etc. they always are slow to roll out services to the rest of the world. If you consider this "messy" and "not ready" then Microsoft is always "messy" and "not ready."

Incredible how you come to the conclusion that they're not ready, and spin it as a good thing. Then again, power of the cloud, everyone has internet access and whatnot, right?
 

Somnia

Member
If "Xbox on" is only supported in 5 countries, you might as well deduce that voice recognition will only be supported in 5 countries as the OP (and thus Microsoft's own website) says, because if it can't get something THAT basic and simple it won't get anything.

It really is not "complicated" and there's nothing to "understand" (pulling an Iwata and Square in the same post. Nice.)

Did you read Alberts recent posts that stuff like "Xbox, go to Ryse" works in all 8 languages?

We'll know more later when that chart arrives.
 

Barzul

Member
If "Xbox on" is only supported in 5 countries, you might as well deduce that voice recognition will only be supported in 5 countries as the OP (and thus Microsoft's own website) says, because if it can't get something THAT basic and simple it won't get anything.

It really is not "complicated" and there's nothing to "understand" (pulling an Iwata and Square in the same post. Nice.)
Why not just wait for the chart before making blanket statements?
 
To be perfectly honest, that's not terribly far from the mark.

Fair enough, I would be pissed if I had to wait for service features in other countries. My anger would only be tempered by knowing the amount of time I have to wait for those features. If it's a few months it's disappointing, but not a big deal, if it's a year or more then I would be pretty angry.

I don't like the implication on either end that Microsoft didn't know this was going to happen again (yeah right). How many times can Microsoft do something like this before you begin to realize it's not an accident?

Incredible how you come to the conclusion that they're not ready, and spin it as a good thing. Then again, power of the cloud, everyone has internet access and whatnot, right?

I believe you failed to understand anything I was saying. They're "ready," this is what "ready" looks like at Microsoft if you are familiar with their history of product releases and services.
 

Nokterian

Member
BS.

The original Kinect launch was exactly the same way. I don't think this behavior is anything new for Microsoft:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...-voice-recognition-disabled-until-spring-2011



Deja vu.

This is not unusual for Microsoft, this is exactly how Microsoft always works. If you are familiar with Bing, Windows Phone, Xbox video/music, etc. they always are slow to roll out services to the rest of the world. If you consider this "messy" and "not ready" then Microsoft is always "messy" and "not ready."

They said the same thing for the netherlands..it never came. Not did i bother to buy kinect but promising something 3 years ago and still not here is to me huge false promise.
 
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