No Euro Kinect voice rec until spring

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.

Frustratingly, even those fluent in English - or Spanish speakers that can imitate Mexican Spanish - won't be allowed to activate Kinect voice recognition due to the region-locked status of their Xbox 360.

Microsoft went on to explain that the decision to support Mexican Spanish and not native Spanish was a case of numbers: there are 106 million Spanish speakers in the US and 13 million Mexicans with consoles. And that compares favourably to the 45 million people in Spain.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...il-spring-2011