Microsoft confirmed today that Kinect will only work with 3 languages when it launches in November; English, Japanese and Mexican Spanish, meaning the peripheral will turn a deaf ear should you happen to speak any other language.
It’ll be a good few months until support for other languages to be supported. If you’re thinking, “Hey, I speak English..this isn’t going to affect me at all,†prepare to be disappointed.
Kinect will apparently ‘lock out’ regions that have not yet been granted official language support until Autumn next year – even if they list one of the three supported languages among their official languages. With 11 official languages in South Africa, it may be a while before support comes along.
Of course this couldn’t be true though..We speak English, right? Well, no. We contacted Microsoft SA’s Yvette Van Rooyen asking whether we’d have voice support at launch.
This was her reply :
No – it won’t be available at launch, there is no communication at the moment saying when it will be rolled out in SA. However you will be able to name your animal in Kinectimals via voice recognition.
There you go, then. You’ll be able to call your tiger skittles, but you won’t be able to turn your console on  and control it using only the power of your manly voice.
Last Updated: September 1, 2010
Nick de Bruyne
September 1, 2010 at 14:29
Wow… this is just stupid. Kinect is really starting to lose its appeal quickly in these parts.
Uberutang
September 1, 2010 at 14:47
Epic, Massive, Huge Fail.
Christo Le Grange
September 1, 2010 at 14:48
F*K DIT!….pardon my Afrikaans….Useless!blerrie useless, what kind of a foothold do they expect to have with sh!t service like that!!!!
Fox1
September 1, 2010 at 15:03
Wonders if it will take another 4 years for Kinect to get official voice support locally??? :blink:
Squirrely
September 1, 2010 at 15:21
“Hola, pezula, pezula, pezula, panzi, heita!! “
Gavin Mannion
September 1, 2010 at 15:48
I don’t understand the logic behind this, surely allowing South Africans and Australians to use English voice commands is easier than configuring Kinect to understand Manchurian and Cockney?
Sir James of Kotick
September 1, 2010 at 15:56
Perhaps, it is as I have suspected all these many years… the Standard South Africa English accent is far too difficult to understand.
“Keenect, pleeze uhn nooew, bleddy agent izzint wurrkun! Fokkin kak!” :happy:
Sir James of Kotick
September 1, 2010 at 15:59
Biltong would be a better name for a virtual tiger. By the way, can you only have a tiger, because I wouldn’t mind a kinectimal frog?
Sir James of Kotick
September 1, 2010 at 16:01
Don’t forget Ms. Yvette also promised us xbox live all those many years ago, and I’ll only believe it once I see it. :happy:
Grant Hinds
September 1, 2010 at 16:08
Just a thought: Should we just keep our international Live accounts then? They seem to still have all the good stuff.
Gavin Mannion
September 1, 2010 at 16:10
Ah but to be fair it wasn’t Yvette who made those promises… It was the person before the person who Yvette replaced
D4RKL1NG
September 1, 2010 at 16:12
I wonder if it will so still be able to recognize my middle finger at launch? :face:
Sir James of Kotick
September 1, 2010 at 16:26
My apologies Ms Yvette. :blush: I really thought you were guilty too. Thank you Gav, that’ll teach me not to double check and to refrain from pickling my liver this early in the day.
easy
September 1, 2010 at 16:31
kinect says noooo… *cough*
Sir James of Kotick
September 1, 2010 at 16:34
I’m not really sure, because it depends on how MS is going to do the transfer. I’m hoping that they’re not going to be lazy about it, and just “bulk swop” us based on IP, and at least make it voluntary.
I would like to keep my main account tied to the old country, and create a separate ZA account to see if we actually get content support, and whether local live would be worth it in the long run.
Nick de Bruyne
September 1, 2010 at 16:36
We will still be region locked no matter what
Onelargeprawn
September 1, 2010 at 16:40
Am I bovvered though?
Sir James of Kotick
September 1, 2010 at 16:49
Don’t even get me started on region-locking, I’m frighteningly close to hulking out and loosing the plot since rumour has it that Dead Rising 2 Case Zero has been region-locked.
I got to 89% last night, before it stopped downloading, and all my attempts to get it started again this morning failed miserably. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to restart it this evening, especially since I actually broke my boycott and even bought freaking microsoft points for it :dizzy: .
It’s a sign, I tell you. :cwy: :face:
Sir James of Kotick
September 1, 2010 at 16:50
HAL: Stop Dave, I’m afraid!
😎
Fox1
September 1, 2010 at 16:58
Haha! Xbox bites back.
Sir James of Kotick
September 1, 2010 at 17:28
Meh! Seems I’m not the only one with this problem…
http://forums.xbox.com/34049945/ShowPost.aspx
Fucking M$, I should have stuck by my boycott. :angry:
ewie
September 1, 2010 at 19:19
bobby – kickstart the VPN.
Dead rising is fun fun fun.
Fox1
September 2, 2010 at 10:04
Seems like most regions will have voice support by Spring 2011(MS timing). Article is due for an update :pinch:
Geoffrey Tim
September 2, 2010 at 10:16
“Kinect will apparently ‘lock out’ regions that have not yet been granted official language support until Autumn next year”
Their Spring is our autumn. No update necessary.
Fox1
September 2, 2010 at 10:55
My timings messed up :blush:
So what’s the chances of our Kinectimals being named correctly between now and Autumn? :biggrin:
Sir James vannie Kaap
September 2, 2010 at 11:38
I find it strange that Mexican Spanish (or as Americans love to call it “Meexiicaan” has been elevated above European Spanish, granted… I’ve been told that the mexican accent is more neutral then their Spanish counterparts (a bit like standard South African English is to Cockney ho ho ho!), but that has to be a kick in the nuts for the Spanish.
Sir James vannie Kaap
September 2, 2010 at 11:45
You’d think they would at least include French amongst the “Launch languages” as well, bastards… the Canadians must be ready to burn their xboxes by now. Much like the rest of us, they’ve been paying more for Live, but with not even half the benefits. Not to mention that they’re also language-locked (I guess it’s true Canadian English (ay?) is more incomprehensible then Southern hillbilly, y’all) :whistle:.
Shame on you Microsoft! pourquoi? pourquoi? pourquoi? :getlost:
easy
September 2, 2010 at 12:00
juste parce que!
Sir James vannie Kaap
September 2, 2010 at 12:30
On est d’accord, Microsoft c’est de la merde :getlost:
Sir James vannie Kaap
September 2, 2010 at 12:31
C’est vraiment!!
Aussious
September 2, 2010 at 15:35
Geez you guys are so sensitve,”Its a touch subject try not metion it”. Really though I’m starting to think that “Hardcore gamer” is a synonym for PS3 trolls and nagging grannies. Honestly if your own an XBOX 360 you’ve got great games to play as we speak not to mention one of the best libraries in the History of gaming to add to that full third party support and great exclusives coming up( Reach, Gears & Fable3). For the life of me I don’t understand why so many gamers are so insecure about Kinect to me this whole thing is a none issue because Kinect is not marketed at me atleast not at the moment. Say what you wanna say about MS but their on a roll check the chartz, they beat SONY 5 years ago and now they coming for MARIO they want some of that Wii money… :biggrin:
Sir James, Knight of Bobby Kotick
September 2, 2010 at 15:53
Honestly, Mr Gates you really don’t need to troll our site, but thanks for reminding us of your THREE exclusives. :whistle:
Aussious
September 2, 2010 at 17:23
And the sad thing is tha those 3 exclusives are going to outsells the PS3’s 20 exclusives, COMBINED.FACT! :devil:
Sir James vannie Kaap
September 3, 2010 at 20:30
MacDonalds outsells Kauai too, but I doubt anyone would say MacDonalds burgers are better than Kauai sandwiches or wraps :whistle: