Only eight countries get Xbox One voice control at launch

Kinect control of the Xbox One will be limited to just eight of the console’s 13 launch countries in November.

Xbox One will ship with voice control support for five regions: the UK, US, Canada, France and Germany. That therefore means that the console’s other launch countries – Australia, Austria, Ireland, Mexico and New Zealand – are out of luck.

Microsoft’s official small print on the situation actually states that just five countries will be supported, but the company’s product planner Albert Penello added on Twitter that a further three will get launch day support.

There are additional limitations to this, however – only the UK, US, Canada, France and Germany will receive support for certain key functions such as the ability to activate the console by simply saying Xbox On”.

It certainly seems odd that despite being able to support the wide variety of dialects across the UK, the poor Aussies have been locked out. After all, hasn’t their summer been bad enough?