The extra language localisation work Xbox One requires is the key reason for the console’s delay across Russia and seven European countries, not supply problems, reports OXM.
“I think people are using the way [voice] works on Xbox 360, which was an accessory we built five years after release, as how it's going to work here,” Microsoft's head of product development, Albert Penello, told OXM. “But it's so much more elegant and so much more integrated, and in many ways it's a lot faster and more convenient. Whereas on Xbox 360 it's a lesser version of doing the thing you're used to doing on your controller.
“This is the part of the internet that's frustrating, because everybody wants to assume there's a [units volume] issue. And yet I'm showing real hardware here at Gamescom – a real, final, retail kit. Which I have yet to see my friends show me.
“People assume there's a volume issue which in fact there isn't. You're actually seeing pre-orders pop back up now because we're able allocate the countries' volumes back in. It's there, the problem is localisation. And once people see the system and how integral it is, it's not just text integration.”
Penello went on to reiterate the Xbox One is a region-free console, using Switzerland as an example of a country where gamers could import a console and not experience any problems.
“In regions like Switzerland where people speak German and French, they can get a German or French console,” said Penello. “It'll work fine. They can log in to their marketplace, use their language, we don't geo-fence Live or any of the content any more. We don't have official language support – but the console still works.”
The differences between Swiss German and German notwithstanding, with German, French, and Italian being three of the four official languages of Switzerland and the Xbox One launching in Germany, France and Italy as planned, it does seem odd Switzerland is missing out. Kinect speech recognition for Xbox 360 and Bing Voice Search is currently officially supported in Switzerland with French and German.
On August 14 Microsoft announced the Xbox One launch would be trimmed from 21 countries to 13, with the console’s official arrival in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland postponed until 2014.
In a statement the company highlighted factors like additional voice and language support and country-specific content partnerships as key factors that were determining launch timings.
Earlier today a leak suggested the Xbox One may be launched in the US on November 8.
Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can find him on IGN here or on Twitter @MrLukeReilly, or chat with him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.
Source : ign[dot]com
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