Microsoft's product manager for Xbox, Albert Penello, has revealed on NeoGAF that a potential hindrence to those looking to import an Xbox One from another country is that Kinect voice commands are region locked.
Asked if English could be chosen for UI and voice commands in Germany Penello commented "Voice is locked to the region. So no, unfortunately."
The Xbox One was originally intended for release in 21 countries this week but Microsoft delayed the console's launch in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland.
Players who choose to import the console to those countries will not be able to use the Kinect functionalities unless they are fluent in English, French or German which are the supported languages at launch.
Microsoft delayed the rollout in order to improve Kinect voice compatibility in those regions. However, voice control will only be available in 10 of the 13 countries in which the Xbox One is being released this week while the "Xbox: on" command from standby mode will only work in five initially.
