Support NeoGAF

[speculawyer]

1) Pretty much anyone interested in using a Kinect in the Netherlands can speak English.

2) Who gives a shit? It is Kinect . . . it was so important that they cut it from the base product in a rush move.

 

[Stare-Bear]

Why does Microsoft do everything with the littlest effort as possible. They're not even trying to get people to buy an xbox one in Europe. The thing is dead on arrival in The Netherlands to be honest. We've had surplus stock from Germany for months and months on end, not selling at all. And now with the official launch they're half assing it again.


Is there anything known about tv features? Like one-guide working with all the different cable providers in The Netherland?

 

[Delusibeta]

Kaz: *laughs*

But seriously, this makes a mockery of their excuses for delaying it in the first place.

 

[mrklaw]

1) Pretty much anyone interested in using a Kinect in the Netherlands can speak English.

Which apparently isn't allowed if they want to use the dutch store or have dutch language settings...

 

[Majine]

One way to look at it, now dutch people can safely choose US and English and enjoy the about 40% cheaper US Xbox Store.

 

[Ray Wonder]

Wow reading these posts is tough. The hate is deeeep in here, for good reason I guess. It doesn't effect me, so I can't get too angry about it. It sucks though. Should definitely have been done considering that's the supposed reason it was delayed.

 

[Deleted member 13876]

One way to look at it, now dutch people can safely choose US and English and enjoy the about 40% cheaper US Xbox Store.

Unless they IP block stuff. Can't exactly recall how the situation was last gen. Some stuff seemed to be IP blocked, my Japanese account got banned when they realized I wasn't Japanese, but I did download some stuff on a US account.

Now that we're airing general frustration. Bring back 1 vs 100 AND don't region lock it.

 

[The Dutch Slayer]

One way to look at it, now dutch people can safely choose US and English and enjoy the about 40% cheaper US Xbox Store.

I do assume they will have a "Dutch" or Mainland EU store open this week and you don't have to go to the other country store anymore.
So still out of luck.

 

[oti]

Lets just say there's a reason he went to Germany and never came back. Most people probably don't even remember who he is.

I happen to know him well because I live in a German-centric part of NL and grew up on German television.

Really? Wow, I never knew. Skimmed through the German Wikipedia article, didn't see anything too bad. Maybe I shouldn't look it up at all.

 

[Majine]

I do assume they will have a "Dutch" or Mainland EU store open this week and you don't have to go to the other country store anymore.

Yeah, it's online (or atleast, other Tier 2 stores are). But why would you?

 

[Raist]

So insane. If you know you have a weakness, work around the damn thing

I have absolutely no idea why they made it that way. It makes zero sense.

 

[Nokterian]

Nope, language and billing region are seen as one. So Netherlands-Dutch or Belgium-Dutch / Belgium-French are the only options. No mix and match.

Dutch-speaking users in Belgium are also faced with French achievements for non-localized games, since Microsoft views it as French-speaking country. It's a mess.

And to think panello thought Eurozone was 1 zone. Good job microsoft for not giving people options.

 

[Jomjom]

They should have just done a global launch. Who cares about languages. Nobody gives two shits about Kinect no matter what language they speak.

 

[Harmen]

As a Dutch person, I do not think this is a problem at all. Most Dutch people know the language very well.

That said, I do think the younger generations will probably be worse as most of the entertainment aimed at children is dubbed/translated nowadays, whereas most of the cartoons were subtitled when I was younger. For the games they usually did not even bother. Pokemon kind of taught me English, in fact.

 

[SerTapTap]

Unless they IP block stuff. Can't exactly recall how the situation was last gen. Some stuff seemed to be IP blocked, my Japanese account got banned when they realized I wasn't Japanese, but I did download some stuff on a US account.

Now that we're airing general frustration. Bring back 1 vs 100 AND don't region lock it.

They ban for that? I only have a Japanese Xbox 360. Guess I don't buy anything digital anyway

 

[Deleted member 125677]

No one understands dutch, is it even a real language or some made up gibberish like danish?

 

[Deleted member 13876]

They ban for that? I only have a Japanese Xbox 360. Guess I don't buy anything digital anyway

I lost that account. I think it had improper address details and they banned based on that in combination with the foreign IP. Only demos on it thankfully.

 

[Kuni]

The original plan for the bone was so flawed. With all the countries, languages, accents, slang, etc... the kinect plan was always a bit of a shiny bauble lie in my eyes. And then there's the tv providers! Every country has multiple tv providers all with different boxes and uis, etc... Was never viable and as I say a shiny tactic,

So sadly I'm not surprised by this.

 

[son of a Sven]

Dutch people speak better English than most English and Americans.

Gramatically, sure. However, Dutch people sound like a cat expelling a hair ball. Kinect could never distinguish words among all that noise.

 

[Bloodrage]

Just launching for sales sake then huh? Times is tough. Too bad everyone already went with PS4.

 

[Prophet Steve]

Gramatically, sure. However, Dutch people sound like a cat expelling a hair ball. Kinect could never distinguish words among all that noise.

Well, thanks.

Too bad that Kinect is a piece of shit then, since Microsoft's Cortana seems to have very little trouble understanding me even though I have an accent.

 

[Killer]

So why did they delay the launch there? It really doesn't make sense.

 

[Aiii]

Gramatically, sure. However, Dutch people sound like a cat expelling a hair ball. Kinect could never distinguish words among all that noise.

Sp explain all the Dutch people that have succesful American careers in acting, Rutger Hauer, Michel Huisman, Carice van Houten, Famke Jansen, among others. Considering there are all of 17 million total of us, that is quite a track record.

 

[Kyougar]

This is one Point I made yesterday in the Germany 6to1 demand thread, as to why Xbox is failing in Germany:

- Microsoft mindshare in Germany is: Functions and Hardware comes out months or years later then in US. Microsoft is not a global corporation, it is a America first corporation. Everything except Windows and Office comes out later then in the US.

And Today proves my point for the dutch.

 

[Caayn]

Why doesn't this surprise me at all?

No one understands dutch, is it even a real language or some made up gibberish like danish?

It's made up just like the monster of Log Ness and companies that care more about the consumer than their wallets. We speak gibberish to fool foreign people but actually we communicate via subtle changes in our face. One wrong movement and before you know it you're married or end up in a sewage dump beneath Amsterdam.

Gramatically, sure. However, Dutch people sound like a cat expelling a hair ball. Kinect could never distinguish words among all that noise.

At least my Kinect understands my English. Did you try to take yours out of the box?

 

[GavinGT]

Well, thanks.

Too bad that Kinect is a piece of shit then, since Microsoft's Cortana seems to have very little trouble understanding me even though I have an accent.

Now try and do that from 12 feet away with all sorts of background noise.

 

[Toki767]

Now try and do that from 12 feet away with all sorts of background noise.

Phones have multiple mics to drown out background noise too...

 

[Out_Of_Ammo]

Gramatically, sure. However, Dutch people sound like a cat expelling a hair ball. Kinect could never distinguish words among all that noise.

You watched Austin Powers, didn't you?

 

[EvB]

Well, thanks.

Too bad that Kinect is a piece of shit then, since Microsoft's Cortana seems to have very little trouble understanding me even though I have an accent.

Are you dutch and are you talking dutch to it?

 

[Green Yoshi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_OQhtgClDE (You lie so beautifully)
Microsoft again. ;-)

Do they sell only the 399€ Xbox One without Kinect or both versions?

 

[GunslingerVit]

Famke Jansen

She's from Holland? Always thought to be of Scandinavian heritage. Nice.

 

[Nemme]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_OQhtgClDE (You lie so beautifully)
Microsoft again. ;-)

Do they sell only the 399€ Xbox One without Kinect or both versions?

Only the Xbox One without the Kinect. There's a day one edition with Kinect but it's not available (sold out?) anymore.

Edit: The day one edition with Kinect are still available at a few stores.

 

[Stare-Bear]

Gramatically, sure. However, Dutch people sound like a cat expelling a hair ball. Kinect could never distinguish words among all that noise.

Have you ever hear someone speak with a Scottish accent? Of scouse?

 

[oti]

Full stop. As a fluent German speaker myself I have to defend Dutch. It's the most adorable language ever.

 

[Daviii]

If google can make a supper accurate voice recognition in 5 simultaneous mixed languages in a bottom tier snapdragon running Android I guess Microsoft can fucking make the Xbox One understand the fucking Dutch accent for 20 fucking different words.

 

[VibratingDonkey]

I expected the voice recognition would work like shit and wasn't going to get a Kinect anyway, so if there's no voice control in Sweden I care about as much as Microsoft cares about Sweden.

I'm more annoyed by the poor allocation of Day One SKUs. I assumed they'd actually be available to buy on day one, but all online retailers run out of stock over a week ago.

 

[EvB]

If google can make a supper accurate voice recognition in 5 simultaneous mixed languages in a bottom tier snapdragon running Android I guess Microsoft can fucking make the Xbox One understand the fucking Dutch accent for 20 fucking different words.

But do they support Dutch?

No.

Also that voice processing isn't done by the phone, so the CPU is irrevelant.

 

[Daviii]

But do they support Dutch?

No.

Also that voice processing isn't done by the phone, so the CPU is irrevelant.

So... Nice chance to use the power of the cloud.

 

[Orniletter]

there are a pallets of german xbones rotting all over europe.
you can buy imported XB1 and games in most stores, but nobody does and the official launch won't change that.

I still don't get how they thought Germany of all countries would need a fuckton of Xbone stock.

It is like they decided that it would be a runaway success...and then acted accordingly...without any research or analysis.

 

[Hanmik]

Denmark was also a tier 1 dropout .And it doesn't look like it will support Danish for kinect voice control .

http://www.xboxlife.dk/news/11749/ubekrftet-xbox-one-understtter-ikke-dansk-stemmestyring.html

 

[roytheone]

Full stop. As a fluent German speaker myself I have to defend Dutch. It's the most adorable language ever.

Dank je! Duits is ook best wel een leuke taal!

OT: so if they didn't delay the launch because of translation work, then why? I don't think they have supply issues, I always see those pictures of stores that still have a shitload of xbones in stock.

 

[Stare-Bear]

But to be fair, I don't think the Dutch will support the xbox one either...

 

[mrtoaster]

Same thing here in Finland.

 

[Caayn]

Full stop. As a fluent German speaker myself I have to defend Dutch. It's the most adorable language ever.

Uhmm thanks... I guess?

So if they didn't delay the launch because of translation work, then why? I don't think they have supply issues, I always see those pictures of stores that still have a shitload of xbones in stock.

This was posted by Albert Penello in August of 2013 explaining that localization entails more than just voice recognition..

I’m going to state it again, just like I said here and to OXM: The delay was localization related. Besides needing local language support, we also need to prop-up local Live, Apps, a Marketplace, and a variety of other services. We bundle that together as “localization” in messaging, but there is more to shipping in a region then text and voice translation. The offset to that, like we’ve said, X1 is region free and while that’s slightly more inconvenient, it will still allow people in the local countries to enjoy launch. Again, not something we’d be promoting if we were having issues with volume.

 

[3bdelilah]

Luckily I didn't plan on buying an XBO until at least the last two years of the gen, otherwise I'd consider this a huge middle-finger in the face. Unless I've been misinformed, the initial delayed launch was because they wanted to take extra time to guarantee localisation (e.g. language settings, which, by the way, were awfully half-hearted on the X360), and that "some countries, like the Netherlands, unfortunately aren't Tier-1". Completely understandable of course, no reason to pull out the big guns when there isn't as much return on investment as the US, but to pull this shit is really beyond me.

Again, wasn't even slightly interested in the first place, just wanted to share my views. I'd say last gen was pretty even in the Netherlands, maybe a little in favour of PS3. But PS4 is really going to obliterate the XBO here, it's not even funny anymore.

 

[Prophet Steve]

Now try and do that from 12 feet away with all sorts of background noise.

I think I have used voice commands with the original Kinect too, it went...okay. But I assume the software and hardware is better this time. Also Cortana seemed to still work with four people talking in a car, it took a while, but I was impressed.

Are you dutch and are you talking dutch to it?

I am pretty sure it doesn't have Dutch support, so I use the English version. And I am Dutch.

 

[mrklaw]

Now try and do that from 12 feet away with all sorts of background noise.

Cortana can hear me fine while I'm doing 80mph on the motorway with lots of road noise. Kinect is just worse for a smaller vocabulary. I assume it is related to speed - cortana can use the web to analyse what you are saying but kinect needs to respond instantly so probably needs to do that offline

 

[Chobel]

Same thing here in Finland.

Kinect doesn't support Finnish language? Source?

 

[Dommel]

I don't give a rat's ass about Dutch voice commands or a Dutch UI in general but not being able to switch the UI to english without getting locked out of the local store is very annoying.

Who thinks up stuff like this? Are they doing it to specifically annoy us?

I don't want Dutch on my screen, nobody does (unless you're 12).

 

[drotahorror]

Hearing this news:

Who is that?