ME3's Exclusive Voice Control Excuse is Ridiculous

Voice Command. It didn't start with expensive peripherals this generation. Why, just last generation, the least powerful console had SOCOM. No, not starting with SOCOM 3, after years of getting the engine right and well enough to "squeeze" in the processing required for voice command. Nope, it started with SOCOM *ONE*. But that game used small, linear levels and......what's that? SOCOM used fairly large, fairly opened up levels? Ah, yes, that's right.

But old game systems using voice commands without aid is only the beginning of the revelations.

Tell me....what systems is Mass Effect 3 coming to? PS3 and Xbox 360. That's right. PS3 and Xbox360 only. Just those platforms. Not any others.
.....Oh yeah....PC.
Wait....so what is the barrier there? PCs built with gaming in mind with modern processors can't muster up the miniscule processing power required for voice commands that last generation and older systems no issue with?
Just how powerful IS this processor in the Kinect, then?

The Marvell PXA 168. Powerhouse of epic proportions. Enabler of technology used in games over a decade ago. The gentleman's choice of Digital Photo Frame application processor. That's right, this processor's few notable uses include being the processor of displaying pictures. The Marvell PXA 168 is an application processor, meant for menial tasks in digital devices.

In short, the claim that the internal hardware is the reason for the voice commands being only on the Xbox 360 via Kinect is balderdash, because the hardware really isn't so impressive that the ps3 couldn't handle the small task and the PC can have much better hardware to handle it anyway, and older games on older systems had no issue doing voice control without damaging the integrity of the game. From all angles, this argument is worthless. The reason for exclusivity is clearly due to a background deal, and that's fine......just don't try to insult our intelligence when making up excuses.

[SilentNegotiator]

This excuse has been busted from all angles. There is no reason why voice control shouldn't be a minor processing matter (as on games like SOCOM with large lists of possible commands) and available on the other systems, especially of which, the PC.

And I'll post this PDF first, from the company, of its theoretical uses and top specs:
http://www.marvell.com/sele...
....that I can practically guarantee it is not at in a device (kinect) that has a $50 BOM.
****Even if it were the most power application (or even non-application) processor in existence, this still would not excuse the fact that the task of voice commands is NOT a difficult process, as demonstrated by games like SOCOM, running on the Playstation 2's relatively weak hardware.

[soundslike]

You're right about the hardware power, but consider this:

If the kinect has proprietary software for voice recognition, that's something that Bioware don't have to develop themselves. I don't think Bioware would ever have opted for voice recognition if it meant spending time and money to write the software themselves. EVEN IF it was only a minor addition.

Besides, who cares? Do you really feel left out? I wouldn't be caught dead saying those commands...its no skin off my back that PS3 doesn't have voice support.

[coryok]

ps3 has voice recognition, bioware wouldnt have to develop anything for ps3 either.

its a business deal nothing else, but no i dont care if it has voice recognition or not, hell i dont even care about the game very much

[Christopher]

Kind of feel like we're beating a dead horse with this conversation, but, did want to point out something.

***If the kinect has proprietary software for voice recognition, that's something that Bioware don't have to develop themselves***

Sony has built into the PS3, PSP, and PSVita SDKs voice recognition tools and libraries already.

[soundslike]

Ok then.

It was always a business deal anyway

[Hufandpuf]

People seem to forget rainbow six Vegas had voice controls too.

[JellyJelly]

Even Rainbow Six 3 on the original Xbox had it, so it's nothing new.

I don't really see why people are so upset by this. Stuff like this is common in this industry and happens all the time. When DICE only showed the PS3 version of Battlefield 3 I didn't see any blogs about it though.

[SilentNegotiator]

"When DICE only showed the PS3 version of Battlefield 3 I didn't see any blogs about it though"

How does that compare to content being left out and getting BS excuses for it that insult our intelligence?

I mean, we KNOW what it means when they show one version of a game but not the other. Because one looks better than the other (PS3 version had MLAA in BF3). That happens about a hundred times more often in the 360 version's favor anyway.

If this was just them not showing ps3/pc footage of Mass Effect 3, I'd shrug my shoulders and walk away. They did a good job with the ps3 version of ME2, and we all know the PC version will be fine (except for having EA's spyware).

[Godmars290]

That its in Binary Domain says that voice command in ME3 is just to sell Kinect to Xbox users.

[Sobari]

>Implying people even care about the voice controls.

[SaffronCurse]

Better with Kinect..PFF

[Il_Exile_lI]

My understanding is, with the Kinect's built in voice recognition functionality, it was basically a situation where they were like "well it will take almost no time and effort to implement this, so why the hell not?" Developing a cross platform, cross device system would take more effort than the barely any it takes to use kinect for a feature most people probably don't care about.

Bottom line is, it seems like Bioware bashing has become a fad among "hipster" games, and it's getting ridiculous.
People complain about the addition of multiplayer "taking away" from the single player despite the fact that a different studio (Bioware Montreal) worked on it, but are also demanding they spend extra development time implementing across the board voice commands despite the fact that I doubt anyone really cares about voice commands anyway?

[Godmars290]

The thing is if Binary Domain turns out to be as good a game as ME3, its voice command function option as good if not better being multiplatform and relying on a headset, said Bioware bashing will be more than justified.

More to the point it'll be expose as the act of pandering to MS attempt to sell a $150 add-on.

[Il_Exile_lI]

I highly doubt a little known Japanese shooter will have any impact whatsoever on Mass Effect 3, regardless of whether they share one or two inconsequential gameplay features.
If you think anyone in their right minds would by a kinect just to yell "Liara, THROW!" instead of pressing a button, you are out your mind. Even if I already had a kinect I still wouldn't use this feature, and I figure most Mass Effect fans would be the same way, so I really don't see the big deal.
Let me just ask you one question, do think Mass Effect 3 would have any sort of voice commands if kinect did not exist? The answer is clearly no, making this whole argument pointless. I for one, am glad they didn't waste time and resources developing a cross device, cross platform voice command feature because it is dumb to begin with and there are more important things more worthy of precious development time.

[Godmars290]

I think, as I keep saying, that if BD's voice command performs as well or even better then ME3's then MS's and Bioware's attempt to prove that such can only be done "Through the Power Of Kinect" will be proven to be so much PR BS.

It doesn't need to sell better, which it likely wont, just review and be commented on within the industry and gaming community. Though the better it does the more of an embarrassment it could mean to Bioware. Make their Kinect statements that more empty.

[Il_Exile_lI]

I have no idea where you are getting this "only with the power of kinect" line. Here are some direct quotes from Chris Priestly, a comunity manager at bioware, in an interview posted on gametrailers.

"Mass Effect 3 supports the Kinect, but does not support voice commands from other systems, such as headset microphones." Priestly clarified. "Kinect’s proprietary hardware and software allowed us to skip the research and development normally involved in developing a voice control system, and go straight to integrating it into our game design."
"‪It was something we initially didn’t plan on doing (because of the prohibitively expensive R&D cost on this type of thing, as mentioned). However we did some experiments with Kinect hardware and realized that it made it surprisingly plug-and-play for us as game designers to trigger game functions with voice. Even with Kinect’s very complete, robust voice technology, it still required a substantial amount of development time to make it work across a game this large and complex.‬"

They are not saying that is was only possible with kinect, but that kinect allowed them to implement this feature without as much development time and costs then if they implemented this across the board.

[AtomicGerbil]

@Il_Exile_lI

Have you not heard of PSVR? It is a voice recognition SDK for Playstation with libraries that support 20 languages. Looks like Sony have already done the hard work which would put the Playstation voice recognition on a par with Kinect, all you need is a £20 eye or £15 headset.

[Statix]

It's just a marketing ploy to sell Kinect to hardcore gamers.

But WHO CARES. Just stop whining.

[M1chl]

I just wonder why everybody make such a big dela about this. I have kinect and I am not planing to use this feature, because for me its sounds stupid. But I tell why its kinect exlusive. Kinect SDK have build-in voice recognition and this function returns string what you said. So the implementation is really simple and it took a moment. If they want to do it on regular mic, they have to use programed or use another 3rd voice recoginition api and that would make developnet unnessesary more expensive and at the end of the day, who would use this, even with regular mic. Nobody? Yeah that sounds about right...

[Clayman]

Tom Clancy's EndWar anyone? That entire game was controlled with voice commands.

[tmoss726]

I was trying to remember. On that came out like 4 years ago?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[Clayman]

Yeah, that's right. Fun game btw.

[Captain Tuttle]

Well I have Kinect, will be getting ME3 on the 360 and there's no way in hell I'll use the voice controls.

Stupid gimmick.

[IM_KINECTED]

I think the voice controls are looking great in Mass Effect 3, everyone was complaining saying it was tacked on and worthless when it was shown at E3 and now that it looks pretty darn good people are changing their tune and feeling left out?

People are bringing up voice controls on games that didn't really work that well in the past, Endwar was really bad at recognizing voice commands. In comparison, Halo CE Anniversary has voice commands very similar to the ones in Mass Effect 3 and it works flawlessly.

Kinect has some built in features for voice commands, so it's not the actual game or anything like that doing the work, it's Kinect and the words that it recognizes. It probably didn't take much if any work by Bioware to get it to function like that.

Microsoft is making a great attempt at putting Kinect functions that are actually making games "Better With Kinect".

[2v1]

No body is feeling left out.Looks like you work for Ms.

[IM_KINECTED]

The reason for this article is obviously someone is feeling left out.

So because I like Kinect and think these voice controls are cool I must work for Microsoft?

Troll logic I guess..... Good luck with that.

[2v1]

This is no PS3 fanboy or troll you claim, just a video game fan like yourself who has 3 consoles.

[PixL]

One of the reasons Sony isn't implementing voice controls is they value other than American customers. If they implemented it, other language versions would lack it. MS doesn't care about non-English speakers. That's one of the reasons they're losing in EU/Asia.

If you're raising questions, why not ask something more profound: why you NEED Kinect to use this feature? Everybody gets a mic (headset) with X360. The answer is simple: why not milk people and make them believe they have to pay $150 for a mic.

[coolbeans]

"MS doesn't care about non-English speakers. That's one of the reasons they're losing in EU/Asia."

That unfair attack doesn't even ring true in this arguement, let alone any other one. It's been reported that ME3's voice commands will support German, Italian, and French when it arrives (with Spanish possibly being patched in later on).

http://www.theverge.com/201...

[PixL]

That's about 1/3 of Europe, to remind you.

[coolbeans]

That doesn't disregard the fact that your first paragraph (in first reply) has been disproven.

[AtomicGerbil]

As I've mentioned above, Sony's voice recognition SDK supports 20 languages, so there is absolutely no reason it cannot be done.

[coolbeans]

I'm not saying it can't be done either. Just correcting a false assumption.

[PCE]

"From all angles, this argument is worthless. The reason for exclusivity is clearly due to a background deal, and that's fine......just don't try to insult our intelligence when making up excuses."

I agree, but this is business PR. It happens all the time. Sad but true.

[Vortex3D]

You need to remember coming to marketing, they will say anything as an "excuse" to sell a hardware. It does not matter how ridiculous the excuse reason sounds. All it matters is the excuse sounds good as the reason to sell the hardware. (I still find it's amazing so many buyers still believe what marketing says to heart. Really that's good thing or marketing lies will fail.)

Have you also read the developer or publisher said the game wouldn't fit onto one Blu-ray disc. Because they want an excuse to sell the extra contents as DLC, they simply ignore 50GB Blu-ray disc exist. A good example is LA Noire. On the original edition, the developer's excuse was they couldn't fit all the contents onto "one" Blu-ray disc simply by ignoring 50GB disc. Guess what, 2K double-dipped with Complete Edition with one 50GB Blu-ray disc. So, wasn't the original excuse ridiculous? Of course but what's what marketing is all about. BS all the way to sell what they want.

Anyone easily believes marketing excuses means you believe marketing BS. If marketing needs an excuse to say regular clean water is bad to drink, they will come out with some ridiculous excuse that only their "water" product is good to drink. And do you believe them?

[AtomicGerbil]

Whilst I don't find the inclusion of voice recognition in ME3 appealing I do find the feeble excuse highly irritating.

It's seems there is a trend emerging with developers and publishers to find excuses to hide deals between themselves and console manufacturers, why? We know it happens and when they try to bulls**t us with what they consider a clever excuse, it just makes them appear pathetic and untrustworthy.That may sound a little excessive, but they are giving these excuses to their fanbase, the very people that keep them in business.

Now, I am aware that not everybody is going to be aware that these excuses could be false, but in the age of the internet these developers and publishers seem to be blissfully unaware that two minutes on a search engine will reveal contradicting evidence.

Rant over!

[Luc20]

I think Ill get this game when it ends in the bargain bin. If you cant make all versions equal then you how can you expect me to support you?

[kaveti6616]

Seeing that so many games have come out with voice controls before Kinect's inception really makes me question Kinect's use.

[mayberry]

When I watch tv, and see a commercial with mis-leading or inaccurate selling points, it turns me off to whatever they are selling so hard its crazy! I feel offended as a consumer! I might even want what they are hawking, but if they use dirty tactics to do it, I usually dont buy it out of self-respect! My point is, if 'ms' did do a "deal" with bioware concerning 360 only voice recognition, then say it was for tech reasons and it really wasn't... well....eff uuuu buddy!