There Came an Echo dev: Xbox One voice commands ‘bizarrely inconsistent’

There Came an Echo may have recently been announced for Xbox One but that doesn't mean indie developer Iridium is completely sold on the Kinect.

"Really, Kinect is just a microphone to us," Iridium's Jason Wishnov told Polygon. "We use a regular headset during development, and we expect a lot of people will simply opt to use the standard controls."

"I don't even blame them, really," he said. "The Xbox One dash voice commands are bizarrely inconsistent."

For those unfamiliar, There Came an Echo is a voice-controlled real-time strategy game where you vocally give orders to a small squad of soldiers. There's a list of predefined commands, or you can opt to define a custom phrase to act as an alternative. The Xbox One and Kinect seem like a natural pairing for the game, but if it's having problems registering commands you can understand the skepticism.

To that end, Iridium will remain focused on the PC version of the game which is due out in October. The Xbox One version, meanwhile, is expected some time in 2015.

"Our focus remains on the PC, so in that respect, I wouldn't expect the XB1 version to be wildly different," Wishnov concluded. "Still, optionally raising your hand to your ear to give a command seems like something we should put in there."