Why? Seriously why can't they just use the normal mic + Xbox for this? Is it not possible? Or is there some kinda special voice decoding thing only in the kinect that I'm not aware of?

It is possible,, Maddick (sp?) Admitted it was on a GT interview right after ME3 announced its Voice features. but hey, with kinect it's headset free right?

of course its possible otherwise, for example this ps3 game uses voice recognition through the ps eye :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TaUsSy-f0Y

but in terms of this industry who ever hypes the hell out of their product gets recognition first... 

Yes infact there is.

But the basic principal of voice recognition is still there.

Because microsoft want's more people to buy kinect?

of course you need kinect, lip tracking is integral to being able to interpret voice commands ...

pseye

singstar

Rockband all disagree with you on that.

If you would like to know specifically why I can tell you.

Mass Effect 3 is a perfect example. Its because when using Kinect the developers themselves have to build ZERO voice recognition technology. Every single thing being done with voice command on Mass Effect 3 is running directly off the Kinect software and hardware. Building a fully functioning in depth voice command recognition system takes a lot of work, time, money, and employees that could be used on other aspects of the game. Many developers haven't utilized voice technology for this exact reason, they would rather use their resources in other areas. With Kinect now the develops don't have to spend really any resources whatsoever to allow very in depth voice recognition its all already pre-programmed and ready to go for them.

Hope that answers your question.

Read his comment again, then slap yourself for taking it seriously.

@ OP

Kinect does hardware decoding as far as I'm aware. There's some special hardware in there at least, which makes it much easier for developers to use voice commands. And that's why they use Kinect for it, and not just any old microphone.