Microsoft's Cortana will use British voice actress for UK launch

Would-be Master Chiefs here in the UK will be sad to hear that Halo's Jen Taylor won't be voicing Cortana for the British release.

Microsoft's Cortana AI is fast-approaching UK shores and it looks like the firm is switching out the current US voice actress for a Brit equivalent.

It's bad news for Halo fans here in Blighty who were hoping the Windows Phone assistant would be voiced by Jen Taylor, the actress behind Master Chief's AI companion Cortana in the video game series.

The announcement came via Twitter, when a Microsoft employee revealed to another user that Cortana's gearing up for a British accent.

There's no word on what region of Britain Cortana's new voice will originate from, but we're guessing received pronunciation will be the go-to style for ease of access.

Microsoft took the wraps off Cortana back in April, revealing that the AI would ship with Windows Phone 8.1 over in the US.

We've recently heard that Cortana would be coming to the UK very shortly, although a specific date hasn't been given so far. We know China is getting the software on the 30th of July, so hopefully we'll follow soon after.

In related news, Microsoft's Windows Phone division released a YouTube ad earlier pitting Cortana against Apple's Siri in a battle of the AIs - and Cortana came out on top.

Are you glad to hear Cortana will tout a British accent, or are you wistful over the fact that Jen Taylor is sticking to phones across the atlantic? Head to the comments and let us know your thoughts.

Source Twitter

Via Neowin, Winbeta, Pocketlint