Aaron Paul’s Voice Trolls Xbox Users

If you walked into your living room to find Aaron Paul had switched on your Xbox, you’d be confused. But that’s just what the Breaking Bad star — or at least his voice — has been doing according to users.

Paul’s voice appears in a television commercial for the Xbox One in which he demonstrates the Kinect voice command features. Unfortunately it appears that when he speaks the magic words “Xbox on”, some user’s consoles have heard the sound from the TV and responded appropriately.

To make things even worse, Paul then orders the console to load up the game Titanfall — something that’s then happened for people who have that game installed.

With hindsight it seems inevitable this could be a problem. In most people’s set-ups, TV speakers are positioned among the best places to issue an audio command to the Kinect receiver. Throw in the fact that Paul has clear diction and it seems a recipe for mishaps.

Microsoft hasn’t commented on the specific of this case other than to note it’s not the first such ad to demonstrate voice commands. It’s ironic timing, coming right as the Kinect-free version of the console goes on sale.

It’s not the first time the voice control has been used in ways Microsoft didn’t plan. Earlier this year pranksters joined online Call of Duty games using the gamertag “Xboxsignout” and successfully trolled players into addressing them by name.