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One of the gigantic modern features that Nintendo advertised during last week’s Switch 2 Report was GameChat, a built-in communication system, which you pay for the Nintendo Switch online-to get players to communicate through voice chat and video and provide play streams.
People who play online games seriously do it for many years, through services such as Discord, Ventrilo and Steam. Nintendo’s own voice and video solutions have been insufficient and experimental in the last two decades, and the arrival of GameChat is a sign that the company finally treats voice and video chat seriously.
This is not the lack of attempts. Nintendo brought a voice chat to some of his games as early as 2006 via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Service. But, unlike GameChat, Nintendo often approached voice and video from the game, or expanded the chat with external applications.
But as the Sumichazu ONO Nintendo, who was responsible for supervising the development of the built -in SWITCH 2 functions Interview on the Nintendo websiteThe goal of GameChat was “does not require configuration.”
“Voice chat or game video often requires a bit of additional work when configuring equipment,” explains Yoshitak Tamura from Nintendo in the same interview. “But Switch 2 has a built -in microphone, so you can easily use a voice chat, and the Nintendo Switch 2 camera, which is sold separately, is easy to use with a configuration that is not too complicated.”
It is far from how Nintendo first dealt with the voice conversation. When Nintendo implemented a chat in games like Metroid Prime HuntersIN Pokémon Diamond AND PearlAND Advance Wars: Days of RuinsPlayers had to enter a 12-digit friends code to add another player to the list of friends to talk to them. The voice chat in these Nintendo DS games was narrow to specific modes, clumsy and low quality.
Nintendo later developed a reserved microphone for Wii called Wii Speak, which was supported by several games for the system, including Crossing Animal: City Folk AND Monster Hunter Tri. Nintendo even created a dedicated Wii Speak channel for the console, but chat functions were narrow to users who shared friends’ codes.
Nintendo again tried the voice chat on Wii U, z Wii at chatwhich included video powered by a system gamepad, which had a built -in camera and microphone. Wii U’s chat was narrow, but it contained a witty function: users could draw on the screen to make messages available to everyone at the other end of the connection. (Wii u chat, close with Miiverse in 2017)
In the case of the Nintendo switch, he decided to allow the smartphone application to be supported in the chat. Again, it was supported only in some games, and the Nintendo solution was imperfect. Many users have decided not to apply the Nintendo application and got stuck in existing communication applications, such as Discord for real -time chat.
Voice chat through the Nintendo Switch online application was the latest example of Nintendo caution when it comes to online interactions. Nintendo also released the Nintendo Switch Parental Controls application, which allows parents to control the time of play and whether children can apply functions such as voice chat. The Controls Parental application can allow parents to confirm with whom the child can GameChat on the user’s basis after the user.
Nintendo finally seems a bit more comfortable with online interactions, taking into account that it implements them wider at the system level with Switch 2. It probably reflects how universal video chat has become-especially since GameChat has been developed since 2020, at the peak of Pandemia, and when Zoom became a place for friends and companies for communicating. Thanks to the existing Nintendo accounts, which have been used for years for tens of millions of players, it will be easier than ever to combine with voice chat and video on the Nintendo console. The entire button is dedicated.
So, although Nintendo’s voice chat pains were very perceptible (and often frustrating) for many generations of consoles, many of this awkwardness seem to be eliminated for Switch 2. Remember, however, that GameChat will be free only for a narrow time. You may want to install the Nintendo Switch Online application on your phone if you don’t want to pay for a conversation with friends.
