Ever wondered why Nintendo decided to do things differently with their Nintendo Switch console when it comes to vital online services?
We’re not talking about the new subscription service, that is pretty standard these days and are also available on PS4 and Xbox One.
We’re talking more about the things you need to have a good game with a friend online.
Voice support can be more important in some games than others, but the fact is it’s pretty essential to have a good time with your mates.
Voice chat is pretty much available on all major platforms that run gaming, except the Nintendo Switch.
The console instead relies on players downloading an app for their mobile phone, which is a pretty big faff when compared to the Xbox and PS4.
It isn’t like the Nintendo Switch can’t support voice chat, as seen with the launch of Fortnite Battle Royale earlier this year.
This week saw the subject directly tackled by Nintendo, through Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.
Discussing the reasoning behind the Nintendo Switch’s Online support services, Fils-Aime told the crowd at Seattle’s Geekwire Summit:
“Nintendo’s approach is to do things differently. We have a much different suite of experiences than our competitors offer, and we do that in a different way.
“This creates a sort of yin and yang for our consumers. They’re excited about cloud saves and legacy content but wish we might deliver voice chat a different way, for example.
“What we see is a situation where we know that Nintendo Switch is being played in the open, at a park, on a metro bus.
“We believe the easiest way for you to connect and have a peer-to-peer experience with voice chat is with your mobile phone. It’s always there, it’s always with you.”
It’s clear that fans would like to see changes made to how voice chat is supported on the Switch, although it remains unclear if they will see it anytime soon.
That doesn’t mean Nintendo isn’t open to new technologies when it comes to the Nintendo Switch experience.
Speaking more on the emerging AR/VR market, Fils-Aime adds: “This is something we constantly think about, experiment with. For virtual reality, we’ve said: it’s tech that we’re looking at, but in the end it has to be fun.
“That’s our mission, and that is what we do arguably better than anyone else. We have nothing to announce here on this stage.
“These are going to be technologies that we’ll continue to experiment with. There are new experiences we want to bring to life.”
There are rumours that a new Nintendo Switch console is in the works for 2019, so there’s the chance that something new could be revealed for the console in the years to come.