Voice Chat on Nintendo Switch Is Looking Rough
Earlier this year, President and CEO of Nintendo of America told Wired magazine about Nintendo’s plan for voice chat on the Nintendo Switch.
“We are going to provide an overall online service, subscription-based, that not only will capture the multiplayer opportunity, but also the voice chat capability that we’re going to provide through a global app. Instead of having some sort of bulky gamer headset, you’ll be able to do it right off your smartphone, put in your earbuds that you use for your standard mobile device. We think that’s a pretty sweet solution.”
Peripheral manufacturer Hori released images of their headset that would coincide with the release of Splatoon 2 for Nintendo Switch. While this setup will allow gamers to hear in game sounds and voice chat through Nintendo’s mobile app thanks to a squid shaped mixer, we hardly think this is a “sweet solution”
Besides the Switch and the headset, players will have to connect their phones, the squid dongle, and try not to strangle themselves with the ensuing mess of wires while on the go. When docked, the squid dongle’s short wires will not be long enough to reach the headset without an extension cable.
It’s far from an elegant solution.
To be fair, this is Hori’s solution, not Nintendo’s. But we haven’t heard any details on Nintendo’s solution to voice chat, and with voice being handled by an app on mobile phone or tablet, it’s hard to see how it could be done much differently.
What do you think of how Nintendo is handling voice chat?
