Nintendo Switch’s odd implementation of voice chat has VOIP creator rolling in their graves The complicated process includes downloading a separate voice chat app, link it with Switch to communicate with your friends. Nintendo is criticized for having such a model.
During a recent interview, Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aimé was asked why the company chose to use a separate app for Nintendo Switch voice chat? His reply his exactly what you would expect from Nintendo. He explained that Nintendo wants to “do things differently.” “We have a much different suite of experiences than our competitors offer,” he said.
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.
So this is apparently easier than just connecting to Wifi through your Switch, boot the game, and use in-game voice chat. Being different just for the sake of being different is not a path one should follow. The most convenient way to use voice chat is through an in-game client. The internet is baffled as to why they would make a simple process so complicated that many avoid using it at all.
Nintendo is working on a mid-gen Switch upgrade so this is a perfect time bring up the voice chat issue. The company has an opportunity here to add voice chat to Nintendo Switch.
Source: ArsTechnica
