Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@OorWullie Me too

@Octane And that is a problem. There are too many concerns I have with the idea of your phone essentially acting as your online world for the Nintendo Switch which seems to be what is getting hinted at with other areas such as the eShop, multiplayer friends, voice chat etc. This will all be a drain on the battery, and when using it for voice chat, will likely render the phone useless for other purposes such as taking phone calls etc.

To me this all seems kinda hobbled together. I assume they didn't want to run into the same problems they did with the Wii U OS, being slow and clunky and taking up half the available RAM, thus moved it over to a phone app.

I really hope there are some Switch related My Nintendo rewards early on. Looking at my point expiry I'm just barely keeping up with the Platinum coins. Mostly because of various 3DS themes that come out. But my first lot of Gold coins expire in April. I don't want to spend them on 3DS/Wii U software, I certainly don't want to spend them on discounts for 3DS/Wii U. So there better be something you can get on the Switch early on.

@FragRed The original Xbox could do online voice chat, so I doubt it has anything to do with the "less" powerful hardware.

But yeah, I'm not a big fan either, I can't imagine not using my phone for an hour or two because I want to use the voice chat app. I mean, what happens if someone calls you? It doesn't sound very convenient.

If someone calls you via your phone when doing voice chat normally, you still need to stop. No doubt since its an app itll do what normally happens, phone will override and push it to the background disabling key features.

No different than having to take a headset off at the end if the day.

I think we need to wait for official word on the voice chat stuff. We're just an echo chamber that will keep tossing worries back and forth.

I expect more information to be released not this week, but the next (around Valentine's day). I don't know if it will be a Direct, but I do expect Nintendo to come out and establish more.

I also think game announcements will continue to trickle out at the pace they have been, which has been a nice bonus. (I saw Tumbleseed footage yesterday, and although it doesn't seem like my kind of game, it is yet another game for the Switch being announced.)

I don't have a problem if voice chat is via smart app: i'm the type of player that plays "competitive" at home, relaxed, without anyone or anything disturbing me, and most of all not on the go (perfect situation to play alone in singleplayer). So the Switch will be docked and charging, the phone can be attached to a power bank or to the wall so battery will not die at the worst moment, and if someone calls i can answer later. So on my point of view it's not that potential kind of problem. Instead i have to admit i love it: think about it, you're returning home and you want to see if you can plug in your Splatoon 2 to make some ranked, and you can call your friends while returning home to prepare the lobby. That sounds awesome to me

Am i an optimistic guy? Yes. Do i always watch the half full glass? Surely, why should i do the opposite? That's how i feel about voice chat app

The problem I have with it, is that I'm on a phone anyway, why should I have to pay for something that my phone has countless apps to do for free anyway? Half of me thinks Nintendo will allow it through the Switch itself, if not at launch then somewhere down the line. The other half knows this is Nintendo and they're just as likely to leave it as a feature exclusive to their app for some reason.

It will be very frustrating if I need to have two devices to play online with friends like on the Wii U. The difference being I used Skype for free while my phone sat in my lap.

It'll be interesting to see how Japan responds to 1-2-Switch. Wii Sports actually was not a pack-in there.

I'll enable facetime to communicate. To be honest, the lack of a sim card confuses me.

So if I'm online, via phone, I can't chat because I already need to bridge it? The switch needs a sim card slot.

@FGPackers The app is a great addition. However, if voice chat is exclusive to the app, then it's definitely not as convenient as regular voice chat. They're creating unnecessary issues that should've have been there in the first place. Might as well use Skype at that point.

I think voice chat will be possible through the console itself.

If not at launch, then maybe after that free online trial period ends in Fall 2017.

Because Skype isn't connected to your console. Think about it for a few seconds and you'll realise how different this will be to just using Skype. With Skype it doesn't know what games your friends are playing. It only connects you to your friends and doesn't connect you to people on your team. For some use cases? Yes, Skype will do the same job. But most of the time it won't.

It's a similar deal with the app vs having it built in. There are some advantages to having it as an app. For a start you can organise a match for later on using your phone even when your Switch is at home. During a game you can control your chat without having to go through a fiddly menu on your phone. Is some dude being a bit of a ****? A couple of taps to mute/report. Easy.

How about we wait and see how it works before we start judging it.

Do we know if the online perks like discounts and monthly VC games don't start until the paid online comes or if they are there from the start? The chart on their website makes it look like it's only once you start paying, but I don't know if it's ever directly stated one way or another.

Considering it only lets you talk to friends, yeah, it's exactly like Skype, whatsapp, whatever. No, they don't know what games you're playing but considering you're friends with the people anyway, there's no real advantage to it knowing that you guys are playing the same game.

@Xyphon22 I would think they would want people to get the full experience of online, if not right away than at some point before it becomes paid. It's good business sense to get people hooked on the full experience of the free trial; they get used to it, and it makes them more likely to just pay it later.

@Operative2-0
Admittedly, an app for online lobbies and chat isn't as ideal a solution as integrated into the system, but I do think it'll be far more seamless and easy than using existing apps. Without seeing who's online or playing their systems, it's hard to know who to invite. And with social media integrated (Twitter will probably be the go-to social app) you can easily send a tweet to your gaming friend followers saying hey, gonna play such and such, wanna join? I just made a fresh Twitter account for Switch online, and about a dozen people I'm in a 24hr LINE chat with (been talking to these people for... bout 3 years now).

I mean, system integration would be best, but it's kind of neat I think. I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of using a Twitter-tied Nintendo app to manage things. Certainly would be easier than trying to use normal apps

And you're basing this assumption on.....

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/02/nintendo_details_how...

Perhaps it's a bit too soon to assume every game will work like this, but lol. Let's be honest. That's the most likely scenario, like it or not.

@Operative2-0 Well with Wii U first party games, it was always friends only if any voice chat at all. This isn't anything new.

Now the big question is how 3rd parties will do things, I'd imagine if the phone app is the only way to chat especially if restricted to friends only you'll be seeing all the big multiplayer 3rd party games (e.g. CoD, Overwatch, Rocket League) skipping Switch completely.