Hori's Nintendo Switch Voice Chat Headset Looks Like A Wired Nightmare

Huh looks like PSVR....I expect this to go down worse though but hey ho.

That's Nintendo for you. Complicating situations that don't need to be complicated. The Switch should handle voice chat. End of!

Better call.........

This is pretty wacky, in my opinion, and not in a kooky fun way.

as someone with g.a.s. in everything i do that requires hardware, i for one welcome our convoluted wiring overlords.

Switch has Bluetooth, just chuck out a firmware update Nintendo.
This is just too overly complicated.
Ah wait is it so you have to buy yet ANOTHER accessory?
Ah i get it! Hardware micropayments so you can play games to the full potential.

I trust Nintendo to come out with something that solves this. About time we had some great voice chat on a Nintendo console.

Swith one up-ed by the Wii U again.

I just wanna know what colors it will come in.

This looks like so much pain just to get voice chat

Not the best idea...

Wonky. Why do I fear the chat is going to be a mess. Can't wait for Nintendo to illuminate the subject at E3.

@BLP_Software PSVR was my first thought looking at that pic. Second thought was about pay-to-play online. I know most people have a smartphone these days, but not everyone does. Paying to play online but no voice chat without a B.Y.O.SM. is kinda lame.

Looks cool and all but how will this work if the system is docked?.. cant see myself playing with a long ass wire hangin on my head in 2017 lol

Such a disaster. Who is making these decisions? Are there any millennials at Nintendo who are giving input on this situation? It's just ridiculous.

the two device 'solution' really proves how out of touch nintendo remains. one of the saddest things about an otherwise excellent device.

Making something work without an accessory doesn't make Nintendo any money

Meh, would still keep the game sound to the tv and voice to the headset separately.
I'm more interested if there's a push to talk button.. And hopefully it's mandatory. Always on = I'm muting you right away.

Why does the headset need to wired at all, connecting the switch to the phone should open up a suitable bluetooth connection which should allow the headphones to connect via wireless

Out of touch

Out of touch

Square peg, round hole.
How does this even work when docked?
What a mess.

Not really sure what to say here, but this is a mess. I'm not interest in buying yet another solution, I already have one that works wirelessly with my PC, my PS3/4 and my X1 (well,mostly, it requires being wired to the controller but still). Even if I were willing to buy another one, this just worse in every conceiveable way. It breaks my heart, that in 2017 Nintendo still can't be bothered to make basic use of their system possible without having us bend overb backwards thrice.

I'm dying to understand the reasoning behind such an intentionally inconvenient approach. I can't imagine why they would want to spite voice-chat users, but frankly, besides wanting to spite people, what reason could there be?
Because let's be frank here, someone expanded ressources on coming up with this concept and actually developing it. It's not a lazy concept, as lazy would have meant just going with the industry standard.
This really is getting silly, and I'd might also add that having your smartphone, your switch and your headset tethered together is not a 'outdoorsy' portable solution. It's barely a 'on-the-couch' solution.
For the time being, I'm going to assume that this is just Nintendo pranking the hell out of all of us. This is way too absurd to be for real.

@Gelantious What's "always on"? Oo A decent mic, a properly set activation level and no speakers work just as well as push-to-talk. In fact, I prefer people who handle voice this way, over folks who use push-to-talk, but keep their speakers running in the background.

It has 3 separate wires. I would hardly call it a nightmare.

My Iphone 7 doesnt have a headphone jack -_- gotta find that adapter. Jk thst headset will probably be $200 lol

Even if it is not the best solution i don't really see this HUGE problem. Voice chat app on smartphone with same smartphone's mic-ready headphones, and TV audio for the game (considering i'll be playing Splatoon 2 only in docked mode). Even our Damien is saying this in the article, so again: where is the problem? Setting up a smartphone? In an age where almost everyone has one in the pocket ALL DAY?

@Ralek85 Because mouth breathers, throat clearers, random curses, random chit chat to people in their room and so on isn't something I want to listen to.
And like you said, a good mic won't pick up the sound from the speakers anyways.

Thank goodness I never cared much for voice chat.

I'll just plug my Bose earbuds in my phone if I absolutely need to chat

@Gelantious As far as the first two go, that is what activation levels are for, as for the rest .... if they bother to plug-in and setup their voice, they will bother to press the button and (more or less) intentionally annoy everyone else. At least that is my experience. In that regard it's not about the way you set it up, but about how you use it - what kind of mindset you have.
More important to me in that regard, is that the interface allows me to mute all and individual users without much hassle, to filter out those folks you're talking about.
Knowing Nintendo and looking at this hardware 'solution' for what it is an contraption straight out of the inconvenience hell, I doubt Nintendo will have a software solution that is even adequate. After all OS/applications were never their strong suit to being with.

@AcridSkull headphone jack is accessible when docked

This feels like Hori's version of "Charging an iPhone 7 while using a pair of earphones."

What a disaster...

I mean, if it will be a high quality headset I won't be complaining.
From what I see, the thing can listen to audio from two devices at the same time, has a volume slider, detachable microphone, the extra thing can be removed and the thing can be used as normal headphones and so on

...I'll still buy it. Maybe I'm a slave for Splatoon fashion trends, but these Forge headphones along with my Takoroka hoodie shirt and Takoroka mesh cap will make me the biggest weeb at anime/comic convention Splatoon tournaments, but I don't care, LOL! Logistically, at home my Switch dock is next to my computer desk for recording purposes, so wires are no problem there. If I'm out and about, I plan to be wearing pants, and/or the aforementioned Takoroka hoodie, so I'll always have a place for my phone...WAITAMINUTE! I don't even plan to voice chat! I just want the Forge headphones

I'm a massive fan of the Switch and have defended Nintendo on most issues since launch but even I see this as a convoluted solution. The obvious need for this is the app will just handle chat and not in game sounds thus this is required for in game sound and chat going through one set of headphones. A work around for an issue that shouldn't exist. I appreciate that it being both handheld and docked creates extra issues but still.

Hmmmmmmm. Silly, my friends and I have been using the PS4 voice chat while playing our Switches. Sad.

Look at the photo. The "squid" piece is way smaller than shown in the diagram (which is clearly not to scale).

Still cumbersome, but there will probably be a phone dock, and essentially one cord to worry about.

@Pahvi Hopefully that's the case, otherwise a standard 6' 3.5mm extension cable would be needed.

I would agree with many others here - this is a complex solution for a simple problem.

This is just completely and utterly stupid. Purely a non solution to a problem Nintendo created.

Nope. I rather use my phone and headset via the skype app like I did on the wiiu. Why the pro controller has no headphone input is beyond me. Very poor design choice by Nintendo in my opinion. Yeah, you could argue that you could use your phone on the go why playing online with your friends... but who on earth is playing online on the go with crappy wlan? In my long-distance bus I cannot even watch youtube videos with their wlan connection... so why would I play games like monster hunter xx, mk8d and so on in the bus or at mcdonalds?!

The perfect compliment to Switch kickstand for on the go gaming!

@ValhallaOutcast @SanderEvers With a cable stretched across the entire room? 😂

nice headset,but what if my phone is dead,pretty crap really.

I... But... Just... sighs

Nintendo... You dun goofed again...

@AcridSkull that's your call many high end gaming headsets are wired

Hmmm.... It is convoluted, and a mess. But I wonder if Nintendo's so reclutant to have BT directly from the Switch due to the battery in handheld mode. The battery life is already short, I wouldn't be surprised if using it with BT made it last just an hour.

@Gelantious Nintendo have said that (for Splatoon at least) voice chat is for friends only, so you shouldn't have a problem.

Really? Why would you even do this?

@ValhallaOutcast and many are not, you usually have a choice and so can use whichever is appropriate to your setup.
I have a wired headset for PC as I sit at desk, the Switch needs a wireless solution, there's no reason the dongle can't connect via Bluetooth to the headset or just use the phones Bluetooth connection.

@Morph Think the Switch only has a bluetooth receiver, not a transmitter, so it can't send out audio over bluetooth but I could be wrong.

The little headset splitter looks like a squid, though, and no matter how convoluted the audio setup looks, that's all that really matters to me.

I suppose, on the bright side, if voice chat is something you need to actually put effort into setting up, that minimises the risk of obnoxious people doing it in public places, and I'd call that a good thing.

Another reason the Switch is a step back from the Wii U. Really no reason to buy this stupid console.

There's quite a few things wrong with this but the one that stands out to me the most that is a MAJOR flaw, is the fact that the left joycon gives out from time to time whenever a smart device is in close range!

So how am I supposed to use the phone/headset/controller altogether if one takes away from the complete experience?

Oh Nintendo: One step forward, two steps behind. 😔

omg people are comparing PSVR the only console that can do VR ! with 1080p to this voice chatting ? really how can you compare these two things together + you can't compare because nintendo switch will lose in every single way ? this is a shame ... we are in 2017 and they can't do voice char correctly ? ... nintendo fan boys never changes lol

at least you can use 7 wires to get PSVR at home with your 4K console but you don't do 5 wires to get voice chat only lol with your 720p console haha

This is a terrible solution. It a little hard to believe that Nintendo thought it would be a good idea to require yet another device for voice chat, rather than building the functionality into the Switch. I really hope there is a ton of pushback on this solution and Nintendo eventually fixes it with a firmware update.

@roadrunner343 Actually I would like to keep this solution, but make it simpler. As well as adding the solution you suggested.

Come on ninty, it wouldn't require an impossible level of foresight or any kind of technical innovation to just stream the game-audio to the smartdevice and then mix the vc audio in with a separate volume slider..

Seems like it's the audioside Ninty is f'ing up this gen..

@Nintendoforlife I'm all for more options, I suppose. I don't really know why we need something like this - Maybe Nintendo will show some benefit eventually - but for sure, a standard bluetooth/wired headset solution is desperately needed.

I like the look of it visually, but it's way more complex than it should be. Voice chat should have been been built into the console.

@roadrunner343 I might be completely wrong on this, but wouldn't this allow you to use voice chat anywhere you are? You know in the park, on the beach etc.

@Nintendoforlife A fair point. I wasn't really considering uses outside of gaming. So that is one possible solution. I suppose if that's the case, they could also tie it in to their other services, such as mobile/3DS games if should they choose. So yeah, I'll stick with my thought on more options are always better. I don't so much have a problem with this solution (Though I'm pretty sure I'll never use it) as much as I just have a problem with the lack of a standard, simple solution.

@roadrunner343 Yeah it's incredibly strange to not have standard online capabilities, but this (even if bulky) might be a game changer in terms of Online play. There's almost no drop in quality while playing for the sake of argument a full Call of Duty online game.

@AcridSkull ya a wireless choice would be ideal , maybe USB wireless like on PS4

I don't think BT is an option because even Sony dropped Bluetooth headphone support on PS4

If the cable is removable in favor of a auxillary cord they got my purchase, if not I'll probably just by it for design alone because I don't know if I will use it. Hopefully Nintendo will explain everything this e3

Seems like a very complicated situation for what should be an easy solution. Unsure why Nintendo won't just activate bluetooth so we can use our own headsets, or even the bluetooth on our phones if we have to use the chat app.

I just love how the headset looks so I want to get it
Plus since Splatoon on Wii U didn't have VC, I've been using Discord on my phone the whole time so I guess it will be similar when the VC app comes out. I assume the cable must be long since you can only plug it into the Switch for sound, I think my main issue is that the pro controller doesn't have a headphone jack. (I think it really should have one...)

Also why does NL use bing? It is what twitter uses by default, but the translations are always weird and often unreliable. I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to get someone that could translate it or at least put it through google since it's much better at translations.

Ugh. Just ugh.

will this work on my PC?

Classic Nintendo.

VR: A dozen different wires to a dozen different parts of your pody.
Crowd: This is the FUTURE!

Switch: One wire to splitter, from splitter to console, one from splitter to phone.
Crowd :This is impossibly complex!

@Ralek85 I'm thinking it's not quite to "spite" voice chat gamers, but to sort of give them the Monkey's Paw version of exactly what they asked for. Kind of like the Nintendo Corrupt-A-Wish thread here on the forum. Nintendo was dead-set against voice chat for a variety of reasons. A small segment of gamers vocally demanded Nintendo added voice chat. So they appear to have gone out of their way to give those gamers precisely what they wanted, while not actually changing a thing about the console at all to deliver exactly the chat-less console they wanted to deliver, AND gaining the ability to bill the chat gamers annually for getting what they wanted.

I kind of applaud the effort for a giant "here's what you asked for, but you didn't say Simon Says" aspect.

And as a very anti-voice chat gamer, I happen to LOVE this solution. It gives me the chat-less console I love that makes me a lot more likely to play online, and it means the chat gamers can no longer complain about not having voice chat but instead only get to complain about the implementation method of voice chat

Meanwhile as Nintendo approaches eSports with Arms, Splatoon, Smash, and who knows what else, the competition gamers will keep on using their wired controllers, and wired headsets, same as always.

This is atrocious. This just confirms that there's no way to get both the game sound and the voice chat come from the same device. This solution is also just silly as it would have been easy to just implement headset support for the Switch. Now players who do not have or wish to have a smart phone (myself included) have no means for voice chatting even with friends.

I have no idea why they even bother making a voice chat app if all it does is enable the chat for you and your friends. If you are playing with friends you can easily just use another app like Discord.

@Nego agree most people will go with discord or something established

@NEStalgia I'm sorry, but what you are describing sounds exactly like spitting gamers, who enjoy voice chat at times. You provided a potential reasoning behind that, but that doesn't change the fact, that they went out of their way to do what they did .... with just that result we are seeing before us.

Don't get me wrong, I have no intention of putting up with this. I'll do what I did with the WiiU. I'll buy it when there are enough Nintendo exclusives on it, that I really want to play, and I won't buy a single game on the system, that I can play on a different platform like my PS4 or X1 or PC or Vita or 3DS or Tablet or whatever.

Because to me, this is simply Nintendo telling me, that even if let's say Destiny for example (it's not going to happen, but as a hypothetical) were to land on their system, they absolutely don't want me to buy it for this their very own platform.

It's really that simple. Nintendo can have my business when I feel like it and when and only when there is absolute no alternative.
After all, your point was that Nintendo has reservations agains me, as a consumer, or at least my prefered way of consuming, so it's only natural and within reason, that I go ahead and remove my nostalgia towards the company with a corresponding level of reservation

Last but not least, it feels a bit ... off to applaud, ironically or not, Nintendo for screwing with folks, just because you personally don't like talking to folks while playing. That is fine, but I think the opposite ought to be true as well.

And just as a sidenote, because I mentioned Destiny, that game is unbearable without a community and yes, that means friends or acquaintances to talk to. Friendly chit chat makes for half the experience here, if you take that away, or if you impede it enough to make it a hassle (something Nintendo does better than anyone one the planet), it just becomes an unreasonable proposition.

I hope the Switch will - unlike the WiiU - be able to retain it's current momentum, so that these kinds of decisions won't come back to haunt them.

From what I understand only the phone is needed for voice chat really. This is likely Hori's way of getting both chat and in game audio at the same time

You can't blame Hori for trying to figure out a workaround for an extremely laughable, poor and archaic design choice from Nintendo. As usual though, the defense force is out in droves. Even seeing some people that usually have logical points defending Nintendo though.....

Spaghetti junction.
Not interested

Looks like a slightly fiddly way for people to say what they did to each other's mothers and spout racism. Oh well. Nice looking headset though.

@Menchi187 Exactly...
Also, if Nintendo was a phone company they still would be pushing it rotary style.

Looks like I'll be continuing to use PS4 party chat with my buds.

LOL. Yes, it's complex, but this thing's hardly a mess. Headset is connected to a hub, which you connect your Switch and mobile phone to. Again, not ideal, but hardly a mess either.
Is this even the only solution to voice chat? You could only connect your headset to the phone and call it a day.
But hey, we all need a little bit of drama on the internet every day, so...

I knew that article was there somewhere!

Anyway, from that picture not gonna lie, it looks clunky.

Yet no one actually held and tested that thing and yet we're calling it a failure......

So what about dock mode? Those who are interested really going to sit in front of all that (if this set up is the only option) looking like an operator?

This is the funniest thing I heard so far today. Needless to say, that this is one of those things where I don't take Nintendo serious. Concerning the Switch this is Nintendo's stupid moment part one.

@Luna_110 That's true. Which is what makes this sloppy joe set up seem like the only way unless something is announced otherwise from goofy Nintendo (a.k.a Bell Atlantic).

I've never really used voice chat for anything, so I don't necessarily know what I'm missing out on, and I completely agree that it would be great to see an alternative to this setup, but to all of those cursing Nintendo for making this the "only way for ppl to do something as simple as voice chat...", may I present to you: https://www.showmecables.com/3-5mm-stereo-jack-to-dual-3-5mm-stereo-plug-6-in?gclid=Cj0KEQjw9r7JBRCj37PlltTskaMBEiQAKTzTfDFYsowTcAAG33fSnAjQLVyWbWZrG9IXQ2_SpcUWgiAaAliV8P8HAQ

We'll see what happens if they discuss the app at E3.
Personally, I think it makes TOTAL sense that all of the hip millennials at Nintendo noticed a huge segment of gamers using Discord instead of native chat and said "hey, let's just do that."

Came here looking for overblown complaints about small, unimportant, arguably non-issues. Was not disappointed.

Geez, just update the bluetooth drivers in the Switch to deal with this sort of thing, Nintendo.

@Ralek85 I see what you're saying, and I think Nintendo's fine with that. They know your profile as a customer and they know you're not really their main market, but they still win if they can convince you that what they offer is worth buying later on.

You have to consider "who is Nintendo's market?" Is it the gamer that wants to play Destiny? Why would that be Nintendo's target? That customer can already play on PC, X1, Scorpio, PS4, PS4 Pro, and do so with voice chat and with wires and tethers, and graphics excellence and whatnot. Nintendo's clearly positioned as the system for people different than the customers the other systems have loyally courted. So there's 3 platforms for gamers that love their voice chat online games. OTOH, I play online games on my chat-less Nintendo consoles (and will buy the subscription at least at first), and don't play online on my PS or XBox platforms (which I foolishly DID pay subscriptions to until coming to my senses that I don't use them.) and I haven't played PC games online in a decade or more. Nintendo's package appeals to me as an online platform because it IS the different one. Back when I played PC games online you had to TYPE everything you said to people! You learn to type fast when you're getting attacked I had left for a while and came back and was HORRIFIED when I discovered voice chat was even a thing, and more horrified when it was just as bad as it sounded.

So one platform appeals to my online play senses, 3 appeal to yours. Fair enough.

But Nintendo added "a way" to do it this time. It's clunky but for someone that wants to only play Nintendo, it now exists. Without modifying what some gamers find appealing about the way it is.

FWIW, Iwata was in your camp. He wanted universal voice chat on the WiiU and as overruled. One of the few places I strongly disagreed with Iwata

But I for one am glad that there's not "one universal march to the same exactly console from every company", that would be a dreary gaming landscape. Voice chat standardizing in game platforms is for some people a negative, and it's nice that there's one platform that offers an alternative experience.

As for Destiny....are you honestly saying that the gameplay is not compelling enough to warrant your time without it being a conference call app? Is that supposed to be a positive for the game?

@NEStalgia "But I for one am glad that there's not "one universal march to the same exactly console from every company", that would be a dreary gaming landscape."

I feel pretty much the same.

There would be no need for such a monstrous device if Nintendo weren't stupid enough to force voice chat through your phone instead of building in native voice on the switch. Decisions like that remind me that Nintendo is still somewhat out of touch with modern times

WTF

@AcridSkull When docked, you'll need a 3.5mm extension cable or two. A problem that doesn't need to exist in the first place, but it'll work.

In practice, when you combine how inconvenient this is with the severe limitations of their voice chat itself (it seems like it won't allow you to chat with the people you're playing with unless they're friends) it will probably just be a niche feature that nobody really uses.

Don't forget to ground it to a metal surface, plug it into your friends phone so they can hear you and plug it into the wall for power. And point the antenna east - west for good reception. Yep

@NEStalgia First off, my most basic point has and will always be this: What is the harm? I mean, you can use your PC despite having all kinds of option for voice-chat on it, right? Starting from old school stuff like Teamspeak down to more modern versions like Discord. Same goes probably for every other non-Nintendo system you might have purchased in the last 10+ years. All of them have integrated options for voice-chat - options being the operative term here.
You don't want to use them? Then ignore them, it takes (as far as I can tell) NOTHING away from your experience with the system.

The logic behind Nintendo's approach kind of escapes me. I used to reason, that their thinking was that it would be safer to sell to kids this way, but that made no sense since the WiiU had an on-board video-chat with zero default parental controls (and there is that, parental controls exist), plus the Switch itselfs seems not really target at childern, but teenager and upwards.

This brings me to your argument, which to me is less a "why", but a "why not", meaning why should Nintendo care about the audience they might loose by that particular approach.
Well, first speaking only for myself, I'm not their concern, I grew up with their systems and games, and besides the GBA, I owned every single one of their platforms since the SNES. In short, I've been playing their games for not quite a quarter century, and I think I'll probably continue to do so until one of us dies off.

I'm not everyone though, and the empirial evidence of this is the every declining Nintendo homeconsole sales, without the exception of the Wii. Contrary to popular believe, the WiiU was not a surprise, it was selling about as much units as one would project based on every other homeconsole - again except the Wii.

My point is this: Nintendo should be thinking about being inclusive rather than exclusive. Generating new 'gamers' worked for the Wii, and it might work for the Switch as well, combined with revitalizing the core and drawing back in some lapsed gamers, but that is a) not yet a given and b) as shown by the Wii-WiiU transition not set in stone for all eternity.

So hence, I loop back to my original argument: What is the harm if people were playing Destiny on the Switch? It would only be a harm, if Nintendo would loose something in the process, but again, I don't see how that would be the case - not in this particular instance.

Also, and like I said, I say this as a loyal customer of more than two decades ... this is just silly. I mean, a platform holder like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft is always also perceived as a tech company to some degree, and while in this case, credit mostly goes to Nvidia for once and not so much Nintendo's engineers, this once picture up top is just an embarrassment in 2017. I mean, millennials ought to be their target audience, right? On that much we cannot possibly disagree, becaues of that ain't part of their core audience, then I don't know who the hell we are talking about.

Well, as one of those, I'm embarrassed when I see that contraption. It's not even charming in Virtual-Boy-way, where something was equal parts silly, eccentric and yet ahead of it's time. This is just really, really silly.

I mean, think about it this way: Grown men running a publicly traded billion dollar company thought this was a good idea ... thought it was alright to even put a picture like up on the interwebz. I'd put it this way, if this were to concern anything even remotely more crucial to the Switchs success than voice-chat (which we had no hoped for anyways, definitely not since the January presentation), I would be genuinely shocked by the lack of in-touchness on display. Please bear in mind that we are talking about Nintendo here, who made a business out of being out of touch.

This is not the good kind of out of touch so, the one that explores unchartered territory beyond the beaten path. This is the silly and obstinate kind, making you wonder if they are for real.

So no, I'm sorry, but I can't fathom how this could be true: "Voice chat standardizing in game platforms is for some people a negative, and it's nice that there's one platform that offers an alternative experience."

You say it's true, so technically it is true, but to me that is equal to me saying, I won't support the PS4 because it has a share button. I will never use that share button, as I'm less than keen on social media, but that is the extent of it. I don't use it (point)

As for Destiny, yes, that is exactly what I'm saying. The game is meant to played with others, while cooperating with others. Meaningful cooperation is not possible without communication, certainly not the first few times around, where it's absolutely crucial.
If you've ever played any MMO(RPG) this can hardly come as a shock to you. The difference between this and Destiny is simply that chatting can't be done in a 1st person shooter in the same way it can be done in the likes of Lineage or DAoC or WOW or whatever - not to mention that I find chatting without a keyboard not viable, and keyboard + controller just doesn't work for me - I only have two hands after all.

I remember the transition from mostly-chat to mostly-voice-chat and that was somewhere between late DAoC - when it became evident that PvP demanded a level of precise and instant communication, chat could simply not afford - and the beginning of WoW - when Molten Core proved that a similar level of precise and instant communcation was necessary to have 40 people working properly towards a common goal. (Not to mention that at around the same time, games like CS and Day of Defeat, to name but two, presented the same Destiny'esque hectic-shooter-situation problem).

So yeah, I know exactly where you are coming from. I learned typing when I realized that I would always be behind the respective conversation to the point where itw as either a) shutting up entirely or b) learing to type rather quick, but again, that does nothing for certain other situations, where there simply isn't any time, not even a little, to stop acting in game, or where the information that need to be conveyed are to complex to handle even with proper typing.

Allf ot that is partly besides the point because mostly it's simply that I like interacting with people I play with. If I'm not interacting with anyone, then there really is no point playing online to me. I'm not even that big an online player these days, but if I do, I like to have some chit chat, that is one aspect, but also I like the depth that actual cooperation provides.

Because make no mistake, a game even like Splatoon is a whole different beasts, when the whole team is actually communication and coordinating. It's just a different expierence. It's not necessarily "better", as it can be quite exhausting, but it's still different, and to me, like I said, preferable, if I bother to play online at all.

Frankly, I enjoyed Splatoon mechanically more than Destiny, but in Destiny I actually made acquaintances, I still play with almost 3 years later, even if we are no longer playing Destiny. In Splatoon that never happened. Online was just Splatoon with (mostly) very good bots. I could as well have played offline. I grew bored of that rather quickly, and went back to Destiny, despite not making any excuses for that games shortcomings and repetitive nature.

One game presented me with a thriving community though, readily accessible without a hitch, and the other simply didn't.

TL;DR:
That is my point then, I don't want just a good game, I want a good experience and interaction with others, is part of that experience (if we are talking like Splatoon, Arms, Mariokart, SSB etc., not when we are talking Zelda of course).
Nintendo SU**S at doing the framework, that makes up the experience just as the game itself does. It's not just voice-chat per se, it's the lack of chat-roms, voice or otherwise, a proper friendlist, where you can seamlessly invite players, contanct them, join them etc., clans/guilds (or what you may call it) and a bunch of other so-called features.

I'd rather be playing a fully feature enabled Splatoon 2 than Destiny 2, but that is not going to happen, because I won't be able to convince any of my buddies to get Splatoon 2, because a) the lack of said features, but also because b) they don't take Nintendo serious - and I can't blame them, because as you said, Nintendo does not take them serious, so why would they?

Or they could update the Switch firmware to support bluetooth headphones/headsets...

I would just stick to Discord on my phone with earbuds. It works just fine for me, no matter the game or platform.

Yeah, this is totally less complicated than all those other "bulky headsets." Why put voice chat right on the system when you can force people to keep their phone next to it at all times?

I think it's fantastic. I'm fed up with plug and play...😁 😁 😁

Why can't they Bluetooth link to the phone?

Yup, convoluted mess. I don't use voice chat anyways. Of course, I don't really bother with any of the online features beyond buying games and playing them online.

@Yorumi To be fair, I imagine when docked they'd want you to use the TV for game audio. Still a mess though.

Seems to be a few cables missing! Like the one to charge my phone because it's a 4hr phone call.

I think I'm one of the only gamers in the world that doesn't really do voice chat in game anyway, so I'm not gonna make a fuss of this.

As for everyone else... You have my condolences.

I don't see what everybody is complaining about. There's literally no change from the way things were before. For me headsets have always had cables. And when you're connecting to something like this it's always going to be some convoluted setup.

@Ralek85 I think a lot of that is really off to the side though. Most of what you're talking about is a comparison of wanting voice chat to be possible in the game, versus not. What we're talking about with Switch is voice chat using two wires instead of one for those who wish to participate. If we're talking about millennials as a target group, what are the odds of that group NOT having a smartphone? Using your device designed for communication for....communication isn't nonsensical. Not having it built into the console means for people like me "nothing changes". For the people that do like voice chat it means you use your phone and a second wire. It's weird....but it's a way of doing it without clashing the two groups.

And were I to be destiny, I'd be that silent teammate that can not hear you, and does not speak with you Which is then a different set of awkward when some people chat and some don't. The trouble with online chat is beyond the abusive people online, there's too many people with very different personalities randomly thrown together. They're going to clash. You always end up with multiple "leaders" and those that just by instinct bark orders, and more times than not those tend to be children. Dealing with annoying people is something I'd rather be paid for than pay to do I'm certainly not alone in that thinking. Entertainment is an escape FROM people for a lot of folks. Even if we take the community here, can you honestly say you'd like to flip on NL Voice Chat and hear everyone in here talking? There's a higher than average percentage here I'd say are probably decent enough people to chat with. But think of that other 40-70%... So many people that say "I want voice chat" are saying "I want voice chat with people I already have in my phone's contact list", not "I want voice chat with random 17 year olds with anger management issues!"

Though we're having two different debates here.

Debate 1: For vs against voice chat. Clearly some people love it. Also many people like me don't and don't want to be subjected to it. Nobody can win that argument because we have very different wants in that area.

One place where voice chat is divisive as well, is, Ninteno seems focused on building systems to be played in a communal environment with other people. Voice chat works well if the other people in the room are playing the same game (in the same lobby) but not if they are playing a different lobby, playing something else, not playing games, and/or the player is not a bachelor/angsty teen holed up in their room alone. Screaming "SHOOT THAT **#@ NOW!" in a room with 3 other people is probably not a very good use of shared space That might be another reason Nintendo doesn't have an interest in it.

Debate 2: Voice chat on Switch. It's there, it's slightly awkward in that it uses an extra cable and your phone. It can be a problem if you don't have said phone. For anyone that does, it means one extra cable. I'm guessing a big part of it is the fact that you don't have a headphone jack on the Joycons, so you can't bring the audio away from the console, while the phone CAN be brought away from the console. Though solutions like this are an issue since iPhones don't even have a headphone jack now....

@TreesenHauser Haha I hope no one died laughing. But anyway, yeah I don't chat on games a lot either. The game I chat on mostly was for RE games (PS4 or XBOX). I'm just poking fun at this nonsense, so it's not a big deal.

I do understand the logic behind not allowing voice chat via console Bluetooth because the battery. But this demonstration by Hori, and they tried their best with obvious circumstances, is just shameful.

I said this before, but consider the set up in docked mode with the player sittng in front of all that.

Jeex peeps! Just wait UNTIL E3 when we get all the deeds

@YeshaYahu5417 Yeah I was thinking the same thing! In docked mode that's gonna be an uncomfortable mess.

How embarrassing.

This is the best ad for Discord I've ever seen

@RainbowGazelle BUT THE PORTABILITY!!! SO MUCH PORTABLE

Even the PS Vita have BT and a party chat in the console...

Poor decision from Nintendo

The way I see it is - this is only confirming everyone's deepest, darkest fears in regards to the Switch's online voice chat. In that, the smart phone is essential.

Is it really so much to ask that it be done with the Switch alone?

Why do we need to use a smart phone? - Not to mention, my Iphone 4S is likely not supported (like with most of their most recent games). Just because everyone has a smart phone, doesn't mean we're all up to date and have a top-of-the-range phone.

Let's be honest - this whole situation stinks. Nobody wants to use their phone. If they were smart, they'd have been aware of the huge backlash regarding their insane/weird smartphone idea and done some changes.

This isn't going to be good.

I personally can't stand voice chat, but this looks awful.

Zero chance of me getting a headset for Switch. I'm not using my phone to chat. What a joke.

Well, this had better at least work flawlessly. If there are connection issues, lag or anything else that just doesn't work, it'll be an even bigger joke. If it works, though, it might not be such a big deal. We'll see.

I'm not personally invested as I only really play Animal Crossing online and I don't even do that much anymore, but still think it's an odd decision.

I think Nintendo are doing this because they didn't want to dedicate system resources and bandwidth (RAM, CPU cycles, etc) to voice chat, in order to maintain solid frame rates in Switch games. Thus, they're offloading the processing of it on to our phones.

I had a rather complex setup so the game sound would come through my headset, but the microphone would go to the computer so I could commentate on my videos. I may get this, if Nintendo fixes the issue where plugging something into the headphone jack mutes the TV sound (and thus the recording)...

I lovemy Switch but this..... No! thanks Nintendo! Realy loocking forward for new PSP, hope Sony will make it right.

I love the outcry. You watch, Nintendo will explain their system and suddenly everyone will be like "Oh, why didn't we think of that?"

I have zero interest in voice chat. I don't want to actually speak to people online. But lots of people do, and this looks utterly ridiculous. I don't understand it.

Shouldn't it be as simple as as the headphones plug into the console or better yet, connect wirelessly? What's the point of the phone?

@GravyThief the phone will have the chat app, Im guessing it will be something like discord or simialr app

I dont know why they dont just make the app a Switch app , I can only guess but its probably to make chats 100% private and not open

@NEStalgia I entertain seriously doubt that anyone will use this? Why would I pay for this stuff? Like I said, there are dozens upon on dozens better and cheaper solutions out there.

I agree about your point as far as randoms are concerned, but you can mute those and that's not even what I'm trying to get it, like I said, my primary concern is having convenient, easy-to-access platform wide party chat. That is what I use on a daily basis, and to me, having that informs a community. 15 years ago, we had ventrillo oder teamspeak servers ... today we have party-chat rooms (all of that still exist of course, but I kinda migrated to consoles over the years).

Again though, I have no reason to buy such an adapter and bother with a phone, the adapter, a headset, the Switch and three cables - I use a wireless headset on PC/X1 and PS4 and that is it. I'm to lazy and cheap for anything else - frankly, Splatoon is not THAT great. Overwatch is at least as much fun, and I don't have to go through all of that hassle. I think Nintendo would fit greatly from a game just as Overwatch ...

As for Destiny ... don't take this the wrong way, but no you wouldn't be the silent guy on my team, because I wouldn't be playing with you. It normally works this way, I turn on my Ps4, I decide I want to play e.g. Destiny, I check the open voice parties on my friendlist playing Destiny ... and I take it from there. In short, I don't play with randoms, and thus I don't play with folks who can't or won't communicate - not anymore at least, as I've acquired enough folks on my list to play with.
Not to mention that playing PvP without voice is pointless, unless there is a SIGNIFICANT difference in skill, you are just putting yourself at a severe disadvantage, esp. in the Trials - just a waste of time and nerves frankly.

I'll stick to my argument, that I don't see any harm in optional, opt-in voice chat. I still haven't heard a single convincing argument against it, and the evidence in favour it is overwhelming seeing as any other platform other than Nintendo, has been doing it for over a decade, and for the life of me ... I don't see issue.
By the same token, to me this "solution" is not slightly awkward, it's useless. I wager it will only be used by the most hardcore of Splatoon fans, and about nobody else. I won't have a cable running from the switch to the adapter, to my phone and across the room to my headphones - which again are wireless for christ sakes. Unless Nintendo presents the best multiplayer game in the history of the universe, this stuff is hard no for me.

They don't offer anything in exchange for jumping through their arbitrary hops and so I won't do it, and I would encourage any reasonable consumer to do the same. Again, playing different groups against each other just strikes me as wrong on any level, so I'd say not supporting it is definitely the right call.

@ValhallaOutcast thanks. I've never heard of the discord app before either. I've never used voice chat on any console so hence my ignorance, but I just don't understand the need for any form of app at all, whether on the Switch or a phone or whatever. I just assumed the functionality would be part of the console and game, embedded in the standard online functionality, no need for a separate app. Seems like a right chore otherwise.

@boatie aren't these made by hori?

As everyone has already said, this is pretty effin dumb. Maybe if we make a big enough outrage Nintendo will actually listen to us?
I mean they didn't listen to anyone with Federation Force and that game was one of the biggest financial flops in the company's history, so maybe things will change this time....

Well so far every Hori accessory for the Switch has been looking horrible.
It would be really easy to solve this problem If Nintendo could just finally get their head out of their rear and support BT audio...

But why do I care? I don't even like voice chat because it's more of a distraction to me than any kind of help. So in that regard, I totally support @NEStalgia .

@GravyThief Discord is actually a very useful site/app! Not only is it free and easy to use (so it's definitely better than Teamspeak), you can also use it to make conference calls with your friends, in a non-gaming context. I've been recently using it for exactly that purpose.

People are really overreacting. There will probably be a bluetooth headset available later on.

All nintendo has to do is release the app one the phone that lets you communicate with friends. Problem solved if the app allows voice chat.

Wow Nintendo, you screw up something that should be so easy to implement.

Don't buy this, as cool as the actual headphones looks, I will not be patting Nintendo on the back for this overly convoluted and unnecessary mess. I'll just stick to google chat or actual phone calls.

@Ralek85 I'll have to take a raincheck on adding to this for now as I have a few text walls with a few people in different threads and I don't have enough time to reply properly to everyone, and we're definitely of much too different interest groups on this to have much to compare so I'll have to let this be the dangling thread (sorry!) I'll say only that your concept of friends-only is actually a little MORE in line with Nintendo's thinking than I think you realize.... console-based voice for most people means voice with randoms. If you've already narrowed it to friends you're not really an open-voice proponent either, and that group work chat you describe applies mostly to certain games (and short of Splatoon are certain types of games Nintendo isn't likely to have much of anyway.) I still don't see a problem with a platform that isn't seeking direct feature parity with others and forges its own identity. In that regard this solution just muddies the waters as a half-way between caving to feature parity and sticking to their guns and saying "no voice!" In that regard maybe WiiU did it better.

@shani @gravythief I can second Discord, it's a great little app. It has a runaway habit of draining my phone when unattended...we'll see if Nougat helps. So far so good. I don't really much use the voice features on it, but even as a chat medium and group get-together medium it's just fantastic. That it couples voice if so willing is that much better and a lot more convenient than console base chat since you can coordinate with everyone when you're not even at the console and seamlessly join in. I imagine that's also part of what Nintendo is going for is a walled-garden version of Discord for their very own....and in a Japanese context, making a stab at entering Line's territory. Line=Life over there.

Then again even with the fun I had with friends in Splatoon I can't see myself going back to doing it like I did before. Trying to coordinate schedules between groups of different people is frustrating and/or makes you play out of guilt when you don't have time, so I'm probably going to avoid the friends route and go more random this time around. Much fun as the group was!

Nintendo could easily fix this nightmare by having a normal in game voice chat and friends list just on the Switch itself and without the need of a separate smartphone, with only software changes.

I don't think they're going to, but they could.

It should also be noted that, for this set up to be sustained, both your Switch and your smartphone will need a power source as well, which means 2 more cables that need to lead into an outlet or battery, as constant voice chat on your phone will quickly drain its power.

What a tangled web we weave...

this is not going to work for me. my switch is docked next to the tv, I can not run a cord across my lounge to it cos of my kids running backwards and forwards. its just not an option.

Looks like I'm sticking with Discord. This is an absolute disaster. Who thought this cluttered mess would be a good idea?

Also, you'll need to plug a charger into your phone, 'cos its battery will definitely drain fast. Same goes for the Switch itself. :/ What a laughably stupid design.

This is a mess. I'll use Discord.

2017 TECH WITH 2007 SOLUTION. I will reserve full judgement until the whole thing has been unveiled. Whilst i think the whole mobile thing is ugly i understand that it derives from the systems portability. Nintendo just announced their online subscription at an incredible price that everyone is going to jump on, they now need to figure this out like...............well like everybody else already has!

Nintendo better be working on a Bluetooth solution.

@Meaty-cheeky

I think you're asking the wrong question here.

Bluetooth functionality would just be helping people cope with the poor voice chat set up, not solve it.

Rather than ask for a solution that makes this convoluted voice chat system that requires a smartphone sightly more manageable, people should be asking for the friend management system and voice chat functions to be completely integrated into the Switch itself and not require a separate smartphone at all, which as I said earlier, can be done with just software.

Heck, built in voice chat was available on the PSP, which came out in 2004.

There is no advantage to voice chat on the Switch requiring a smartphone, it's simply a barrier that's so convoluted that most people won't even bother with it in the first place.

You can even allow the smartphone app to also, by itself, allow voice chat with people in your friends list, because both the app and your Switch would be linked to the same account.

Even as a dedicated fanboy, I can not defend this approach. It's simply a joke...

@Vee_Flames Or you could just connect the headset to the controller, like the other consoles. This whole phone thing is awful. I'm not up to scratch on my Nintendo policies, but is this to act as a blocker to children using voicechat? What about older children, or even adults without a smartphone? Why have this hurdle to communicate...and then have the audacity to charge for it in 2018. Oh yea, its only $20 so we should all feel humbled. Screw that.

No thanks I'll give the voice chat a miss. That looks an awful set up lol.

What the actual "Firetruck"

Facepalm, just facepalm.

I miss Wii Speak.

It's very backwards for 2017 and 2018 onwards especially when similar devices for other consoles/PC are wireless.

@NEStalgia

Whether or not I'm a proponent of open voice chat is besides the point, because I'm certainly not an OPPONENT. As long as it's handled well (mute-function, opt-in/opt-out etc.). it does no harm to anyone that I can discern.

Many of the folks I play these mp games with now (Overwatch, Destiny, etc.), I met at one time or another playing with randoms, striking up a conversation. Hence again, I don't use it much these days anymore, if at all, because I have no need for it - not because I'm opposed to it. That's a big and crucial difference.

Yes, you are right, many games this be pertinent to, will probably not be on the Switch anyways, but that by itself is a big problem, because - just look at OVerwatch right now - are some of the most popular and economically viable games in the industry right now.

This is also a chicken-egg-problem, because why would these games be on the Switch, when Nintendo itself sends out strong (albeit mixed signals looking at their sell for the Switch using e.g. Skyrim of all things) signals, that they rather not have these parts of the gamer community on their system anyways - this "solution" is ONE of those signals btw.

It's important to understand, that to me voice chat (or really party chat) fosters a community outside of any individual game. Like I said, many people I met playing Destiny, when the PS4 was the hot new thing on the block, I also played Overwatch with, or Fifa, or Bloodborne, or Alienation, or any other non-shooter title that I might ended up playing at one time or another).

It's very neat to have this kind of gaming community at your finger tips, where you can log into and log out off whenever you feel like it. Hell, it's neat to just have this place where you got some buddies, real-life and online, hanging out, where you can just join and see what's everyone up to, even if you just want to talk about games and aren't even in the mood to play.
You can do that outside of the system, Discord etc., but integrated is better, because then you can instantly transition between chatting and gaming, literally at the click of a button.

Neither the Wii/WiiU family of systems nor the 2DS/3DS family of systems ever offered a comparable framework to create an online community, and honestly, I think that su**s - pardon my french. It's true though, it's just something I instantly miss when I play my WiiU, and I also think NIntendo is missing out on a opportunity head, to get people attached to their ecosystem by way of making it a place for social captial. Basically, it's a kind of low-key social network, that's mostly about gaming - without all the string attached to similar networks. Abandoning this - and I think this will really come back to bit Nintendo in the a** eventually - is a horrible long-term business decision.

Next to branding, attachment to an ecosystem is the most important aspect any company in this line of work is chasing - for good reason. Look at Apple, their branding is on message, like few others, and with the invention of the appstore and itunes, they have millions upon millions of users irrevocably invested into their ecosystem. Same goes for Facebook, albeit by a differenct - a social rather than economic - process.

They have created capital that is not inherent to their actual product but still inseperable connected to them. This is a HUGE part why Apple is the most valueable company out there.

Last but not least, the Switch was billed as the device to let you "Play whenever, where ever and how ever you like!". Are you suggesting, this is a proper voice chat setup to use outside? No matter if you are sitting in your garden or on a plane? It's not .. no one is going to use it outside of his/her living room, if at all. It's too much hassle to setup, to much stuff to carry around and just ... all of these cables kill any portability whatsoever.

In short, it's not an apporiate design to correspond to the vision of the Switch - by definition it's a poor design then.

PS: Sorry if this was text-wall'ish again, but I think this time at least, I was able to be concise and get my point of view across properly!

I'd like to point out that online chat for Xbox Live has always been on a separate sound channel from the game sounds by default, so this setup is going beyond what the Xbox Live system does.

I'm not a fan of online chat, so this has zero impact on me.

@Shellcore I'm not saying that it wouldn't be better if we could just plug in a headset. I'm just saying the solution's a needlessly complex one, but hardly a mess.

@DankeyKang89 Right idea, wrong cable (you need 3 poles on the MIC side) but illustrates my basic point:

It is neither "convoluted" nor "hard" - people are just pretending this because they don't like the solution.

Most of the 'musings' about Nintendo not knowing what they are doing, how the product is a flop (already sold out in Japan == flop apparently) are par for the course really, and kind of re-enforce Nintendo's solution path.

But at the end of the day, people are hand-wringing about an audio joiner. Because in the 21st century, everything is really hard

This is outstanding. Its like they let their competitor design their voice chat "solution". Hopefully the hub has 3 different proprietary ports so a specific type of chord is required for each

@MrKai "Sold out" doesn't quite carry the same weight when dealing with Nintendo as they probably plan to produce 4 or 5 total units for release day

1.) replacement wire - $65 - Zelda Triforce wire - $90
2.)The wire will be too short
3.)Wire extension adapter $50
4.)I can see it now., 4 friends sitting around a switch at the coffee shop all of them with massive amounts of wires talking on headsets through their phones so they dont have to talk directly to each other.

Will this require a LAN connection?
Couldnt Nintendo have partnered with AOL to come up with a better solution?

"Further input from this headset, and smart phones and games consoles to mix and a voice chat while listening to games! Neon pink ear cups are also included and can be replaced in the favorite color."

This is gibberish, not a "translation". If you're going to quickly run a tweet through Google Translate, you could at least make it grammatically correct first.

So how are you supposed to use this when the Switch is in the dock?

This is just a small mini-mixer. . . with an extra channel for the voice chat. Nothing complicated here - you get a much clearer signal form wired connections in this manner. Quite nice really -
I play with my Switch docked on my coffee table and hdmi'd into the projector under the coffee table so no worries about cable lengths for me. .

@Priceless_Spork I already said they won't but thank you?