I just can't see gamechat succeeding. Especially if it's paid.
I think you're being a bit dramatic. It has a free trial period for launch but once that's over it's not something you're paying outright for on its own. It's part of NSO. You know, the service you have to pay for to play Mario Kart online, access the NSO games etc. The one we subscribe to to get Nintendo Music. The service that Nintendo reported last year had ~38mill active subscribers. That service
Also I know people comparing this to discord but do you think your colleague who got a Switch for Switch Sports knows what discord is? What about your sibling? You think the person walking into target asking for "the Nintendo" knows? This is a different kind of user, to them this is a one click and it works thing
I don’t think the Gamechat feature will be super major but I think it’ll be okay. I enjoy chatting with some friends through the PS5 voice chat sometimes. It won’t revolutionize things but I don’t think it’ll be some huge disaster either.
At worst it’ll just be something that they taper off of focus later on in the Switch 2. The amount of hardware dedicated to it is not surprising. Considering Nintendo made the 3DS which required running 2 screens to function for its 3D gimmick and they eventually used that feature less and less anyways
I've certainly used the built in voice chat on other consoles and having a simple way to share screens across different games seems like a nice feature. It's probably the low frame rate of the shared game screens that has me unsure of how to feel about it.
Beyond that, I'd say the part of it I feel is most interesting is online game share. If that's stable enough, being able to show off a game to a friend and then have them jump in seems cool.
I just can't see gamechat succeeding. Especially if it's paid.
I think you're being a bit dramatic. It has a free trial period for launch but once that's over it's not something you're paying outright for on its own. It's part of NSO. You know, the service you have to pay for to play Mario Kart online, access the NSO games etc. The one we subscribe to to get Nintendo Music. The service that Nintendo reported last year had ~38mill active subscribers. That service
Also I know people comparing this to discord but do you think your colleague who got a Switch for Switch Sports knows what discord is? What about your sibling? You think the person walking into target asking for "the Nintendo" knows? This is a different kind of user, to them this is a one click and it works thing
I think this will be a fairly popular service
I mean... yes? If someone regularly games, I expect they know what discord is. It is an extremely popular thing, not some hidden internet secret. That's why everyone is immediately comparing this feature (negatively) to discord. Because discord does such, but without forcing its users to watch three other screens @ 15fps.
I dont think the service will be popular. It's nothing new, its not novel. It's non essential for any games. If you could just voice chat without it, that is the option the vast majority of people will choose.
Believe it or not, most people don't actually play games online so they can be gawk3d at by other people. I can tell you my experiencing raising a mixed race family, that I had to take my kids off these online services because they are populated by such vile, loathsome and racist individuals.
I believe seeing our faces will simply amplify the racist effect, and I don't need to use it amongst my friends - we will play in person and when we play online I know what thet look like and need no further elaboration. When my kids are destroying people in Mario Kart, I don't want some loser shouting at them "at least under trump ya'll are kept in your place" before hastily logging off.
Because that's what the world community is like now - uneducated cheaters populating jobs they have no clue how to do because in college they had ChatGPT do all their schoolwork who still think I should take their uneducated opinions seriously on a myriad of topics. I don't have much patience for extended discourse with my fellow humans, nor do I personally want to look at everyone's ugly faces. Right now the human race is on my crap list and when I go online it is purely to eviscerate people competitively so I feel a little better.
We live in different times. I think this feature would have been popular ten years ago and without the hitching at 15fps.
That said, im not sure how we would even measure its success. Nintendo is not going to reveal how many users are actually taking advantage of Gamechat, soooo...
I don't think Nintendo will remove GameChat like Microsoft removed XB1's Snap feature but I could see a 3DS style solution where Switch 2 Pro releases alongside the next 3D Zelda game in like 2028/2029 and for certain games, you can't use GameChat on a base Switch 2 at the same time as playing.
Considering Nintendo confirmed the existence of the cancelled Switch Pro in the Switch 2 Ask the Developer interviews (meaning that the Switch OLED was originally Switch Pro), Nintendo's handhelds (and the hybrid Switch) have all had the following except the GBA:
Base console (GB/DS/3DS/Switch)
Cheaper console close to the system's first new Pokemon generation (GB Pocket with Gen 1/DS Lite with Gen 4/2DS with Gen 6/Switch Lite with Gen 8)
If someone regularly games, I expect they know what discord is.
That's a load bearing if. Most gamers are not gamers in the sense you're describing. Also awareness is not the same as regular use or ease of use. Especially away from the PC and in the living room
Because discord does such, but without forcing its users to watch three other screens @ 15fps.
And that's the thing isn't it. VoiP and IM in console gaming isn't new, not on Nintendo's hardware and certainly not on other consoles or platforms. Been around for decades. But sharing the screen of a console across multiple users in a group? Doing that in a low friction way to the average user? Less so
Also if you're going to trash something before even using it at least get it right. GameChat supports 12 people, not 4. Also it's using a portion of the GPU to automatically detect/scale/crop the camera feed. Nvidia has stated as much. And it's doing all of this on a mobile SoC. I would argue a 15fps video feed is a fair sacrifice, I wouldn't want it reserving too much of the SoC for this at the cost of power consumption or performance elsewhere
Believe it or not, most people don't actually play games online so they can be gawk3d at by other people. I can tell you my experiencing raising a mixed race family, that I had to take my kids off these online services because they are populated by such vile, loathsome and racist individuals.
Then don't add those people to your friend lists, because it's limited to your friends list
Frankly, again, you're being dramatic. If you want to throw in your personal anecdote and take then let me throw in mine. I'm a software developer, I have a CS degree, I'm a huge computing nerd. I know all this tech stuff, I'm well aware of discord, screen share, capture cards, the works. None of this is new to me..... but I'm still personally pretty interested in GameChat. Why? Because my friends and family are not CS majors, they are not tech nerds, they play games but they are not "gamer" gamers
As an example, I want to and have in the past played games online with my sister who lives across town. Setting up discord would be, frankly, impossible. Way too much friction. Never happening. Even so, there were times during the Switch generation where we did play online with each other. Sometimes spontaneously when we saw the other person was playing Animal Crossing, for example. But those interactions within games were inherently limited because we more-or-less both had to be in the mood to play the same game and both had to have the same game
But GameChat and GameShare even to the extent we've already seen it? .... I could see us using that. Frankly I would not be at all surprised if we end up occasionally booting up Clubhouse Games and talking crap over President. I'm also tempted to grab a copy of Captain Toad for Switch now it has GameShare on Switch because I remember us wanting to find time to play that together on Wii U and just... not finding the time for it on the occasion we do catch up in person
So yeah, I don't think you understand the average user. I think you're all being a bit dramatic and negative. I think this will be fairly well received and a core part of the console. Especially if they can reduce the friction for the service to end users which, frankly, I think they appear to have done here
As an example, I want to and have in the past played games online with my sister who lives across town. Setting up discord would be, frankly, impossible.
Although I agree with everything else you said, I played discord games a lot over the pandemic with people who were incredibly un tech-savvy. My mother is terrible with computers, doesn't even know what a web browser is (she thinks of it as 'the internet') and lives 3,000 miles from me, but I was able to get her on video chat discord and set up some simple party games like jackbox very easily. I agree discord requires one person to know how things work, but only one.
Ignoring video, I agree the basic voice game chat on Switch 2 will have an even lower bar to entry. I think it will be used, just not by the majority of people.
@FishyS
I would argue that the pandemic was a fairly strong motivator for online social entertainment like this. People pushed past those friction points in ways they wouldn't have otherwise. And I'm a firm believer that people can and are able to do a lot more than they think they can
But we're talking about a feature that literally has a dedicated button on the controller. It's going to be VERY low friction. That's huge
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That's a load bearing if. Most gamers are not gamers in the sense you're describing. Also awareness is not the same as regular use or ease of use. Especially away from the PC and in the living room
It's not load bearing at all, it has only one presupposition: do you game regularly? If yes, you know of discord. Yes, not everyone who knows of it uses it. That is the entire point! If these people actually were interested, they'd already be using the superior discord they know about.
They're not going to suddenly buy a 50 dollar camera app so they can view 3, 4, 6 or even 93 screens at 10-15fps. Whether it is technically impressive or not to you is irrelevant; if the tech must do this to function, it is simply not ready for prime time.
Nintendo disagrees. They will simply learn once they discontinue it at the end of the generation since 8% (note: all percentages are, of course, completely hypothetical) of the user base will actually utilize it.
And that's the thing isn't it. VoiP and IM in console gaming isn't new, not on Nintendo's hardware and certainly not on other consoles or platforms. Been around for decades. But sharing the screen of a console across multiple users in a group? Doing that in a low friction way to the average user? Less so
It's not frictionless. It runs like trash, requires 3gb of ram reserved and you can't opt out of it yet as a developer. By definition that's friction, and a ton of it.
Also if you're going to trash something before even using it at least get it right. GameChat supports 12 people, not 4. Also it's using a portion of the GPU to automatically detect/scale/crop the camera feed. Nvidia has stated as much. And it's doing all of this on a mobile SoC. I would argue a 15fps video feed is a fair sacrifice, I wouldn't want it reserving too much of the SoC for this at the cost of power consumption or performance elsewhere
Christ... >rubs forehead<
my point is it doesnt matter if youre only viewing one other player or 90 the screen still runs at 15fps or less down there. Inherently unattractive and sore on the eyes. If engaging in this way seems interesting to you, have at it! Im sure there will always be a group who use anything no matter how dysfunctional it is. But not me. They need to at least provide options for developers to opt out so it doesn't waste so many resources on a garbage bin feature. Don't force me to engage your ancient gimmicks when they're not even innovative, Nintendo, thank you!
You can. That's what this is. The video is optional. What are you even talking about
Dude, I know you don't need to have a video chat, else everyone would be required to own a camera. What I am saying is it is not optional because developers cannot access any of the tremendous amount of 3gb RAM reserved partly and predominately for its functionality. Even though I can personally opt out of using it, my switch 2 will be hobbled for the future for getting certain games because these limitations will make porting certain titles much more complicated.
You may be okay with that trade off for a laughably outdated piece of video chat technology that is "optional", but I am not. Let me just use the voice chat, and let developers who think gamechat is superfluous ignore it as well by accessing some extra RAM.
Im glad you and your sister will connect over this dumpster fire videochat, genuinely. I don't have to like something or approve of it to hope others enjoy it. But im sorry dude, its simply garbage compared to discord, and discord doesn't cripple an already outdated piece of technology. Switch 2 needs every bit of extra gas it can get to stay relevant in the long term which is what I actually want: a Nintendo system that can actually get competent ports for most of the gen, and not another situation where the second ps6 and Xbox next come out 90% of third party games are forced to avoid the platform again. For a friggin' derpy ghetto version of discord that i have to pay for? No thanks
The more I see discourse around this system the more I just want to quit gaming. It's probably my last system because my god, experiencing this back and forth in every forum, every comments section, every article and YouTube video getting so overdramatic and vitriolic over what people are doing with their own cash and how bad it is or isn't just....god.
Since January 16 I think I've aged about 20 years. It's like being back in the 90s.
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You shouldn't let others impact your enjoyment of something. I read reviews for things but always ultimately make my own choice with what I like and what I can live with. Often I disagree with consensus and its not world ending , it is gaming not getting a doctorate, ya know?
That said, today is far worse than any time in this country in the past 100 years. The 90s looks like leave it to beaver compared to what's going on now. People keep treating things like its normal times, but it is not.
Everything you wish not to be impacted by the world and politics and all notions of just wanting to "game" will be a quaint memory soon, because things are about to get even worse, not better. This is what happens when we don't take our civic duty seriously.
Pretty soon everyone is going to wake up to the fact the old world is dead and gone. We have crisis in education due to cellphones and A.I., anti-intellectual movements motivated by racism and xenophobia. The usa just lost its last AAA credit rating. Things will never be the same and it is all downhill from here til the day we die. There's no turning back this clock in our lifetimes. A lot of suffering ahead for a lot of people.
Eh, I think video game discourse has always been a cesspit when on the internet. Heck even before the internet became as easily accessible, in the days when console wars were more 'in your face'.
Drag X Drive - August 14th
Super Mario Bros. Wonder - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - September 18th
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - October 9th
Mario - October 23rd
Kirby Air Riders - November 6th
Pokémon Legends: Z-A - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - November 20th
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment - December 4th
Pikmin 4 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - December 11th
Clearly much higher resolution, more detail on background building, way more Pokémon on screen at once. This is definitely what the game needed alongside improving that terrible framerate. Crossing my fingers Links Awakening looks as nice!
Does anyone know if the custom controls per game is for all Nintendo Classics systems on Switch 2 or only N64 and GameCube? I seem to only be able to find confirmation for those two consoles but might have missed if it's been announced for all
@skywake I do have friends who are casual gamers, and siblings who don't game at all- and all of them use Discord. Discord may be marketed towards gamers, but it isn't just for them. A lot of people made accounts for it in 2020 because of the pandemic as a way to keep in touch with others. It's also the leading free option for voice chat.
I just don't see many getting any use out of GameChat. Especially given how resource intensive it is, and how awful the videos run when there's more than one displayed at a time.
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