Nintendo of America president, Reggie Fils-Aimé

One feature of the Nintendo Switch that has caused frustration among its fan base is the way in which the console handles voice chat. Rather than having voice chat features run directly through the console - just like the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One - the Switch relies on a separate smartphone app which must be connected to the game you're currently playing.

To say that players are unhappy with this decision would be an understatement, with online reactions to news surrounding the dedicated app seeming almost exclusively negative. When Fortnite released on the system this summer, the game proved that voice chat could be implemented directly through the Switch after all, but Nintendo is still committed to using the app and actually updated it to support more titles just last month.

So why did Nintendo choose to use an app rather than having the feature run through the console itself? Well, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé discussed the very topic during this week's Seattle's Geekwire Summit, after changing the topic slightly from a question which asked about fans' concerns regarding a lack of dedicated servers for online play. Here's what he had to say:

"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."

Do you agree that using a mobile phone is the easiest way to voice chat with your friends? Would you rather it was done through the console itself instead? Feel free to share your thoughts on this one down below.

[source arstechnica.com]