Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aimé On Why The Switch Uses A Mobile App For Voice Chat

No no no...

That is simply non sense, he said that "the mobile phone is always with you" but so is the switch for that matter.

"mobile phone. It’s always there, it’s always with you."

Yep, if only this phrase wasn't about your phones and was more about Switch, people would be ecstatic. That's exactly why we would have wanted all the apps and controls within the system itself, not outside (yes, I am aware that this requires computational power/battery as well). But that's still what is wanted.

"Nintendo's approach is to do things differently"
And here lies the problem.

Also:
"We believe the easiest way for you to connect and have a peer-to-peer experience with voice chat is with your mobile phone."

Confirms they won't bother with anything other then p2p for online multiplayer.

What dafuq of nonsense is this? O_o

Being Different is good, but Nintendo must be careful with their statements or it will bite them like Wii U's case.

Someone needs to explain to Nintendo that they don't need to be different than their competitors, they just need to be better. Better beats different every single time. Just ask Apple. I think Nintendo decides to be different simply because they're lazy. It's likely why Nintendo has been so slow to get with online gaming.

Who uses voice chat when playing games on the Metro? That would require you to connect your Switch to your mobile data on your phone while using your phones data for voice chat. What a lot of nonsense Reggie spouts!

Options... Nintendo lacks O P T I O N S.

I really like the Voice App

It's ok to have your phone as an option for voice chat, for those who don't have a headset for their switch, but we also need the option for voice chat on console, for those who don't have a phone (and want it simpler)

This was the same interview where he says they aren't competing with Sony or Microsoft, they are competing for your time against all entertainment.

"That time you spend surfing the Web, watching a movie, watching a telecast of a conference: that's all entertainment time we're competing for."

To which I say -

Well if that's your concern, simple solution, put a web browser and Netflix and Youtube on Switch, problem solved. You stupid stupid overpaid mouthpiece of a man.

This guy is worse than Pachter.

@JDORS
Nintendo in my opinion is Not a Cookie cutter.
They cut the Cookies.
They want to proof that being Different is Cool.

This is one of my biggest gripes with Nintendo (even though I seriously doubt this is the true reason in this case). Just because you can do something differebt doesn’t mean you SHOULD. By all means sometimes its a good idea; the DS, Wii and Switch can attest to that. But other times, not so much (N64 Cartridges, Mini Gamecube Discs).

I don’t play online so not an issue but seriously do I want to be using my phone if playing some coop?

@cfgk24
How do i download the Voice Chat from Google Apps store ?
Is that Regional Apps since i live in Indonesia and Not all Apps are available in my country ?

@rjejr First off the Switch really doesn't need a browser and they don't want to put one on there due to webkit, and of course it will be webkit based due to Netfront being the one who has provided the browser to Nintendo in the past. The YouTube app on the 3DS was used an attack vector to get access to the system. Right now the only vulnerability on the switch is one with the hardware, that was fixed with a minor revision.

I never play on parks or my grandmother's table -she would kill me and my cousins if we did it while we should be eating lunch when we go there-, but I do on the bus. Every day. But I don't see myself speaking in the middle of a vehicle filled with people who would stare at me. Let alone screaming with joy or anger in Mario Kart 8.

That explanation is not convincing. Why do Hamster releases rely so much on modes you can't play on the go, for instance?

This is like when Sony was saying that they were not going to support crossplay because PlayStation is the best way to play (Of course prior to just recently).

Reggie, you’re a cool dude, but what?

Nintendo is for middle class families, plain and simple.

If you are a working class or poor class family who's trying to live like the Jones's then I guess this is for you too, but you should really be spending your money on food and education.

Basically, if you own a Switch and not a phone wyd?

*edit: Also if your kid doesn't have a phone because you don't trust the internet then why would you want chat features built into the switch? If you trust your kid with voice chat in a game then you should trust a kid on the phone and social media.

This is Reginald just after his speech about the voice chat...

LOL

My gawd. Lol

Before we get more comments in, I'd like to point out one thing: Reggie doesn't make the (occasionally asinine) decisions that Nintendo of Japan makes, and this is one such asinine decision. So before people start harping on Reggie to "stop talking nonsense," we should all realize that he has almost no control over the decisions made and is tasked with somehow justifying said decisions. So if you think what Reggie is saying doesn't make sense, it's likely cause there isn't any other reason to justify Nintendo of Japan's asinine decision. It must be exasperating to hear people's complaints about asinine decisions and be tasked with somehow justifying said asinine decisions without barely having any ability to influence said decisions or actually implement the improvements people request.

I can't get behind the sentiment of being different for the sake of being different. There may be some truth to the mobile phone being the most convenient way to cover all situations, but I'm not going to be voice chatting on the bus - not to mention it would burn through your data in no time.

I feel for Reggie. He has to defend the decisions made by NoJ in which he has no say. An argument for the voice chat app is to protect children from unsolicitied chat from randoms. However the parental controls on the switch are great and they could have easily implemented strong parental control over the voice chat on the system. It’s a baffling decision by NoJ.

True, when out and about, you almost always have a phone with you that you can use. But if only there were a device I ALWAYS had with me, when playing my Switch though... like the Switch.

As others have mentioned, a phone is also connected to a service. Many kids don't have their own smartphone. I know several lower income families that don't have smartphones. It just seems to be a ridiculous and arbitrary limitation, especially since we've seen Fortnite side step this circus.

@shadow-wolf I agree with you. I don't even think Reggie believes what he is saying here.

@Smash_kirby That's fine if they don't want to put it on, but you can't have a bicycle and say you are competing with motorcycles if you dont' put an engine on it.

If they want to compete for people's time then they need the things on Switch they compete with. If they ONLY want to compete for gaming time then they ARE competing with Sony and Mcirosoft. You can't say 1 thing and do the other. Well unless you're Reggie, that's apparently his job, spouting nonsense.

I don't like Reggie.
Really wish Nintendo of America would fire him...

Lamesauce 🤮

""Nintendo's approach is to do features worse than others, or not at all. We have a much different suite of inconveniences than our competitors offer, and we do that in a different and even worse way. This creates a sort of yin and yin for our consumers.
They’re frustrated about the lack of cloud saves for particular content and local back-up in general and wish we would deliver voice chat in a normal way, but Nintendo of Japan won't let us so I have to somehow spin this in a positive way".

Fixed the first paragraph for ya Reggie, I'll leave fixing the rest to the lovely people in this comment section xd

Top quality feather ruffler Nintendolife! Never change...looking forward to seeing this meltdown unfold.

I don't have it with me

See the app would be fine if it just worked as:

A) A lobby system when you want to chat to the whole room
B) A private party chat system connected to the system, allowing you to chat exclusively with friends so you can chat in any game (like Xbox and play station)

I think I understand why the app exists, ultimately I think its to keep the Switch only needing to run the game, rather than background apps. In that regard it makes sense.

What doesn't is the stupid level of restrictions to the app! Sort it out Nintendo. You come up with great designs but just learn from your competitors for once! Your online needs a lot of improvement and the Switch online service should of provided those improvements. Instead were just paying for what we basically already had for free!

I don't find the idea of a voice chat app to be all that bad of an idea...in principle.

It means that the Switch's (relatively limited) power can be reserved (almost) solely for the games...that part makes sense to me - I'm on board.

...but the issue is that the functionality of the app is just WAY too limited.

No third-party games are supported...
You can't just start a general 'party' and have the freedom to voice chat with your friends in any game you want...
You can't message your friends, or even simply invite them to your game through the app...

I could buy in to the concept if it was better executed...but, as it is currently, I think that it provides a woefully sub-standard experience and so have limited use for it (aside from SplatNet 2, which is awesome!)

@NaviAndMii Haha looks like we had the exact same thought at the exact same time

I almost feel sorry for the poor dude trying to come up with something creative to cover the stupidity of his superiors at Japan, I mean the voice chat issue on Switch it's not he's fault

@Nukuleardawg Oh wow! Haha! Yeah - just noticed that!

We - the hive mind - have spoken!

"Nintendo is committed to doing things different. That's why this crap is coming out of my mouth right now." - Reggie.

See, this is what fuels the Nintendo haters. Dumb stuff like this. Reggie should have vetted that statement before saying it... hmm, you should use a device that's always with you...like, um, the game console perhaps? "No, your phone." Oh...

Yikes, I’m probably the only person that likes the app. Love having my phone next to me on my sofa, or in my pocket, and having wireless earbuds connected. And texting friends from the same device - just makes sense to me rather than switching between U.Is on Switch.

Nintendo will probably never admin the real reason for the phone app, however I honestly think it is smart. Not because it's the ideal way to implement chat, but because I think Nintendo already knows from a power perspective, they are behind their competitors. By not adding a system wide voice chat, they're actually opening up additional memory/CPU/resources for game developers to use.

This is similar to the reason that video recording in game is optional for developers. By using the phone app, they don't have to reserve system resources for chat. I also believe this is why the dashboard and system wide features are so slimmed down. This is a way for them to get more power out of less for both first party games, and to attract additional 3rd party developers who are already working under constraints when porting their games.

Non sense and sad. Voice Chat, Group Chat and a Folder Option are my biggest wishes for the Nintendo Switch. It's already one of my fovourite consoles, but that would make it nearly perfect.

"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."

No, Reggie. NO ONE wishes that. Go spout your lying BS somewhere else

they really come across as just arrogant thinking that they know better. if they didnt have the 2nd strongest IP in the world they would be bankrupt

I don't think the App is bad if it was an option for on the go gaming but it should also have it built into the system for when you are home. I'm pretty sure in this day and age you could make it to where the system works with the app to switch from one to the other.

My Switch is always with me when I need to chat while playing a game on my Switch. Why would I ever want to juggle two devices on public transit, given his example? Nonsense

the option is fine; requiring it is not fine.

reggie has to say this but i do wonder if he also thinks this is a stupid idea. or maybe he loves this trash. who knows.

and wait; what is the switch connected to in that park playing whatever online? does he expect hotspots on the phone and chat or something? or i guess some public skeevy wifi.

"N; we have no clue what we're doing!"

That’s such a non-answer I think that time actually fell back the two minutes it took him to answer.

Slightly changing the topic? Sounds more like he strayed off elaborating on another example he used to illustrate the same point. The answer to P2P vs servers is right there at the beginning - "Nintendo's approach is to do things differently". XD The things they choose to do differently, to be precise. The voice chat case only goes to reiterate that listening to consumers and heeding consumer whims are completely different things. "They wish we might deliver voice chat in a different way, but as you can plainly see, we have no such intention to announce".

As for voice chat itself, never cared about it personally, and I'm not quite sure of the "one device" convenience when the one console I've ever found myself situationally needing some kind of multiplayer talk on couldn't even switch opened apps without disconnecting the whole game first. ^^; And the only eyebrow raiser I find in Reggie's words is, how many people would be inclined to use a game's voice chat on a bus anyway? ¿:^)

Sometimes Nintendo should just listen to what works with competitors etc

Hahahahaha. This is BS. The phone is with u at all times. Yes. But so is the switch when u want to play it on the go.

I'm not really convinced with this answer, like many here. This is an utter bull crap excuse as Fortnite proved that voice chat can work by just plugging any headset into the headphone jack and talk normally. This "different approach" thing is a bad excuse, and Nintendo needs to at least do like Sony and Microsoft did, especially in this matter.

@jockmahon

Mario isn’t the second strongest IP in the industry

I honestly couldn’t give a w´f,mpwfmp about voice chat as it’s not even that important to begin with.

As a father of two, I appreciate Nintendo's stance on voice chat through a phone only because it works in my favorer. But I like this for a completely different reason then what Reggie is talking about. However, as a gamer myself, it's extremely annoying! In my opinion, Microsoft's community, including chat, is the best in video gaming. I never had an issue on my 360 with connecting with friends and chats during gaming. Plus, with the 360 they had an excellent hub where you could see what your friends were up to. It was easy to access and smooth. With the PS4, I get bombarded with spam messages from gamers I never even played with and the interface is cumbersome.

This is up there as one of the dumbest things he's ever said.

Just because it's different doesn't mean it's better, Reggie! I know I'm not doing all that to chat on a game. I'm 40 and would rather have it easy like my PS4, PC, or XBOX ONE! I'll just at my Switch without the chat, thank you very much!

@NewAdvent Switch already can use built in voice chat. Nintendo refuses to use it for their Ip's

@frabbit no, I wholeheartedly agree with you!

Don't agree with Reggie here. I do love the fact that Nintendo marches to the beat of its own drummer but the phone app idea is horrible. Switch needs to be an all-in-one setup.They need to try to move on from this ASAP but my guess is it won't happen until the next hardware upgrade (hopefully). And where are my Netflix, Youtube and Amazon apps? Hulu works great on the machine and this would make it more attractive for buyers.

The entire online service is a joke to begin with. They still haven’t given me a reason to pay those 20 or 35 bucks and I’m not doing so until they give me one.

"We want to do things differently, even it means doing things badly. "

If I was playing my Switch online, then I'd need an internet connection, which I'm not likely to have out in the open now, am I, unless there's WiFi nearby? And tethering my Switch to my phone would only make latency horrible so I don't see that as a viable solution for a lot of different types of games that require the lowest latency possible. Online gaming on Switch is more likely to happen at home, and I don't want to have to use two devices to do so.

How can you bury your head in the sand so much and not admit to what consumers keep shouting in their face? No one is happy about things being handled the way they are and everyone has been saying so ever since the app came out. Did they listen and put the rest of the time they had until switch online launched to work out a different solution? Nooooo! They pressed on.

The sad part is that the system is now a year and a half old, and it's likely too late to fix that. So many games already out that support voice chat on other systems and which don't on Switch. The devs behind those games won't go back and implement whatever other solution Nintendo may come up with. Look, NO THIRD PARTY is supporting their frigging app and can't even see that it's a bad idea from the get go. And I'm pretty sure that there are ways to make a lightweight API that runs at all times in the background of you game, on the CPU core reserved for the OS, within the RAM constraints of the OS which is pretty barebones to begin with. The people at Discord have already offered their help if Nintendo don't know how to work it out. But noooooo, of course not, Nintendo want to be different. Well Nintendo, your way SUCKS! Just because you want to be different doesn't mean you have to ignore the obviously better solutions already out there. It's not copying what the competition is doing, it's using frigging common sense!

Wait, I can play online games with switch offline, and speak with other ppl at same time? ok, it's true, until know I didn't have that experience at any other console.

Sorry Nintendo I may defend you on a lot of things, and specifically I do defend you a lot because different can be better.

But this is not one of those times. It just isn't. I know of no one, I mean NO ONE who likes this set up more than just having the voice chat integrated into the system. There are people who are apathetic about it, or tolerate it, but I know of no one who actually likes this set up more.

Why not have a voice chat app...and built-in support? Oh wait, Microsoft did it, so I guess that's not "different" now.

Discord forever, I suppose. Better audio quality and I can use it in the menus too.

Also, I can't think of a single reason why you'd use the app away from your Switch. Doesn't it need the Switch to even function? You can't even create or join chatrooms! If it at least had that, I'd consider it useful. It tethers itself to specific games. Why do games need support for this?! It's ludicrous.

Obvious nonsense, and is just PR talk.

ofcourse Reggie needs to defend the app its his job.

@WiltonRoots don't you love it when they make 5 different articles about a single interview, always resulting in 5 meltdowns over different days?

If people here are interested, you can watch and listen to the whole talk in-context here:
https://youtu.be/ROE_zV7Ntjc?t=219

Just because the article doesn't point to the original source doesn't mean you have to be uninformed.

If I wanted to use my phone for voice though, there's a million different apps that allow me to do that.

@gortsi I wanted to mention that - I could just go to arstechnica and read the whole article in one hit, but it won't be as much fun as watching people getting out of their prams...the powers that be at this site are happily poking away at everyone and they don't realise it.

@Hams96 Not integrated with the Switch.. A good voice chat application can facilitate VC with randoms and team based VC..
That's what gives a dedicated VC application so much potential.

@pjzelda Netflix I think wants Nintendo to pay to have the app on the switch. I personally like watching things on my laptop while I game, Myself.

I think this is just marketing spiel to get around what is ultimately a kinda clunky solution (part of which was no doubt done the way it is to save Nintendo a few bucks)--and I think most of us already know that.

@FX102A Uh, cartridges were smart with the N64. Faster load times and it was stronger than its competition. Only downfall was the high production cost. But, the N64 still houses many games that people come back to.

Likewise, the GameCube was very powerful and the smaller discs made load times nonexistent. And again, many games people come back to. Hell, a controller everybody comes back to. And Nintendo too.

@impurekind Reggie is actually only marketing at Nintendo. He's not pulling any strings.

If Nintendo Japan says they change things, then Reggie will say the same thing.

The guy needs a slap WAKE UP different in this case is not better.

Different is not always good ! And in this case it’s total crap compared to their competitors :3

Don't tell me what I like. Ha ha.

@NinjaBadger Depends who you ask. If Nintendo did the exact same thing as MS and Sony then nobody would buy a Switch. Because it would have the same weaknesses as the competition but not the same level of third party support.

Different for the sake of being different is the problem.

What utter drivel, oh you always have your phone on you if you're in the park or somewhere. Well guess what you still need an internet connection to play the Switch online and guess what else you'll have to have with you? Yes, your bloody Switch!!!!

I'm not mad at Reggie. He has one of the toughest jobs in that he has to trumpet the will Nintendo and not deviate. Therefore, he has to defend Nintendo, even when he himself knows how dumb something is. I gotta call a spade a spade on the voice chat app: It's not a great idea, and here's my thoughts on it.
My phone may always be with me... correct. But how often am I going to use voice chat if I'm not in a position to play said game with voice chat compatibility? In other words, if I'm ready for an online gaming session, my Switch has to connect to the internet, I fire up said game, hop online, and THIS is when I would need to use voice chat-- DURING the game, IN the game. So it makes zero sense to me why I need to fire up another device to do this when Fortnite has proven a developer can straight implement it in. It's backwards thinking. Now, I'm all ears if there's TRULY a legitimate explanation Reggie/Nintendo can give me, but this extremely weak explanation of theirs is not going to cut it. Keep NSO, ditch the voice chat app.

PS: Since MK8, Spatoon 2, etc. were not implemented with built in voice chat, I pretty much think the voice chat app is here to stay this generation and don't think any version updates will implement it in. It's something either a Switch iteration or successor will likely have to address, but I know Nintendo hears us loud and clear about this.

The switch is also always with you if you are playing it in those places. I'm a Nintendo fanboy and I don't use voice chat ever, but even I know this is rubbish.

People do realize this is probably just all PR talk right? The actual reason much of the online functionality is tied to a mobile app probably is out of Nintendo's intentions to keep OS bloat to a minimum

@sanderev I'm talking purely about voice chat. The current method is not good at all and sounds like it's not changing.

Just a friendly reminder that ANY phone will work (even ones without phone service). So what difference does it make if it's plugged into the Switch or another mobile device?

Clearly Nintendo wants to recreate the DS experience by using cell phones with their switch, get over it

Wait, so the reason for phone based chat is because you might be playing Switch online multiplayer out in a public place. So you need voice chat to go through your phone so you can be connected while in public places.....while you play your Switch.....online.....connected to the internet.....

So you need your phone. For internet. Because you wouldn't have that internet connection while you play your switch......online......on the internet......

Yo, dawg.....

"Well the reason why we're so terrible is because we're Nintendo & Nintendo likes to do things differently, even if it's a bad idea." Nice to see Reggie back on damage control.

So now I have to drain my phone while playing the switch.

Imagine sitting in the park with your switch. There is WiFi coming out of your bench because it’s 2018. Your using your phone to use the voice chat, all is good and fun.

Some random dude walks by and stabs you in the neck 14 times and steals your switch. Normally one phone call would solve this all. But you can’t because your phone battery is now also dead because of the app.

Y'know whats also always with me while i'm playing it, Reggie? My Nintendo Switch.

@MikeW Why should someone be fired for doing their job?

He'd better be silent than say something this stupid

@NinjaBadger I know. But if nobody uses it they will change it. Money talks. Even for the Big N.

They could just do both approaches and let the users decide the one that best suits their gaming habits.
As a user who plays mostly at home as myself, having the voice chat directly implemented on the console would be much better.

So, I hadn't fully watched the interview when I posted the link to it here, but you guys seriously need to watch it if you want to say anything in-context and informed about this topic. This article almost completely pulls it out of context, misrepresenting the whole idea that Reggie conveyed..
Here's the link again:
https://youtu.be/ROE_zV7Ntjc?t=219

I don't think voice chat would work natively on the Switch in all situations. I love that the system has wifi capability but so many free wifi hotspots require a web browser to finish the connection and the Switch just can't do that. Heck, even 3DS had a web browser and couldn't really do those kinds of hotspot connections easily. Maybe if Nintendo did a complete overhaul of the OS and introduced a web browser to connect to places like Starbucks wifi that require an extra step, then it would make sense to have voice chat natively on the Switch and that would lend itself to the argument I'm seeing all over these forums of "my Switch is always with me too." Or maybe if Nintendo introduced an LTE capable Switch. But the fact of the matter is your smartphone has LTE, it has a web browser, it can connect to all kinds of wifi hotspots and it can in-turn hotspot it's LTE to the Switch. Get a pair of Bluetooth headphones and the voice chat works great. Now, channel your anger on this subject in to promoting equal rights or ending world hunger or solving climate change......move on already.

He contradicts himself as noted by many here.

Doing things differently is not reinventing the wheel. There is absolutely nothing innovative in making a bad service that nobody wants to use when you have a standard of communication that everybody uses.

Heck even the keyboard layout wasn't changed since inception due to the fact that people get used to doing same things and the actually more frequency based keyboard layout is better it's experience is bad.
Same with communication people are used to it as part of the console/PC not some other device and that's a fact.

Another issue with this horrible app, a lot of countries don't have it on their App Store so it's not a Global App as it should as the Nintendo de facto voice app. Can someone explain why is that?

@NaviAndMii If only Nintendo were as intune with our thoughts

@Yasume Same

I think nintendo is using the phone app as a way to lock out children from voice chat without actually locking them out so they can't talk with strangers, since most dont have access to a smartphone and their parents wont lend them one just to chat with strangers online.

Not everyone has a smartphone, amazingly. Especially children may not have them. While they may have access to Switch. Not to mention I need mine charged for work related stuff, I don't use smartphone for games.

Sometimes there's a reason everyone does things in the same way. It's the way that works.

I know this apparently isn't the whole transcription, but there is a psychology to the idea of being different from everyone else. The idea is that all, but one of the options, are pretty much nearly identical, the one different option is radically different, and in theory, this different option cements itself for being the only option with major differences. Note, that I am not saying this always works. It's just a tactic.

But wouldn't your switch also be with you if you were planning on using the voice chat at all

Ok..........But why not also have voice chat on the Switch as well. You can have multiple voice chat options, you're not restricted to just 1 way of doing things.

@Notshane Unfortunately those advantages were not seen of equal value by 3rd parties, many of which all but abandoned Nintendo during the N64 era as they sought more data for cut-scenes, orchestrated soundtracks and voice acting.

"Nintendo's approach is to do mindnumbingly stupid stuff and justify it in mindnumbingly stupid ways"

Corporate “bs” that’s no different to miiverse vs Facebook. Nintendo could have implemented Facebook into the Wii U, but instead, the failed miiverse(which I actually used and wish was still here) was suppose to be the Facebook of games. Well, this voice chat app is no different, a failed attempt at something that Nintendo wants to do that’s”different” then the others just to be different. Well, unlike miiverse, this app is actually a bad idea and should go away now.

Well this will be changing soon.

No company has ever made these type of statements in relation to a feature they have that has been vastly unpopular if they are not currently revising their own strategy.

This statement was a test by Reggie, he wanted to see our reaction.

He got it.

Mark my words... There will be a change in a month or 2.

I am a nintendo fan and somewhat of an apologist, but this is nonsense. Doing things differently is fine. However, their voice chat solution is just stupid.

i rather like the idea of using the phone as a speaker phone with an app running on it. I hate wearing headsets. Mind you I also loved the idea of a controller with a touchscreen and look at how the Wiiu did lol.

Why couldn't Nintendo just improve the online options the Wiiu had? They had a foundation that they could'ave built upon. But they wanted to be different, again.

@JDORS
Exactly, they aren't being different for any other reason than laziness.

Everyone loved the fact that they didn't have cloud saves, voice chat and proper friend management on the switch. I mean, who wants basic features like that when you can wait a year and a half for a **** set of NES games to play.

Nintendo are different in their games and their console, they are simply ******* lazy when it comes to developing them or giving their loyal customers even basic OS features.

It's too bad Reggie can't outright tell the truth, as it would look bad in the press, but at least the consumers could accept an honest answer and not some silly PR spin that justifies nothing other than stubbornness, which isn't even the reality of the situation. The Switch has a fast UI because it doesn't have numerous background apps bogging down the processor. Yes, Fortnite has built-in Voice Chat, but that's Epic's doing. There is nothing stopping other 3rd party devs from doing the same if they so choose.

I fully understand why Nintendo is handling Voice Chat in this manner, however there is much improvement needed. As others have already pointed out, the phone app would be fine if it functioned more like Discord. Allow party chats for crying out loud. That should be the simplest feature to implement, and would relieve so much bickering. I mean, you could also just use Discord, but whatever.

Lastly, could we get some folders and sorting options already??

@BubbleMatrix82
I'm an adult with a phone and make 100k a year. Even I don't want to use my cell phone for voice chat in my games. That battery is for my GPS, when I need to look something up, the trivial amount of power needed for music, email, work email, texting, and emergencies. This usually drains my galaxy s5 of power before I even get on the train in the evening to head home. I don't want to be using such an important device in my life for anything game related. Not only do I not have space on my phone for a Nintendo voice chat app, but I'm not even putting games on it. Sure I have my keygen for blizzard, steam, and googles version, but my work key is on it too. I barely justify discord and the psn app on my phone. I get pissed when LinkedIn wants me to install their app instead of giving me a web portal for mobile.

I'm not going to upgrade my phone just for this app. I can't justify using discord on my phone instead of my PCs discord app or psn/xbl party on the machine I'm using. I also don't want to be tethered to another device.

So it isn't just money that is the problem here. Its convenience and an established standard that needs to be added onto, not replaced with a less convenient and convoluted solution. Money is a factor. Even for the middle class. The lower middle class can afford phones, but they aren't buy galaxy s 9 and iPhone X s. They usually by the low end and keep the features on the cheap. The fact that you would even use the middle class as an example of those who could excuse this baffles me.

"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. "

In other words, he's assuming that every person in the world with a Switch owns a smartphone and has it with them 24/7. Which kind of offends me a bit.

@sanderev Well that's kinda my point: Reggie is really just marketing 101.

http://img.picturequotes.com/2/35/34601/just-because-you-are-unique-doesnt-mean-you-are-useful-quote-1.jpg

Change different to difficult and he'd be telling the absolute truth

"We like to do things different. Its like the yin and yang. we give out customers something they love and can't get enough of, as well as something they hate and makes using our product very difficult. Classic Yin Yang." 👍

I've been saying it for years. Reggie can stay on as CEO, but NOA desperately needs new PR and new spokes person.

"Nintendo's approach is to do things *differently"

*Stupidly

I’ll likely never use voice chat anyway but the phone route is silly regardless.

@JDORS Apple is a prime example of better not beating the competition. Apple phone would have to be better than Samsung or Google phones for this to be true.

I cannot contact my PS4 friends with my Switch to play a game, but I can on Discord.

I cannot contact my Xbox friends from PC, but I can on Discord.

Take a guess where better options lie.

@mctrials23

What really galls me about Nintendo is that they say they need to be different, and yet almost all the games they release are sequels! They say they need to be innovative and so they give us Labo. Cardboard peripherals! It's never been done before! But how exactly are cardboard peripherals superior to plastic peripherals? And no one cares about the peripherals if the games suck. For Nintendo, "innovation" and "being different" are just excuses to cover up how lazy they are.

Lol good try Reg. His answer infers "hey guys not my call. "

This...makes absolutely no sense. "It's always there, it's always with you"? Uhm Reggie, I don't know if you've realized this, but the NINTENDO SWITCH IS ALWAYS WITH YOU!!
Provided you have some sort of Wifi Hotspot to connect to, you could very easily implement voice chat into the console itself. Fortnight has proven it, and I bet plenty more games will prove it, this type of thinking is just asinine and it just goes to show sometimes Nintendo's motto of "doing things differently" really does get taken too far.

Being different can be good. But being different just for the sake of being different is generally a bad idea, and in Nintendo's case often results in really bad choices...

"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."
Hmm, you know what else is always with me when I am playing the Switch.... The Switch. The app is stupid and a terrible decision

Heres the problem with Nintendos logic. For the longest time, Nintendo has been the leading renovator of the gaming market. Always doing new things and always progressing forward with many others following their footsteps. Projects like the Virtual boy may have been bad, but they were innovative for their time. Now that theres so many different innovators out there in the gaming market, Nintendo is no longer different for their innovations, and is instead trying to be different from others innovations. And that just doesn't work when the innovations they try to be different from actual work well. When Nintendo innovates, they're great. When they try to be different for the sake of being different, the results gets messy.

@Anti-Matter hmm, It's the Nintendo Switch Online App - Don't know if it's not available in your country.
I'm patiently waiting for Dragalia Lost here in the UK.

The microphone and camera had to go because of battery life?
Maybe the next Nintendo hybrid is capable enough to sustain things we already had on dedicated handheld (Nintendo DS) and home (Wii U) consoles. Can't even say Nintendo is slow, because Nintendo had all those things last gen.

They are afraid of Japanese pedos trying to pick up 12 year old kids again like with the 3DS.

Hopefully the negative press for this gets so bad Nintendo is forced to come around, much like Sony had to during the PS4 Fortnite debacle.

Doing things differently does not mean doing things well.

"We believe the easiest way for you to connect and have a peer-to-peer experience with voice chat is with your mobile phone."

Jesus.

wow the big clumsy idiot defends the idiotic chat. Can this man actually think for himself. Lets hope nintendo never decide to move into transport wed have cars with square wheels and planes with no bloody wings.

Heres a thing on my xbox i plug a headset into my controller and it works. Simple on my pc I plug it into my microphone socket. and my tablet and phone they use this radicle new technology called bluetooth.

@NinjaSyao love that rewrite - perfect

In this case doing this differently means doing things stupidly.

What an idiot. My 9 year old didn't have a phone. My 7 year old doesn't have a phone.

How does that make it easy?

Easy would be if it just WORKED, in game, out of the box so to speak.

@BensonUii

Um. Because they like to play with their cousins and friends from school..

Of course Nintendo doing what they want instead of what the consumers want

If being different is what they aim for....how about not paying to use online services that aren't selling points in this day and age?
That's one thing Wii U had over the other consoles was free online and I loved it for that.

"Nintendo's approach is to do things differently"

That's great but doing things differently just for the sake of it doesn't always make for a better solution. You're better off going for what the consumer wants whether that's a different approach or the same as the competition imo...

"Nintendo's approach is to do things differently" ...whether it works well or not

The app is terrible for voice chat.

I totally understand if they want to be different - in some cases that is a good thing, but I'm gonna have to disagree with Nintendo on this one. If anything, I think having an actual headset is better for voice chat. What if my phone runs out of battery juice? Too bad, I can't voice chat until I charge it! Listen Nintendo, I love you guys, but that is a pretty silly reason to have people use the app for voice chat. At least make the app an option and let players use a headset

I call

You can clearly tell this guy worked in marketing. I find his spin really tiresome.

@SegataSanshiro
Exactly. Reggie is an ex-marketing exec from Addidas. He sells snake oil by the 55 gallon drum. So tired of his ridiculous double-speak but he seems to have his fans, for whatever reason.

What a load of crap! The switch is always with you as well. There's no to complicate something as simple as voice chat especially when the system can already do voice chat on the system as proven by fortnite. This type of "innovation" for innovations sake is precisely why the wii u and star fox zero failed. Don't try to fix what isn't broken

He's got a tough job. Always explaining Nintendo's quirky and out of touch decisions. In the meantime, he gets to have more to sell off of the people who buy it.

Gotta respect his skill and his professionalism.

For once Nintendo you guys are doing it all wrong, now quit this Switch app voice chat thing or else you'll be the joke of the gen again.

Go blank yourself Reggie and tell the morons you do PR for to do the same. No excuse for this garbage, none.

Maybe someday Nintendo will realize doing everything differently doesn't mean you're doing everything CORRECTLY... maybe. Not within our children's children's children's lifetimes though.

It is dumb. Fortnite proved its unnecessary.

Reggie is such a typical spokesperson. He will spin something and make it sound "positive" no matter what. Just another moron that's completely out of touch with reality.

He's basically implying that this mobile app is the only way to do things. But why can't Nintendo do what Epic did with Fortnite? Why can't they give people the choice of using the app or connecting in a friendlier way just the way Fotnite did?

Give OPTIONS, Nintendo, OPTIONS...

Alright. I have a suggestion for reggie- I call it the S.T.O.P. Method.
It stands for
S- ssssssssttttttttoooooooooooooooooooooooooop
T-
O-
P-
doing this

I dig it, lol!

Rubbish. I’d rather they just said “I won’t comment on it” than giving us this poo. Maybe they wanted to put NES games instead of newer games because they wanted to do something different than PS and Microsoft. Then again paying for online services isn’t different. LOL. Yes I know, this is just an quick made up excuse. It’s still funny though

@BubbleMatrix82 you seem to have entirely missed the point. Maybe you were to busy owning things to read carefully.

Having to use your phone is inconvenient and adds unnecessary complexity. Thats the main problem and i dont see any argument that justifies it.

Nothing that has tried the second screen trick has worked. Most famously the wii u. You seem to compare the switch and phone set up to the DS but that was a single device where both screens were in your field of vision.

"Not invented here" syndrome strikes again.

Well, it never really stops with Nintendo.

I see Reggie's point about mobile access to WiFi, but why not offer both options?

Okay...

"To say that players are unhappy with this decision would be an understatement"

No, it's an accurate statement.

@beazlen1 @roadrunner343 Honestly there have been many times when he's hinted at him understanding players' frustrations but how he can't really address them properly because it would anger Nintendo of Japan. It's unfortunate that he has to mop up their mess, but that's unfortunately how Nintendo appears to be organized.

@JDORS

They might be weird, and Reggie might be full of crap right now spouting this nonsense, but they are far from lazy. Lazy would be something like just getting another machine and throwing more powerful specs in it and calling it a day.

They just go to the beat of their own drum. Sometimes producing awesome things, but sometimes like this for instance, it's for the worst and has Reggie up here trying to explain why we got this crappy app for voice chat.

Reggie probably knows that it isnt the right way to do things but since he has no real power to change things he can only say what Kyoto tells him to say.

To play devils advocate to the majority of people here if I was playing on a bus it probably would be easier to do voice chat with a phone...

that said if I was on a bus and using voice chat I wouldn't just be being a inconsiderate jerk... I'd be king of all the inconsiderate jerk.

I didn't read the article. But based on the quote I ask, why? I understand different, it has always worked out for Nintendo. Yet I can't understand why, especially after it was panned by pretty much everybody when it first came out. No one liked it!!!! So why? Why did it take so long to bring about the online. I was holding out hope for a Nintendo twist to their service, like they teased. But the phone app is not a Nintendo twist, its crap. Why delay everything and be so secretive if you aren't bringing anything new or exciting to the table? It just doesn't make sense and Reggie defending it as a Nintendo thing is pure BS.

After reading the article I have to ask, when did we say we wanted voice chat done differently??? I don't remember that. After that statement I really have zero respect for Reggie. Telling us what we are complaining about is what we asked for is bull.

The only reason I would pardon this if if it was a huge battery saver for the console.

My phone doesn't have enough space for the app so I've never tried it. It sounds like a confusing setup though. Do you hear the game audio (from the Switch) through your phone?

Online multiplayer voice chat perfected in 2002 on original XBOX, done 'differently' by Nintendo in 2018.

The most annoying thing about this is that we know now that voice chat is an option on the system.

I understand the whole respect mobile aspect. But who is playing competitive online multiplayer on the go unless its a LAN environment. Is public/free WIFI that strong anywhere to justify this respecting mobile concern? But even then Fortnite has on board portable voice chat. So its possible. Is it our fault Nintendo didn't have enough forward sight to put a headphone jack in the pro controller?

@BensonUii

You ever been on a school bus? Where do you think they learn how to spit trash online?! 😄

@NewAdvent I would love to say 100% they are but these comments of his scare me into thinking that is to logical, and they are going to continue with this bs.

Reggie, no matter where you look on the internet, the response is overwhelmingly the same: You're full of absolute NON-SENSE.

You won't listen to us, you won't admit that this is being handled wrong, and you're flat out LYING when you try to imply that this is actually what we want. It's NOT.

You guys are on the verge of driving a great console into an early remission. What is it going to take to get your heads out of your holes?

Seriously, what is it going to take!!?

Mobile phones have had peer to peer voice chat since the first ever mobile phone! It’s not a new feature.

@BumpkinRich

Nintendo doesn't care about the MLG or esports culture. Voice chat is ultimately a human trafficking risk more than anything else, so why would they want that liability? They make the voice chat this way to make the feature inexcessible for all users. They are doing this on purpose. Here's why:

Xbox Live: Girls getting harassed to show tits or GTFO. Guys being told to kill themselves and actually doing it. Racial and sexist slurs being thrown around. Heated screaming that takes away the experience for other people. Sexual chats or listening to people having sex. Copyright infringements with music playing. Basically, you name it and it happens on XBL.

Playstation Network: Same as Xbox Live but toned down since fewer people who own a PS3/PS4 play online.

Steam: Mostly civilized people but people use Discord (which is a lot like using a phone app with Switch since Discord isn't built in). Since good gaming PC's cost money, they are harder to access to the working class families.

The point is, XB&PS are the way they are because they are cheap entry points and there are no rules. The reason Nintendo is still around after flops like the Wii U, the Virtual Boy, the Game Boy Micro, and their failed movies is because they are known to be a respectable and responsible company; allowing voice chat to any user like PS&XB users would be PR suicide. Most games can be enjoyed without voice chat. The squad games are more complex games that people under 13 won't enjoy anyways, and most 13 and up have phones; so I think this is a non-issue except people wanting to complain about rules and restrictions, which I say "waaaaa" to.

@NotSoCryptic
If your family makes $100k a year like mine does you can afford a new phone. If you need a reason to upgrade from a galaxy s5 then do it for the security risks alone. I can hack your phone and steal all your passwords, banking information, and identity faster on that version of Android (6.0.1 Marshmallow) than other other current devices. If you don't like contracts or paying full price, buy a refurb on Amazon that can do a high version of the OS. The LG v20 is cheap, so is the Pixel XL, so is Moto Z. You have no good excuse to use an easily exploitable phone with a crappy battery except that you are TOO fiscally conservative.

And if you seriously believe socioeconomics doesn't play a role in how Nintendo brands itself you must know nothing about business marketing. This is also why Nintendo RARELY discounts 1st party games. Zelda BOTW will be $60 for the entire lifespan of the Switch until a new Zelda game comes out. By gating a game to be expensive it's entire relevance to the industry, it is making it clear that ONLY middle class (or keeping up the with Jones's families who are secretly poor and on welfare) can afford Nintendo products. This is most definitely a quality protection, because I know that I personally would not want to play with the low class, low manners, low respect, and high attitude of the poor/working class. Besides, from a business stand point, they only buy a game once ever 3 to 6 months; the middle class buys games once a month (at minimum), so the cash crop makes more sense to not even target the poor/working class.

Lastly, you aren't even the target audience of this machine or any Nintendo machine. Neither am I. The target audience are 13 to 25 year olds. These people are (demographically speaking) the people with the most disposable income than any other demographic (at least on a consistent level). So congrats on your $100k, I felt great getting there too, but it's about debt to income ratio and not income. At the end of the month I have $1k slush money to play with; that's after investing 25% of my check into stocks and savings and paying off all of my monthly bills (I have months advance in the bank already in case I get behind). If you can't afford a phone or at least a phone with a removable battery; then it is an investment problem, not a Nintendo Switch problem.

No I personally make 100k a year. I'm happy you're such a proficient hacker, but you're not the only one in this conversation. I ultimately have no need to buy a new phone. People with less security concerns than either of us will have less of a reason. I also don't keep half the information you think on my phone.

I think you're a bit mistaken in how the industry works and seem to think socioeconomics exists in some kind of bubble. As far as Nintendo's pricing policy goes you have some errors. Nintendo is the only company on their platform that does that. 3rd parties regularly put their games on sale. Nintendo waits 4 to 5 years before switching. To a greatest hits model of 40 dollars for older games. Nintendo is also the only 1st party with these policies. Something to consider with an all digital future. By the way botw has been on sale 3 times for less than 50 new on amazon. I would be surprised if other retail stores haven't followed suit especially with Nintendo creating a new version a year later forcing an inventory dump for space.

OK so let's play the demographic game. I call bullpoop. Let's start with disposable income. I don't have debt. Ergo I have more income then the snot nosed brat with student loans making 60k a year struggling to make ends meet who will undoubtedly rack up the debt to get this device. Your target audience has this problem if you hadn't noticed. Good ol'college age range. That range bellow 18 has not the money to buy most things on their own except that narrow 2 years with a part time job you think has disposable disposable income. My cousins in that age group are to busy using that money on dates, paying for their first car, and other big ticket items. They aren't buying 1 game per month. Maybe 1 every 4 months. It really doesn't matter what you think the target audience is, its usually someone in their 30s or older getting this machine. Parents seem to be gravitating to this machine because it gives them the freedom to play a game when they finally get a chance to breathe. Such as a few youtubers who have said as much. Statically ignoring the 25+ is suicide given numbers provided by Sony and Microsoft.

But what does any of this matter. If more than half your install base refuses to use this app Nintendo thinks innovates, then nothing either of us has said means a whole hell of a lot. Reggie seems to have this idea that I want to talk to someone through the app and seamlessly start playing when I get home. PlayStations app supports messaging I rarely use it for those functions and those conversations boil down to, "ya I'll be on in 25 minutes". If I want deeper meaningful conversations I'll wait till I can actually talk to a person with my undivided attention. Kind of the reason texting is done more on phones than actual phone calls in the last 10 years.

Sadly your last point is foolish. The minute Nintendo requires an additional device that isn't their own for the use of their own systems features, it becomes a Nintendo problem. You say its an investment problem. I'd say that it was bad investment by Nintendo to lean on a technology that requires consumers to invest or use other hardware in addition to the hardware they just bought at the same price or with a higher inconvenience factor. This isn't a poor consumer investment. Its tone deaf to say otherwise and ignorant to believe such things. That would be like making ray tracing mandatory on every game going forward this month.

As far as I'm concerned I have no issue with the app existing, I just want the option to do it the way I always have, which is way more convenient and easy to setup. Even my PlayStation Vita seems to understand that. My gaming tablet in a sort of irony understands that as well, it doesn't require my PC or ps4 to play fortnite with my discord app running.

I was also not bragging about how much I make. So no need to be a jerk about it like its a matter of pride. I was demonstrating a case that defeats your point. Which is I have no need to upgraded my phone every year, every other year, every 3 years, and I can barely justify 4 and I'm in an upper income bracket. The hassle involved, especially since i root and build my own android flavor for my phones as soon as I get them, just makes it a pain. I don't want to spend a weekend installing poop on a phone, especially since family drops one in my lap every damned year. Big family, big support. The average phone user doesn't go on an upgrade spree. While I was considering a new phone this year, I decided to wait for the next series of galaxy phones and see how it sizes up to the note 9 or look into other phones. I am due. I upgrade when I'm ready, not when Nintendo says I'm ready or anyone else for that matter.

The sooner you understand these things you might be a bit more sympathetic to the socioeconomics involved here.

No one's going to read my comment because it's too far down, but I think the actual reason Nintendo are doing this is for the sake of protecting children online.

Kids under a certain age are less likely to have smartphones, thus this is a simple way to keep young children away from voice chat.

I know, this is incredibly dumb way to go about it, but I genuinely believe that's why they've made it this way.

@BubbleMatrix82 Your security argument doesnt add up. You do know that PS4 and Xbone have parental controls that let you control access the different features? They are pretty good for 'entry point' machines.

If Nintendo dont want to do voice chat then thats fine, but they HAVE done it. And if it was on a phone for security then why does the app have features that are desirable to younger players on it like the splatoon costumes?

The only argument I can think of that makes sense is that a mobile device has internet connectivity when your out and about. But if thats the case why dont they just say that?

@yuwarite Nope. They are encouraging children to use smart phones which is, imo, more dangerous. Safety features should be built into the console. Like a password to stop your kids playing doom... like i have on my ps4.

See. Someone read your comment.

@BumpkinRich
Hey, so are you saying I'm a kid for thinking Splatoon 2 is a better game than Call of Duty and Forkknife?

If I'm not mistaken the voice chat done through the smartphone is also monitored & recorded, so there's a censorship and child predatory reason for going through the phone app. That and a battery reason, let mw explain this one more in a minute.

The PS and XB systems do have parental controls BUT that's a moot point since they are opt in, not opt out. By having the voice chat be opt in it forcea parents to be asked for consent to have video chat, unless the parent already gave the child a cell phone with social media enabled. The point is, having more gates to get to a service is a hassle by design to give more power to parents.

As far as battery here's the thing, running a persistent session state on the switch, along with everything else would cause massive battery drain in handheld mode. I know this isn't an issue when it is on the dock/cradle, but it is an issue when in handheld or mobile standalone mode. So you can consider the phone an additional battery for this persistent connection. Also, since MOST unlimited data plans offers hotspot, you're going to have a hotspot anyways so why not use a tool already available?

If people have poop phones then who's job is it to be penalized for these end users for not being on top of the cell phone good phone list? Obviously we should give nicer things to people who have/spend money and led the poor people have incentive to upgrade. This is why 4k is failing, not enough strong arms forcing the upgrade.

One last point, the target audience for the Switch is 13 to 25, not 3 to 12.

@BubbleMatrix82 At what point did I make a comparison between COD and Splatoon?

If you keep scrambling from excuse to excuse as you are then you need to examine why its so hard to defend the app.

This time its battery life. If social features affect battery life have an option to turn them off.

The app does not need to be on a phone. It is because Nintendo cut corners.

@BumpkinRich

No, Nintendo hates the poor. So does Apple and Disney.

Honestly, your rigidity to design choices that you don't agree with is the real issue here. You think you are the target audience and you refuse to accept that Grandpa Ninty is choosing optimization over conformity to the competition's norms.

The Splatoon comparison was my doing. You said Splatoon is a kids game and I was arguing it isn't.

@NotSoCryptic

I think the real issue you are having is you wish the Switch was a $399 system with the tech you'd expect from a more expensive system. Clearly a larger battery was needed for the Switch to accommodate voice chat when in handheld mode. "But I don't play in handheld mode" you say? Then perhaps what Nintendo really needed to do was have the dock mode of the system incorporate the ability to have system voice chat and use the phone app for when it's in handheld mode. But then people would complain that they would rather have it built into the machine and kill the battery on handheld mode after 4 hours and complain the system had terrible battery life like the Vita. Which would be terrible PR for Nintendo. So let's just face it, you can't make everyone happy. But who you can make happy are the people who spend money on entertainment instead of saving it and hoarding it or who don't have it.

@BubbleMatrix82 I didnt say that Splatoon was a kids game. I said that if the reasoning for the app was security why put a costume shop on it? Bit of a flaw if a child cant get a costume without using the app.

Im not sticking to any design pattern. I would have been more than happy if there was a purpsose to the app. But there's not. It's putting tape over a crack.

But the way you're sticking Nintendo's A to Z of excuses is very dogmatic. Stop tying to do their PR for them. They have Reggie and he has already explained the they did it for some reasons.

@BubbleMatrix82
I'm sorry you're doing some serious mental gymnastics for this response to the extent that I feel like you're mentally unstable. If you're going to a child about this and make basic assumptions about the cost of Party Chat, then we're done. You're not equipped for this conversation and you're wasting my time.

@BumpkinRich

You're really stubborn

I can see a lot of reasons why it is the way it is.

1.> The internet is full of [insert preferred expletive]
2.> To protect children as, lets be fair here, this is a large part of the target audience. Children and family.
3.> How many complaints exist thus far regarding battery life? Throw in telecoms and it will get worse.
4.> The Switch OS does not seem to support multiple applications using the network (if you are downloading an application and launch an application that requires net work access, the download stops). This would mean the code would probably need to be built in to every application for comms.
5.> There are already better options available. I use discord, have done for a crazy amount of time. I use it on my phone, if the desktop freezes or whatever I can let the group know what's going on.

This all ties in to the Netflix, YouTube issue for me. There are better options available. I think I tried to use the Wii browser once and quickly went back to using my phone. Same issue with the PSP browser. I know these are all considered ghetto tech now, but todays browsers are a lot more demanding. HTML5 and CSS3 is a thing (that also includes gratuitous amounts of javascript), this wasn't the case back then and I'm pretty certain all those browsers failed the ACID3 test.

@NotSoCryptic

If you can't look at the big picture then you're too narrow minded to speak to me too

@BumpkinRich If we're talking about kids 11 and under, they're less likely to actually own smartphones. But you're right, kids will still find a way, so this is would be a futile effort by Nintendo, regardless.

@FX102A At the cost of funner games, apparently.