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[Speely]

I see this as Nintendo killing two birds with one stone.

1. Prevent voice chat from chewing through battery life.
2. Prevent very young children from being exposed to toxic voice chat.

Nintendo is willing to piss off core gamers if it means checking those boxes.

This.

 

[EatChildren]

Friend codes replaced with lobby codes.

 

[Dark Cloud]

I see this as Nintendo killing two birds with one stone.

1. Prevent voice chat from chewing through battery life.
2. Prevent very young children from being exposed to toxic voice chat.

Nintendo is willing to piss off core gamers if it means checking those boxes.

Yeah they're doing that.

 

[GhostTrick]

I see this as Nintendo killing two birds with one stone.

1. Prevent voice chat from chewing through battery life.
2. Prevent very young children from being exposed to toxic voice chat.

Nintendo is willing to piss off core gamers if it means checking those boxes.

1. Put a bigger battery (6000mah was possible).
2. That's why they have parental control and this is for chat party.

Nintendo just live in a bubble that's gonna burst pretty hard with Switch.

 

[Poster#1]

I don't get why people are complaining... I mean, they could have picked mandatory smartwatches instead.

(btw, if I still had a BlackBerry and had any intention of buying a Switch, I'd be royally pissed...)

Who still owns a blackberry???

 

[Mass Appeal]

This doesn't sound like a confirmation to me.



Sounds like they are talking about it but it's something that's not finalised.

Not finalized? Isint this coming out in 4-5 weeks? It's something that should be pretty finalized by now. Why wouldn't he just say something like "the app is an optional way to party/voice chat"?


Idk, he sounds pretty sure to me. Is there even a built in mic input on the console or does the console come with a mic with ear bud like Sony ships the ps4 with? Does the pro controller have a headphone jack like the ps4 or xb1?

 

[Mahonay]

There's still zero actual details on how online will work and people are already saying it should've been delayed for a year and isn't worth the hitherto unannounced price they're charging for it.

Jokes on them, I bought all the AC Amiibos without needing a reason/excuse.

Online is now a paid service.

You get loaned one NES/SNES ROM a month.

Chat is tied to a phone app, as well as other friends features.


There is slightly more than zero details.

 

[Niter]

People would have to be by a WiFi area. Even then, you can build the messaging through the system. It's still a home console. This could have been an optional thing. No reason for it to be required.

And this doesn't even touch on voice chat being outside the system.

Right but how do you build a robust online system for a console that may not be always connected like a home console?

Making it required is difficult to understand it now as we don't have the details but my guess is to leverage what most consumers already have in their pocket. If all the online features are build-in the system you would have to tether every time if you are on the go and that's not very ideal either.

I think Sony tried to do this with 4G version of Vita but that didn't work out very well.

 

[Daffy Duck]

I see this as Nintendo killing two birds with one stone.

1. Prevent voice chat from chewing through battery life.
2. Prevent very young children from being exposed to toxic voice chat.

Nintendo is willing to piss off core gamers if it means checking those boxes.

Instead they're more than happy to chew through a persons mobile data.

 

[JCH!]

Not finalized? Isint this coming out in 4-5 weeks? It's something that should be pretty finalized by now. Why wouldn't he just say something like "the app is an optional way to party/voice chat"?

You may be right but remember that they are not charging for the online service until fall. I think that's an indication that it is still very much a work in progress.

But again, we have no definite information on the matter so all of us might be wrong anyway.

 

[orthodoxy1095]

I see this as Nintendo killing two birds with one stone.

1. Prevent voice chat from chewing through battery life.
2. Prevent very young children from being exposed to toxic voice chat.

Nintendo is willing to piss off core gamers if it means checking those boxes.

1. This is a silly rationale since people who would be using party chat would probably be doing so in environments where they would be near a charger. Also I don't appreciate that I have to chew through my mobile battery and data instead of just limiting this all to one device.

2. They already unveiled their parental control app, this is exactly the kind of thing that app should be controlling. You shouldn't be adding more gates on top of that just because of "think of de childrenz!"

 

[Skyzard]

Instead they're more than happy to chew through a persons mobile data.

And phone battery.

 

[TheSpoiler]

Right but how do you build a robust online system for a console that may not be always connected like a home console?

Making it required is difficult to understand it now as we don't have the details but my guess is to leverage what most consumers already have in their pocket. If all the online features are build-in the system you would have to tether every time if you are on the go and that's not very ideal either.

I think Sony tried to do this with 4G version of Vita but that didn't work out very well.

How can I play a game online if I'm not online? Like, if someone sends me an invite while I'm on the go, I have to either find a hotspot OR use the wifi from my phone, of which most people probably don't want to do.

You wouldn't even have to tether anything. It'd just pick up the wifi at home or elsewhere like usual.

Again, there's no logical reason for it to be required. I'm willing to be proven wrong, but right now, it just doesn't make sense.

 

[Ninja Dom]

1. Put a bigger battery (6000mah was possible).
2. That's why they have parental control and this is for chat party.

Nintendo just live in a bubble that's gonna burst pretty hard with Switch.

How do you know this? Just the difference in capacity between 6000mah and what is already in the Switch is bigger than a 3DS battery. How much extra would 6000mah cost?

 

[Bluth54]

The smartphone app should be optional and compliment the Switch. But making a smartphone and an app a necessity in order to use some fundamental features is beyond ridiculous. There is absolutely no logical excuse for not having these features baked into the Switch itself.

Yep nothing wrong with a companion app like Steam has, but requiring matchmaking, lobbies and voice chat to go through it is just one of the stupidest decisions I've ever seen a videogame platform holder make. .

 

[finalflame]

Online is now a paid service.

You get loaned one NES/SNES ROM a month.

Chat is tied to a phone app, as well as other friends features.


There is slightly more than zero details.

1. Online is a paid service on every single other console currently in existence, and there's no reasonable expectation that Nintendo would provide more robust online services without charging for it.

2. And yet we don't know what Nintendo's online will cost. I'd rather pay 50% less for PSN and not get free games I don't give a shit about.

3. Yet we have no actual details of how this implementation works, but are happy to say it's terrible without knowing much of anything about it.

Neat.

 

[mAcOdIn]

There's still zero actual details on how online will work and people are already saying it should've been delayed for a year and isn't worth the hitherto unannounced price they're charging for it.

What details are we lacking besides price? Is Nintendo inventing new protocols to replace TCP and UDP? Online "works" the same on all the consoles.

Only thing we don't know is whether past VC purchases will carry over, they probably won't, how frequent and worthwhile discounts will be and the price.

 

[Oregano]

Online is now a paid service.

You get loaned one NES/SNES ROM a month.

Chat is tied to a phone app, as well as other friends features.


There is slightly more than zero details.

Exactly. They haven't said a lot but everything they have said has been bad news.

 

[BlackRainbowFT]

Who still owns a blackberry???

I did up until 6 months ago! I love physical keyboards and hate touch screens with a passion (for typing, not browsing the web).

 

[civilstrife]

Instead they're more than happy to chew through a persons mobile data.

If you're playing a game online with the Switch, you're on Wifi. So why are you using mobile data on your phone again?

This is a silly rationale since people who would be using party chat would probably be doing so in environments where they would be near a charger. Also I don't appreciate that I have to chew through my mobile battery and data instead of just limiting this all to one device.

But...you said yourself they're near a charger? As for the mobile data, see above.

 

[EVH]

I see this as Nintendo killing two birds with one stone.

1. Prevent voice chat from chewing through battery life.
2. Prevent very young children from being exposed to toxic voice chat.

Nintendo is willing to piss off core gamers if it means checking those boxes.

Judging by the reaction, Nintendo is willing to kill their online, not two birds. But yeah, I domt think they care about draining the battery but they do about the parental control. Which is stupid because they got the parental control app, a solution that almost everybody applauded.

After friend codes, no account, etc, I am more prone to think they have no fucking clue.

 

[Chindogg]

What details are we lacking besides price? Is Nintendo inventing new protocols to replace TCP and UDP? Online "works" the same on all the consoles.

Only thing we don't know is whether past VC purchases will carry over, they probably won't, how frequent and worthwhile discounts will be and the price.

Implementation details would be nice as well. As far as we know, all the social features could just be pushed to the phone and use either mobile data or wifi.

 

[Ninja Dom]

Right but how do you build a robust online system for a console that may not be always connected like a home console?

Making it required is difficult to understand it now as we don't have the details but my guess is to leverage what most consumers already have in their pocket. If all the online features are build-in the system you would have to tether every time if you are on the go and that's not very ideal either.

I think Sony tried to do this with 4G version of Vita but that didn't work out very well.

No it didn't work very well. The Vita was 3G and the connection using it for online services and browsing the PSN store was painfully slow.

 

[mrklaw]

How can I play a game online if I'm not online? Like, if someone sends me an invite while I'm on the go, I have to either find a hotspot OR use the wifi from my phone, of which most people probably don't want to do.

You wouldn't even have to tether anything. It'd just pick up the wifi at home or elsewhere like usual.

Again, there's no logical reason for it to be required. I'm willing to be proven wrong, but right now, it just doesn't make sense.

If the app handles the online connection (being a proxy for tethering) then your switch wouldn't be online all the time. The app would handle game requests via notifications which would save battery and data usage, and then if you respond to a game request you could whip out your switch and connect online via the app


There are definitely potential benefits if you're out and about a lot. But as the only solution? Probably not ideal

 

[WhiteRabbitEXE]

Good lord.

Why are you forced to have 2 head-sets? Why would you insist on having a separate headphone anyway? Why are you assuming the phone app isnt some non-intrusive app that stays in your pocket as opposed to something you constantly have to baby-sit? What if there's additinal functionality that makes this available on phones instead of the console itself more practical?

We can assume all sorts of possible answers regarding how this is all gonna work but we. Dont. Know.

So why not wait till they straight up tell us what's going on, instead of drumming up the Nintendoomed defcon5 song and dance?

I literally explained why you would have to have two headsets - in the scenario where the player plays the game while using headphones to listen to the game (headset #1, connected to the Switch) AND wants to play online while chatting with friends (headset #2, on connected to your phone). Unless you believe Nintendo is somehow piping the audio from the game to your phone somehow, that player has to use two headsets.

Being on a separate device is inherently intrusive. Want to invite another friend? Whip out the phone. Want to jump into match in a different game? Gotta pull up my phone. Text chat? Phone. etc.. They are necessitating the use of two devices. Even if it's only briefly, that is still one more device than I've ever had to use. It's inconvenient.

Additionally, you haven't answered what players without supported smart devices are supposed to do. iPhone or Android set too old? Have a Windows device? No smart phone at all? How does this help those players?

And again, there's still no reason for this to not be on the console itself in addition to the app, rather than just one or the other. If someone wants to use their phone, fine, knock themselves out. But why on earth should this bar me from the simpler and more convenient solution that has worked for over a decade? I can already send my Xbox friends messages, manage groups, check what friends are doing, and even buy and download games, control my Xbox One, and more through my Xbox app on my phone. Even some features that are outright better on my phone as well as some minor conveniences only available there. On the desktop equivalent I can even party chat. And yet I can still do all of that on my console itself as well.

Let's not dismiss criticism as "Nintendoomed lol" either. That's not a good look. And as far as waiting for them to explain, well they've already done that what, three times now? Once during the show and twice by Reggie? And every time the scenario seems pretty unambiguous? Look, I'm holding out hope this is all some crazy misunderstanding. But the system releases in a month and a half and they've talked about this all multiple times now. If this is just a misunderstanding it's one of the most catastrophically bad cases of miscommunication I've seen, and an absolute blunder on Nintendo's part. So it doesn't seem reasonable to expect that to be the case. But then goddamn do I hope it is.

 

[Caipirinha]

Um...Zelda?

Lmao, can you imagine Xbox fans justifying the XB1 announcement debacle with "um... Halo?"

Or the PS3 with "um... Uncharted?"

Cyclical iterations of Mario/Zelda/Smash aren't enough to justify Nintendo being in the hardware business.

 

[GhostTrick]

How do you know this? Just the difference in capacity between 6000mah and what is already in the Switch is bigger than a 3DS battery. How much extra would 6000mah cost?

How do I know that ? Just by looking at GPD XD (150 bucks device) and GPD Win, which are the size of a 3DS XL and respectively have a 6000mah and a 6700mah battery.

 

[Klart]

What are you doing Ninty?

 

[Xando]

There's still zero actual details on how online will work and people are already saying it should've been delayed for a year and isn't worth the hitherto unannounced price they're charging for it.

The boss of NoA comes out and literally says matchmaking and voice chat is done over a smartdevice app.
Apps like Netflix apparently aren't ready
Nintendo is not gonna charge you for online play because they know it's not done yet and won't launch before fall 2017.

But keep defending it having bad solutions for features the PS2 had.

 

[Gunship]

Seems like a potentially fragile system to depend on iOS/Android updates not to break your online service. How about app updates that force me to update to the latest iOS even though my phone doesn't support it? Is this going to chew through my data plan? My battery?

To me this whole concept sounds like it's been sold to Nintendo by a third party developer, and nintendo have blindly stumbled into it and trusted the dev. There are red flags everywhere which Nintendo seem to be oblivious to.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Everything online sounds horrible from Nintendo. It's almost as worse as having no online features. 🤔

Sometimes I feel they have the Monkey Paw(tm) approach to listening to fans' feedback.

 

[Atheerios]

1. Put a bigger battery (6000mah was possible).
2. That's why they have parental control and this is for chat party.

Nintendo just live in a bubble that's gonna burst pretty hard with Switch.

I love the fact that you already saw a Nintendo Switch's interiors and know there's still room for a bigger battery.


Probably most of the space of the Switch tablet is already occupied by battery, can't fit one larger.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

Honestly, the app is an interesting move and it might work really well.

I'll wait and try before passing my judgment.

 

[R0ckman]

1. Online is a paid service on every single other console currently in existence, and there's no reasonable expectation that Nintendo would provide more robust online services without charging for it.

2. And yet we don't know what Nintendo's online will cost. I'd rather pay 50% less for PSN and not get free games I don't give a shit about.

3. Yet we have no actual details of how this implementation works, but are happy to say it's terrible without knowing much of anything about it.

Neat.

There's this weird thing with Nintendo where people just kind of forget that, it's Nintendo. They flash Zelda or Pokemon at us and we forget just how stupid they are in certain situations so we go in this loop.

I think the fact that we are almost 1 month away from launch without clear online details, infastructure or price, is something to be very alarmed about.

 

[liquidtmd]

There's like three major parts of the reveal that has inspired a 'woah woah wait guys, that could not be what they meant / we need more information / semantically they could mean something else'

That's not great

 

[Speely]

I wish Nintendo employed people that were better-informed than are gaffers

 

[GhostTrick]

I love the fact that you already saw a Nintendo Switch's interiors and know there's still room for a bigger battery.


Probably most of the space of the Switch tablet is already occupied by battery, can't fit one larger.

It's more about the fact that there are smaller devices with bigger batteries.

 

[Oregano]

Seems like a potentially fragile system to depend on iOS/Android updates not to break your online service. How about app updates that force me to update to the latest iOS even though my phone doesn't support it? Is this going to chew through my data plan? My battery?

To me this whole concept sounds like it's been sold to Nintendo by a third party developer, and nintendo have blindly stumbled into it and trusted the dev. There are red flags everywhere which Nintendo seem to be oblivious to.

That third party developer is called DeNA.

 

[mrklaw]

I'm more annoyed by the charge for online than this weird online approach. As a secondary console I wouldn't play online nearly as much but there are one or two games like splatoon or eventually Pokemon that mean I have no choice.

 

[Panajev2001a]

If the app handles the online connection (being a proxy for tethering) then your switch wouldn't be online all the time. The app would handle game requests via notifications which would save battery and data usage, and then if you respond to a game request you could whip out your switch and connect online via the app


There are definitely potential benefits if you're out and about a lot. But as the only solution? Probably not ideal

I do value the battery if my phone more than the battery of any game accessory or console I may have with me. If I need to choose what to power down... we'll, it would not be a tough choice or a choice much at all.

 

[mAcOdIn]

But keep defending it having bad solutions for features the PS2 had.

The Switch smells more and more like a turd everyday but the ps2 didn't have system level voice chat either. Nor a friends list. Or even a damn unified network at all. It was on a game by game basis.

 

[Mahonay]

1. Online is a paid service on every single other console currently in existence, and there's no reasonable expectation that Nintendo would provide more robust online services without charging for it.

2. And yet we don't know what Nintendo's online will cost. I'd rather pay 50% less for PSN and not get free games I don't give a shit about.

3. Yet we have no actual details of how this implementation works, but are happy to say it's terrible without knowing much of anything about it.

Neat.

This reply explains how I feel

Exactly. They haven't said a lot but everything they have said has been bad news.

And paid online is fine, but what they little information they've given so far sounds unappealing.

 

[finalflame]

What details are we lacking besides price? Is Nintendo inventing new protocols to replace TCP and UDP? Online "works" the same on all the consoles.

Only thing we don't know is whether past VC purchases will carry over, they probably won't, how frequent and worthwhile discounts will be and the price.

What does network protocols have to do with this? We have no idea how the online matchmaking, party system, voice chat, lobbies, community, or sharing features will work. No idea what the mobile app looks like or how it interacts with the console, how it handles joining game and voice audio streams, or how central it'll be to the online experience. We have no idea how much it'll cost. We have no idea if subscribing for online services will affect eShop prices. We actually have no practical details about Nintendo's online services implementation and how well it will or won't work. Of course it uses the internet and normal network protocols.. I'm not sure why you're even bringing that up to begin with. Of course it costs money -- maintaining actual decent online services and it's accompanying infrastructure isn't cheap, and Sony/MS have been charging for far longer, why would anyone expect it to be free while simultaneously expecting it to be more robust than what's currently offered?

We've SEEN nothing about Nintendo's only service, and heard nothing but the monthly virtual console titles and the existence of an app.

 

[TonberrysKnife]

Nintendo, what the fuck are you doing??

 

[Daffy Duck]

If you're playing a game online with the Switch, you're on Wifi. So why are you using mobile data on your phone again?



See above.

When you are hanging at the basketball court with your homies and playing NBA 2k18 online.

 

[Xandremi]

The vita not only has party chat, it even has cross chat with ps4... But Nintendo gonna Nintendo lmao. Those defending Nintendo and making these crazy leaps to somehow make Nintendo seem like they're geniuses hah

 

[somecrazymember]

Maybe mentioned before but what if they go micro transaction on this one? Instead of paying for a year you would pay per day. 0,79$ to play online / day

 

[Pancakes R Us]

Nintendo, what the fuck are you doing??

Alienate its shrinking core Nintendo fanbase - at least the people that are susceptible to leaving them. They know they can shit in the mouths of the crazy fanboys that will support anything and get away with it. But we know that those people are in the minority.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

If I at all cared about playing with strangers over the internet this would perplex me to no end.

I can see how it would be convenient in one way, but when you have them moving away from dual screens and needlessly tying us to one... Why?

 

[Oregano]

This reply explains how I feel


And paid online is fine, but what they little information they've given so far sounds unappealing.

It actually sounds worse than what you can do on the Wii U for free. They've literally taken their free, subpar online and decided to make it worse and ask for a subscription.