Reggie: Switch matchmaking and lobbies handled through phone app
- Thread starter Zombie James
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Eh there is so much shit at Switch that most issues really aren't issues. This is definitely one but please don't be the antithesis of "Nintendo spoke amirite lol!"
7DollarHagane
Banned
Reggie shouldn't even be talking since the service doesn't fully launch for another 6 months or so some of these things are probably up in the air yet.
I am 99% certain this works just like ps4 but the app has further integration with the system since it's a portable system. All this panic will be for nothing.
They probably want to minimize the amount of RAM (and GB ?) that the OS uses ?
Nothing official, but battery life most likely. Maybe offloading core OS functions to free up memory on the system itself.
Interfectum
Member
Yup, he's earning his salary trying to spin this online feature as a good thing.
DrROBschiz
Member
Vita was literally the perfect portable outside of the memory cards
how do they fuck this up
Lack of knowledge in developing a proper OS and outsourcing this to DeNA who has knowledge in mobile networking? So using the cheapest solution available?
Crayon
Member
I did. It's to push mobile games to switch users and push mobile users to the switch.
jts
...hate me...
That purposeful exaggeration of something that is really not that complicated makes for an accurate portrait of how most are trying to paint it.Exclusive look at the first person playing Nintendo Switch online:
It's really not that complicated. I already play PS4 online with the PS messages app on hand, because it's awesome and does a better job than the native console tools for chatting and whatnot.
Honestly they want to lure Nintendo audience to mobile market.
PopcornMegaphone
Banned
Thanks for your reply, but this doesn't make sense because these functions shouldn't take up a lot of resources. I remember the og Xbox doing this stuff
Seth Enosh
Member
The thing is , chat through phone isn't a new idea. It's literally as old as phones. All of us who play on Xbox live or PSN and use party chat have the capability to use our phones instead. We don't because it's way less convenient. I think I've used my phone once in ten years on Xbox to talk to someone and it's because he was on a horrible connection that made it impossible to chat or play anything but turn based games. Otherwise we always use party chat and it works great.
All of us who are Wii U owners have probably experienced chat through a phone app too using Discord or Skype, high quality apps that will certainly be equal to or better than whatever Nintendo cobbles together. We know what it's like.
Business
Member
Has to fit in their strategy to protect kids at all costs. Having it linked to a smartphone must decrease the risk your little kid is exposed to all sorts of lunatics via voice chat.
Suburban Thug
Member
You text them and they join your lobby. For free.
UncleSporky
Member
Exclusive look at the first person playing Nintendo Switch online:
The funny thing about this is that it was created for the exact reason you posted it: to ridiculously over-exaggerate the difficulty of something that is actually easy in practice.
Either to bring mobile users over or to use it as a parental control in a way. Many children don't have cell phones so they would need their parents to get access to chat. Then the parents would know what is going on because they would want to know why their child wanted their phone.
DrROBschiz
Member
Well, since it's Nintendo, I'm going to assume no one on the Hardware R&D team has never even used one to see its features or how it handles basic shit like this
InfiniteCombo
Banned
I'm glad I'm not the only one who started thinking in this direction..
Vita does all those things too, so I don't get the "this is a portable" angle lol
It was probably much easier for them to develop this app (particularly the voice chat options) than something within the Switch itself, in addition to Nintendo probably assuming most people who buy the Switch will be smart device owners and/or someone in their home has a smart device. I personally think it's lazy on their part/this app should be optional, but they are probably right in their smart phone/device assumptions.
The decade in which apps on smart devices exist, are the dominant way used to deliver content and are actually usable, unless this was possible in any other decade.
TheAmazingXemo
Member
None of this bothers me. I think it's going to be interesting. Setup a match at 7pm by scheduling it through the Switch app. Invite your friends while you're still at work, and get it all squared away. Fire up the game at 7pm, and open the app to confirm. Switch boots into the match and you're off to the races.
FallenGrace
Member
lol! That gave me a genuine laugh.Exclusive look at the first person playing Nintendo Switch online:
DrROBschiz
Member
im gonna lose my damn mind
Crayon
Member
Yep. Me, you and Nintendo.
And I don't think the backlash is going to be as harsh as many expect it to be. There's blood in the water on gaf right now but most of us are just going to pick up their phone and download the app. I suspect many users outside of the core will actually think it's cool.
This. This is the only 'sane' reason to make this mandatory.
I hope it blows in their faces.
If all of this is just a phone app...then can someone explain to me why this app can't be on the Switch itself? The Switch hardware is equivalent of the Shield android tablet. Can they seriously not develop an app for their own hardware as well as phones? Why force people to use phones? This makes no sense at all.
I think you haven't followed the discussion properly. Because I can't make sense of this in relation to my comment.
Or do you use your phone with your Vita for party chat and matchmaking?
Okami Haundo
Member
Didn't someone confirm that their efforts here are part of their partnership with DeNA? That could also explain why they went with an app over baked-in features. Doesn't make it "better" as you said, but it could at least shed some light on the decision. In short, Nintendo will never understand how to do proper online multiplayer and farmed it out to someone else as a result.
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
There's already an app for scheduling matches. It's called messaging your friends from your phone.
DrROBschiz
Member
yeah i dont.... understand this
if they can get the app to install on the system and run in the background?
still shitty but better than nothing
Serious question, does Nintendo actually hire "new blood" or is it still people living off the gloey of the NES days and making all of the decisions?
Suburban Thug
Member
There's this thing called text messaging that could do all this
Interfectum
Member
But what about those 5 seconds you save by using the phone to pre-invite?
The point is you don't need a second device more expensive than the gaming handheld you are playing on to use basic features that a much less powerful competitor handheld has been doing for 5 years
How can you further integrate than literally control your console and play its games remotely.
WhiteRabbitEXE
Member
I've said this like a dozen times already, but this is not a serious concern in 2017, even for the Switch. The Xbox 360 has party chat despite the entire OS only having access to 32MB of RAM while in game. Party chat only uses a portion of that. Meanwhile the Switch's predecessor the Wii U allocates 1GB to the OS in-game. So even assuming party chat uses the 360's entire 32MB of memory to use, that's about 3% of the total memory allocated to the OS of the Switch's predecessor.
DrROBschiz
Member
Nintendo Logic
"supporting two devices at once is hard lets make a hybrid"
"Now lets force our customers to juggle 2 devices tobplay online with friends"
"i sure hope we can figure out how to sell more mobile stuff to them"
"supporting two devices at once is hard lets make a hybrid"
"Now lets force our customers to juggle 2 devices tobplay online with friends"
"i sure hope we can figure out how to sell more mobile stuff to them"
You can play with randoms, but if you want to play with friends it'll be through the app.
FrozenCell
Member
because phones are easier to develop for than switch?
Interfectum
Member
How many builds and QA does a basic chat program need in 2017?
levyjl1988
Banned
It is assumed that:
Everyone has a phone.
Everyone has a smart phone.
You have that smart phone with you wherever you go.
Everyone has a phone.
Everyone has a smart phone.
You have that smart phone with you wherever you go.
Crayon
Member
It'll blow money all over their face.
It's the opposite
They have to take in consideration multiple versions of IOS and Android and compatibility with many different models of phone. As opposed to only have to worrying about compatibility of their own hardware
The company thats dealing with the internet infrastructure for this system is a fucking phone company in japan that has a social and video game platform for phones. It is in this companies vested interest to tether as much of the switchs network through this.
How would you react if microsoft had a shit internet infrastructure and said that they were teaming up with ATT to provide online and you needed a phone app to voice chat and lobbies? Would you be giving microsoft the benefit of a doubt?
Smartphones are more popular so if you get all the people on mobile Nintendo they aren't left out of the market and have user engagement of some level. I think it means they can pivot to smartphones or not be left in the cold. They probably won't do anymore stand alone games in mobile, they'll be rooted in this app in some way.
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