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Is Switch's voice-chat app really the result of the DeNA partnership?

Z

ZombiePlatypus

Member
I know we are all discussing this app and set-up a lot, but I'm just trying to understand how this final product came to be and why it ended up the way it did. (I'm not looking to shift blame here. While I generally love Nintendo and their weirdness, I can easily admit that they've made plenty of stupid and poor choices.)

After holding out till trying it out for myself, I have to agree with basically everyone that, yeah, it's pretty crappy. When talking about this set up, I've seen several people state that this was part of a trade-off or deal with DeNA. Is this really true? Any more sources to elaborate or explain in more detail how this came to be? How does this even benefit DeNA (not to mention Nintendo) when it's so universally hated? It's kinda ironic as Nintendo seemed to embrace cell phone gaming without alienating its core fans, and yet now it turned around and poorly injected cellphones into the mix in a totally unexpected way. Hopefully they are listening to the feedback, but I wonder if ultimately DeNA or Nintendo will have more sway here. Or if either (or any) of them will be willing to roll this back to something gamers want.
 
SinCityAssassin

SinCityAssassin

Member
Considering DeNA works with Nintendo in all of their mobile offerings. And considering this is a mobile app. I'd say there's a fair chance.
 
J

James Scott

Banned
They're in charge of some online stuff like MyNintendo which is a cool idea but it needs more rewards.
I imagine the app will improve since it just came out.
Don't think you'll see VC integrated into Switch but likely fixes like having the app stay open.

But as for DeNA, I'm not entirely sure it turned out well.
Iwata chose them because they were passionate about the deal not because they were the best. Their efforts on mobile have been interesting but Mario failed despite being one of the better mobile games and FE is attracting whales which went against what they wanted.
 
F

FinalAres

Member
This rumour is quite frankly, a load of old tosh, based on loose circumstancial evidence, and a delusion that Nintendo would never do something so stupid unless they were influenced to by an outside agency.
 
Sinfamy

Sinfamy

Member
I think the app was created out of desperation either due to a massive oversight or a terrible cost saving plan.
Their partnership allowed it to happen, but I don't think it was because of it.
 
L

LegendofLex

Member
The voice chat on a phone thing is probably the result of a few things:

- Higher ups at Nintendo who are mostly old dudes whose authority comes from the fact that they've been at the company for a long time, long before the advent of mobile devices and online services, having a warped perspective of modern online gaming services that integrate mobile devices

- Paranoia about maintaining Nintendo's family-friendly image by keeping services that could potentially be used to cause harm (like voice chat, which has a bad reputation for verbal abuse) off their devices and usable only on other third-party platforms

- An actually-not-terrible idea to use established voice communications technology as a central component of their own voice communication service

The part I don't get is why Nintendo would bother to even talk about their online services, much less release barebones apps that are supposed to reflect on those services, until they've actually worked out the details and have them in a near-final state.
 
J

James Scott

Banned
LegendofLex said:
The voice chat on a phone thing is probably the result of a few things:

- Higher ups at Nintendo having a warped perspective of modern online services that integrate mobile devices

- Paranoia about maintaining Nintendo's family-friendly image by keeping services that could potentially be used to cause harm (like voice chat, which has a bad reputation for verbal abuse) off their devices and usable only on other third-party platforms

- An actually-not-terrible idea to use established voice communications technology as a central component of their own voice communication service

The part I don't get is why Nintendo would bother to even talk about their online services, much less release barebones apps that are supposed to reflect on those services, until they've actually worked out the details and have them in a near-final state.
Click to expand...
They delayed the full launch of Nintendo Online until next year. I wonder if they throught it was important enough to have something for Splatoon's launch
 
L

LegendofLex

Member
James Scott said:
They delayed the full launch of Nintendo Online until next year. I wonder if they throught it was important enough to have something for Splatoon's launch
Click to expand...

I get why the SplatNet2 web service exists now.

I get why they're offering voice chat now that Splatoon 2 is out.

I don't get why they didn't have a much better app put together by now given that they've surely had a decent lead time to get it to an attractive state.

There's so much going on with the app we have that's just completely backwards from a usability and interface standpoint.
 
L

Living the Dream

Member
It doesn't matter who developed it, what matters is that Nintendo signed off on it and released it to their customers. Nintendo is 100% at fault.

Then you have the idiot Reggie saying gamers don't want bulky headsets; while a month later releases this trash.
 
W

wrowa

Member
The Splatoon sub app credits Nintendo and Hatena. The latter is an internet company that also hosted Flipnote's image service. I wonder if they were also involved with the main app or if there involvement was strictly about the Splatnet sub app.

Still, regardless who developed the actual app this is Nintendo's service and you can be certain that it is this way because Nintendo specifically thought this setup was a good idea.
 
I

IsntChrisL

Member
James Scott said:
They delayed the full launch of Nintendo Online until next year. I wonder if they throught it was important enough to have something for Splatoon's launch
Click to expand...

Well if any game was perfect to launch the app with it was Splatoon 2. They just botched it spectacularly. I've used the app once and it was a cumbersome mess for the most part.

I have no interest in using the app again until it gets some major improvements. And right now it's free. If multiplayer wasn't behind a paywall next year almost nobody would pay for this awful "solution."
 
E

evil monkey

Member
AFAIK DeNA is only supplying the infrastructure on which the apps are built. All the apps released so far have been developed in house with technical support from DeNA in regards to infrastructure. If anyone should be blamed for the quality of the apps, it's Nintendo alone.
 
M

Maximo

Member
Living the Dream said:
It doesn't matter who developed it, what matters is that Nintendo signed off on it and released it to their customers. Nintendo is 100% at fault.

Then you have the idiot Reggie saying gamers don't want bulky headsets; while a month later releases this trash.
Click to expand...

Also said no FriendCodes Reggie is a PR mouthpiece nothing more.
 
Spukc

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Wow i never realised mobile gaming was so shit it ended up infecting console gaming :(
 
F

FinalAres

Member
It's also much more likely that Nintendo, a company with very little experience in app development, would be the ones to develop a crappy app, than DeNA who have oodles of experience making good quality apps (although as games they do tend to suck).
 
H

Hugstable

Banned
I will never understand why this just wasn't built into the system and why they just don't allow bluetooth headset/mic to make everything easier
 
F

Famassu

Member
DeNA could be a part of it (though I'd wager a guess that they could maybe be responsible just for the shoddy execution, while the ideas & design side still comes from Nintendo) but largely I also just think that Nintendo just doesn't have a fucking clue about online gaming or they have some reeeeally stupid obsessions & ideologies that control their online gaming development that are straight from some alternative opposite-universe or 14th century.

Like, much in the same way as Miyamoto's odd recent obsession of forcing Paper Marios to be less RPGs with no unique characters, even though most critical & fan consensus agrees it makes for more boring, less fun games than the N64 & GameCube era Paper Marios that thrived thanks to their really fun RPG mechanics & uniqueness/absurdness.

They just decide "shit should be this way" and then don't let anything change their "vision" and just run with it, no matter how much people criticize them of horrible online implementation & execution.
 
jts

jts

...hate me...
Yes. Nintendo bought 10% of DeNA. That stake Nintendo bought is DeNA's "benefit". The idea was to gain their mobile expertise, as Nintendo is not the kind of developer to make and constantly update apps for a broad ecosystem of different devices.
 
K

Kucan

Member
I wonder if the bluetooth radio in the switch is actually capable of supporting the joycons and headset at the same time. If not, then there's not much choice for those playing in console mode.
 
B

big_z

Member
Hugstable said:
I will never understand why this just wasn't built into the system and why they just don't allow bluetooth headset/mic to make everything easier
Click to expand...

Rushed to market. The OS was as bare bones as you can get, just like the PS4 when it launched.

I assume they went the app route because Nintendo has been touting ways too connect the mobile and console market. Of course pushing basic features of the platform on mobile is foolish but you know Nintendo gotta Nintendo.
 
P

Protome

Member
I suspect if there was no voice chat app deal with DeNA there'd be no voice chat at all. Given the quality of the app and the whole concept of it being incredibly flawed, that'd probably be a better world though.
 
O

Ogodei

Member
ShockingAlberto said:
DeNA probably did their best with Nintendo's bad demands.
Click to expand...

DeNA has a reputation for mediocrity, so i'm betting that some of the stupider problems with the voice chat setup (like needing the phone screen to stay on) are more on them than on Nintendo. Systemic stuff like that.

Needing to be in an active session to chat is probably Nintendo's idea though. Feels like something they would come up with, likely because they don't want any of their platforms evolving into a general communication tool (and i know people gave them shit about being paranoid of the pedos, but look what happened to Swapnote).
 
N

nampad

Member
Nintendo is known for fucking up online and orher modern console features. I see no reason to blame DeNa out of the sudden.
 
S

see5harp

Member
Nintendo hired them to do whatever it is they did. It's clearly Nintendo is in charge and they signed off on this dogshit.
 
K

Kyuur

Member
DeNA is handling their online and cellular infrastructure. Safe to say they worked on this with Nintendo. I wouldn't blame anything directly on them though, not like Nintendo has a good track record with this.
 
I

Instro

Member
I don't think it was part of a deal per say. I think Nintendo upper management doesn't care about this, and allowed DeNA to handle it through a different solution. The problem being that no one making these decisions at Nintendo had enough insight into this realm to realize that it's a terrible solution that consumers will hate.

Look at how barebones the OS and surrounding systems are. Clearly this stuff isn't/wasn't a priority.
 
joe_zazen

joe_zazen

Member
So the answer is: nobody here knows.

I wonder if dena will issue a statement denying responsibility of it isn't their fault.
 
C

chrominance

Member
Jackstin said:
This rumour is quite frankly, a load of old tosh, based on loose circumstancial evidence, and a delusion that Nintendo would never do something so stupid unless they were influenced to by an outside agency.
Click to expand...

Honestly, when I saw the thread title, I was thinking the opposite: a thread questioning how DeNA wasn't able to keep Nintendo from doing the same dumb shit they always seem to do when it comes to online functionality.
 
N

Negator

Member
I doubt DeNA factored into this at all. I think James Jones from the RFN podcast was right, as the mobile app as it exists now only makes sense as another way for Nintendo to get into people's cellphones, because as a voice chat app it is incredibly stupid and no one would intentionally make it this bad on purpose if it were the primary function.
 
G

Gai Murakumo

Member
This is definetly Nintendo's doing because of the shortcuts they made to the Switch hardware. It just so happens they just work with DeNA on apps but it is really on Nintendo at the end of the day.
 
C

chrisPjelly

Member
No sane mobile company would've made an app as awful the voice chat app. The company that made friend codes and Wii Speak a thing, however...
 
N

NintendosBooger

Member
Nintendo was like the oblivious homeowner with no experience building a house laying out the groundwork and floorplans for their dream home to an average builder. Roof is crooked; foundation is uneven; draft coming from the hole where the toilet should be. Sometimes I forget Nintendo is such an incubated company with a rudimentary grasp of everything outside of video games.
 
B

Berordn

Member
DeNa probably made the app and built the supporting infrastructure, but the planning and design reeks of Nintendo's aversion to online features.
 
F

Fisty

Member
I really don't see why Nintendo couldn't have just sold an official Bluetooth earpiece and put a chat app in the system. Their solution is solving a problem by creating 3 others when the original problem was easily solved in like 2007 or something.
 
H

HeeHo

Member
Is there some kind of theory about why they can't do what everybody else has done? Plug a headset into the headphone jack?
 
A

Aztechnology

Member
Crazyorloco said:
I was wondering the same. I think it's likely a result of the partnership. I only hope that improvements to the app come quickly.



I expected this kind of post here lol ugh




I thought you posted your friend code :(
Click to expand...

When it comes to the voice chat and online features they are just plain dumb. I'm pretty sure at this point it's basically empirical.
 
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