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[Okami Haundo]

Think about people who are waiting on more online details before they pre-order. The sooner someone finds those details, the sooner they may pre-order, which will help them accurately track consumer demand.

Detailing everything sooner may also be beneficial in evaluating how consumers respond to all the features and how they're implemented, allowing them to make changes, if needed, before the console launches or, in the case of bigger changes, start working on them ASAP so they can get to the "hands" of the consumers pretty quick.

Your first point is really what I've been saying. Pre-orders are currently sold out. People who want more details before they make a purchase would have to wait for another round of pre-orders or launch day regardless.

As for your second point, I absolutely agree with you about taking customer feedback into consideration. The biggest point that people are freaking out about is the online "app" for voice chat and matchmaking. At this point, they've given us the details we need on that and people are giving them reactions right now. They also have a free trial planned for the app before it becomes paid which allows for more feedback.

 

[UncleSporky]

Random dude : "So can we expect voice chat"
Reggie : "Yes, through the app"

It would be helpful if you would actually read OP, where it says right on the site that voice chat is through the app, but managing friends is not.

 

[Cynar]

Yeah we're far from the Xbox One reveal I think. At least we're just discussing how voice chat will work, not how the fuck will I buy my games lol.

I disagree. You just have to look on Facebook or Twitter to see. People are backing down once they learn about the online plans.

It would be helpful if you would actually read OP, where it says right on the site that voice chat is through the app, but managing friends is not.

Not at all. The image doesn't mention that

 

[azyless]

It would be helpful if you would actually read OP, where it says right on the site that voice chat is through the app, but managing friends is not.

I'm referring to this message and the ones following/preceding it :

By the sounds of it the app is not mandatory for voice chat and most likely isn't for "online lobby" either, whatever that actually is.

 

[Milly Osworth]

Nintendo is pround to announce Netflix, Youtube and Internet for Switch*.


*download the app on your smartphone biatch

 

[LordKano]

I disagree. You just have to look on Facebook or Twitter to see. People are backing down once they learn about the online plans.

I look on my twitter feed (no chance someone talk about video games on my Facebook feed) and no one is talking about the online on the Switch.

Unless you're talking about the whole paywall, which is a fair reason to back down on the Switch.

 

[UncleSporky]

Not at all. The image doesn't mention that

Oh ok, then. Image also says "online gameplay" but it also doesn't say that it's not on the app. I guess we can safely assume that the Switch does no online gaming itself, instead you can only play downscaled versions of Mario Kart within the mobile app.

 

[HeroR]

I look on my twitter feed (no chance someone talk about video games on my Facebook feed) and no one is talking about the online on the Switch.

Unless you're talking about the whole paywall, which is a fair reason to back down on the Switch.

I have to agree with this. The most talked about negative aspects of the Switch is price and the lack of games.

 

[notaskwid]

Yes, you would think this.

I honestly have no idea why they haven't released an official statement but I'm pretty confident my above post confirms you don't need the app.

Except that your posts are contradicted by the president of Nintendo of America himself.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

Yeah we're far from the Xbox One reveal I think. At least we're just discussing how voice chat will work, not how the fuck will I buy my games lol.

That paid online and pricing of accessories is a deterrent. Anecdotally based on rlf

Tell me how? Reggie only talks about the app and never mentions the console.

That's the thing. Because they won't explicitly say that the console handles voice chat it makes think that the app is the only way. Just doesn't make sense why they wouldn't say it

 

[Jonneh3003]

Except that your statement is contradicted by the president of Nintendo of America himself.

Tell me how? Reggie only talks about the app and never mentions the console.
That isn't a confirmation, especially when the site explains parts he didn't.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

Heaven forbid we listen to what the president of Nintendo of America says about the console his company is releasing in less than 2 months.

Nintendo being completely vague about this kind of stuff for years is why this is happening.

Don't get me wrong, the negativity surrounding this is Nintendo's fault. They left all this room for doubt with unanswered questions and a crappy presentation.

But people are still jumping the gun.

 

[BahamutPT]

Your first point is really what I've been saying. Pre-orders are currently sold out.

I don't mean this in an rude way at all, but I guess you're referring to the US? Pre-orders are still available in many countries around the world in many retailers, and those people would love to get some details too.

It could also be detrimental as people may cancel their preorders if the service is not what they expected. I'm one of those pre-orders that are on the fence.

I agree with you, however unless they release the info only after launch - which would be dumb as the online service will partially be available in March - you still may cancel the pre-order before launch.
What I mean is that at this time there is no benefit between releasing or withholding that info.
Now, if they're planning to only release the info AFTER the console launch, that would be detrimental (between revealing now or then). But then that would be a huge scumbag move if the service was really bad.

 

[Twenty7KVN]

Ok this is getting sad now.

 

[notaskwid]

Tell me how? Reggie only talks about the app and never mentions the console.
That isn't a confirmation, especially when the site explains parts he didn't.

https://youtu.be/G_OgxrwWZU8

Jared asks him if there'll be voice chat to which Reggie answers 'yes, through the app'.

 

[Okami Haundo]

Tell me how? Reggie only talks about the app and never mentions the console.
That isn't a confirmation, especially when the site explains parts he didn't.

This! I'm not sure why people are more than happy to jump to conclusions that only validate their argument?

- "Reggie said that voice chat is handled through the app, so we can assume there's literally no way to do it on the console, ever."

--- "But Reggie only mentioned the app, and didn't definitively say anything about what the console could or couldn't do. He redirected questions to be just about the app..."

- "Why are you jumping to conclusions to defend Nintendo?"

I don't mean this in an rude way at all, but I guess you're referring to the US? Pre-orders are still available in many countries around the world in many retailers, and those people would love to get some details too.

That's not being rude at all! That's my own ignorant fault for assuming those stories were about it being sold out worldwide. In that case, it would definitely help them to get these details out as soon as possible. Disregard my previous claims as I'm completely ignorant to the rest of the world... My apologies.

 

[Kusagari]

Tell me how? Reggie only talks about the app and never mentions the console.
That isn't a confirmation, especially when the site explains parts he didn't.

Reggie directly avoids saying the console itself does voice chat/lobbies/etc. whenever it comes up and in fact goes out of his way to shit on the standard way by going "BULKY GAMER HEADSETS GUIZ".

 

[BahamutPT]

Tell me how? Reggie only talks about the app and never mentions the console.
That isn't a confirmation, especially when the site explains parts he didn't.

To be fair, Reggie did say "that's how you'll do [X and Y and Z]" when referring to the app. The friends management portion is the only thing he didn't mention in the interview and is still open to interpretation here.

 

[Skittzo0413]

This! I'm not sure why people are more than happy to jump to conclusions that only validate their argument?

- "Reggie said that voice chat is handled through the app, so we can assume there's literally no way to do it on the console, ever."

--- "But Reggie only mentioned the app, and didn't definitively say anything about what the console could or couldn't do. He redirected questions to be just about the app..."

- "Why are you jumping to conclusions to defend Nintendo?"

I agree with your point here but to be fair Nintendo hasn't really earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to situations like this.

 

[Jonneh3003]

To be fair, Reggie did say "that's how you'll [do X and Y and Z]" when referring to the app. The friends management portion is the only thing he didn't mention in the interview and is still open to interpretation here.

Curious why Nintendo of Japan say the 3.5mm jack works for microphones and integrated headphone mics, I think Reggie was told to focus on the app for some reason.

 

[Got]

It still amazes me how companies fuck up their messaging.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

What does this change? Matchmaking and voice chat are still through a mobile phone app, which is where all the gnashing of teeth arose in the previous thread.

 

[optimiss]

Curious why Nintendo of Japan say the 3.5mm jack works for microphones and integrated headphone mics, I think Reggie was told to focus on the app for some reason.

The mic on the Switch might be used for gameplay and not chatting. Things like voice commands, or recording your voice.

 

[Okami Haundo]

What does this change? Matchmaking and voice chat are still through a mobile phone app, which is where all the gnashing of teeth arose in the previous thread.

The OP didn't intend to "change" anything but a misinterpretation of facts. Some people just get enjoyment out of ensuring facts aren't ignored.

 

[KingSnake]

Curious why Nintendo of Japan say the 3.5mm jack works for microphones and integrated headphone mics, I think Reggie was told to focus on the app for some reason.

You know that it doesn't work to play dumb on one info ("but it doesn't state in clear words that .... bla bla bla") and to pretend to read more in another info, right? I mean it works if you want to be a hypocrite, but otherwise nope.

In other words: "but we don't know what the mic is used for, because it doesn't state in clear words on the site that the mic is used for chat so we don't know anything" /s

 

[Skittzo0413]

What does this change? Matchmaking and voice chat are still through a mobile phone app, which is where all the gnashing of teeth arose in the previous thread.

You'd be surprised. Just read this thread, plenty of people assumed you would not have access to a friends list on the console at all. Add to that we can't see an obvious friends/messaging section on the UI pictures and people began to worry.

The mic on the Switch might be used for gameplay and not chatting. Things like voice commands, or recording your voice.

The mic isn't built into the Switch, it just allows for headphones with microphones. I doubt any game will require microphone inputs if you need to buy a headset for that.

 

[ThanksVision]

What positive benefit does Nintendo have in doing this? Usually decisions based on greed are clear as day, but there is no outright explanation that justifies putting these online features outside of the console. Yes, it is slightly less taxing on the system CPU, but it is cumbersome for the user, and it appears to actively negate people from subscribing to their online service. I do not understand their line of thinking at all. Any ideas?

 

[RichiRamjag]

Except that your posts are contradicted by the president of Nintendo of America himself.

Yeah, but it's Reggie...

 

[Kusagari]

You'd be surprised. Just read this thread, plenty of people assumed you would not have access to a friends list on the console at all. Add to that we can't see an obvious friends/messaging section on the UI pictures and people began to worry.

The info in the OP doesn't guarantee messaging will be handled on the console. All it really says to me is that you can add and remove friends from the console OS. Everything else could be limited to the app.

 

[KingSnake]

The info in the OP doesn't guarantee messaging will be handled on the console. All it really says to me is that you can add and remove friends from the console OS. Everything else could be limited to the app.

.

 

[Skittzo0413]

The info in the OP doesn't guarantee messaging will be handled on the console. All it really says to me is that you can add and remove friends from the console OS. Everything else could be limited to the app.

Right, I agree it doesn't guarantee that at all and I never claimed as much.

That said, what functionality would this friends list have if you can't even message them on the console? This would seem to at least imply we will be seeing messages. Certainly not confirm though.

 

[notaskwid]

What positive benefit does Nintendo have in doing this? Usually decisions based on greed are clear as day, but there is no outright explanation that justifies putting these online features outside of the console. Yes, it is slightly less taxing on the system CPU, but it is cumbersome for the user, and it appears to actively negate people from subscribing to their online service. I do not understand their line of thinking at all. Any ideas?

Yes, they want to push a centralized app where they can connect switch with their smartphone games. Assuming that the switch is a success they would right out of the gate have a ton of people using the app because they have no other choice.
Also, DeNA (a japanese smartphone game maker) are the ones that supposedly are in charge of Switch's online components and it makes perfect sense for their own business to leverage nintendo's influence.

 

[optimiss]

The mic isn't built into the Switch, it just allows for headphones with microphones. I doubt any game will require microphone inputs if you need to buy a headset for that.

Then it will probably be bundled with a cheap mic. It has happened plenty of times before. I imagine there will at least be a karaoke game on Switch.

 

[Okami Haundo]

Then it will probably be bundled with a cheap mic. It has happened plenty of times before. I imagine there will at least be a karaoke game on Switch.

They've confirmed what's in the box on day one and a mic isn't there =/

 

[KingSnake]

This would seem to at least imply we will be seeing messages.

No, it doesn't. This implies just that you can add and manage friends for free. It doesn't even imply that you will do that on the console. But it doesn't imply the other way either. It doesn't imply anything about what you can change on console, just that it's free to manage friends. Wherever you can do that.

 

[Devilgunman]

I feel like some of you are still in disbelief about the phone app and trying too hard to search for glimpse of hope that this isn't the reality. Reggie has been asked repeatedly and he still sticked with the same answer. If what he said was inaccurate, there was no way the PR from NoJ would allow him to repeat his nonsense over and over again.

What positive benefit does Nintendo have in doing this? Usually decisions based on greed are clear as day, but there is no outright explanation that justifies putting these online features outside of the console. Yes, it is slightly less taxing on the system CPU, but it is cumbersome for the user, and it appears to actively negate people from subscribing to their online service. I do not understand their line of thinking at all. Any ideas?

The answer might be as simple as " Nintendo don't know how to do it." They offload everything online related to DeNA and DeNA probably choose to work it out on their familiar platform which is mobile.

 

[The Omega Man]

What positive benefit does Nintendo have in doing this? Usually decisions based on greed are clear as day, but there is no outright explanation that justifies putting these online features outside of the console. Yes, it is slightly less taxing on the system CPU, but it is cumbersome for the user, and it appears to actively negate people from subscribing to their online service. I do not understand their line of thinking at all. Any ideas?

It's not greed per se, Nintendo has always been behind, archaic and obtuse in its network features and implementations, these decisions are made in japan from people that hasn't gotten with the times, many people hoped that the Swhitch would have finally put an end to this.

 

[oti]

At this point I'd stop speculating and just expect the worst. Nintendo does not have the track record to deserve the benefit of the doubt. So better to just wait for official info on this one.

 

[notaskwid]

They've confirmed what's in the box on day one and a mic isn't there =/

Still doen't mean that you can't use a microphone for a karaoke game. The game can come with the microphone.
Also the Wii U has a karaoke app in partnership with one of the biggest Karaoke chains in Japan.

 

[constantstatic]

This whole app voice chat thing is so odd to me. Will they send game audio to the app? like why would anyone want game audio coming out of speakers then the chat in head phones.

The app would have to be able to mix game and chat audio to work properly. Either way I don't see any chance I would want to pay for this unlesss it's much cheaper than psn and Xbox live.

 

[Skittzo0413]

No, it doesn't. This implies just that you can add and manage friends for free. It doesn't even imply that you will do that on the console. But it doesn't imply the other way either. It doesn't imply anything about what you can change on console, just that it's free to manage friends. Wherever you can do that.

Let me paraphrase from the website in the OP:

"Make the most of your Nintendo Switch:

Online Gameplay

Online Lobby & Voice Chat app

Monthly game download

Exclusive deals

Access to Nintendo eShop

Register and manage Friends

Share screenshots to social media"

It's really hard for me to read this as saying, "use the Online Lobby & Voice Chat app to Register and manage Friends". It's even harder to read that as saying "use our website on a PC to Register and manage Friends."

You're a fan of Occam's razor, right? This checklist seems pretty clear to me, and I don't know why having a friends list on a Nintendo console all of a sudden seems so controversial.

I feel like some of you are still in disbelief about the phone app and trying too hard to search for glimpse of hope that this isn't the reality. Reggie has been asked repeatedly and he still sticked with the same answer. If what he said was inaccurate, there was no way the PR from NoJ would allow him to repeat his nonsense over and over again.

Reggie has said absolutely nothing about managing a friends list through the app. I am not talking about voice chat or lobbies here.

 

[Okami Haundo]

Still doen't mean that you can't use a microphone for a karaoke game. The game can come with the microphone.
Also the Wii U has a karaoke app in partnership with one of the biggest Karaoke chains in Japan.

I most definitely didn't say that you couldn't! But aren't those peripherals almost always USB? I don't think I've seen a game like that which utilizes a standard headphone jack for voice input. I'll admit that I haven't done much research but it doesn't add up that they would allow mic support through that jack only for games that "might" come. Either way, this is an off-topic conversation and shouldn't go in this thread. My apologies for de-railing.

 

[BahamutPT]

Curious why Nintendo of Japan say the 3.5mm jack works for microphones and integrated headphone mics, I think Reggie was told to focus on the app for some reason.

I really don't understand why both sites would have contradicting info on the 3.5 jack as well as the US site specifically mentioning voice chat as an app feature.
As someone mentioned, a wired microphone for karaoke games may be the answer.
Or something like the smule app - https://www.smule.com/

What positive benefit does Nintendo have in doing this? Usually decisions based on greed are clear as day, but there is no outright explanation that justifies putting these online features outside of the console. Yes, it is slightly less taxing on the system CPU, but it is cumbersome for the user, and it appears to actively negate people from subscribing to their online service. I do not understand their line of thinking at all. Any ideas?

This is just my theory, but I think it's most certainly to reduce the OS overhead due to the available system specs, keeping as much RAM and CPU resources as possible available for gaming purposes, which should be very important in portable mode.

 

[optimiss]

They've confirmed what's in the box on day one and a mic isn't there =/

I'm talking about with any games that need a mic.

 

[udivision]

So... we can't listen to Reggie, the website doesn't explain enough, and Nintendo precedent doesn't point to anything conclusive.

hooray good messaging

 

[KingSnake]

Let me paraphrase from the website in the OP:

"Make the most of your Nintendo Switch:

Online Gameplay

Online Lobby & Voice Chat app

Monthly game download

Exclusive deals

Access to Nintendo eShop

Register and manage Friends

Share screenshots to social media"

It's really hard for me to read this as saying, "use the Online Lobby & Voice Chat app to Register and manage Friends". It's even harder to read that as saying "use our website on a PC to Register and manage Friends."

You're a fan of Occam's razor, right? This checklist seems pretty clear to me, and I don't know why having a friends list on a Nintendo console all of a sudden seems so controversial.

Yes the logic says that you can manage the friends on Switch.

Now apply the same Occam's Razor to the fact that you need an app for Voice Chat and Online Lobby. Messages are more in the category of "online activities with friends" than in "register and manage friends".

 

[wildfire]

What positive benefit does Nintendo have in doing this? Usually decisions based on greed are clear as day, but there is no outright explanation that justifies putting these online features outside of the console. Yes, it is slightly less taxing on the system CPU, but it is cumbersome for the user, and it appears to actively negate people from subscribing to their online service. I do not understand their line of thinking at all. Any ideas?

Someone gave one answer. VOIP is a battery killer is another.

 

[Skittzo0413]

Yes the logic says that you can manage the friends on Switch.

Now apply the same Occam's Razor to the fact that you need an app for Voice Chat and Online Lobby. Messages are more in the category of "online activities with friends" than in "register and manage friends".

Yeah that's fair. It would be very weird to see a friends list with no way to message your friends, but I suppose all of this app stuff is very weird too.

 

[Jonneh3003]

You know that it doesn't work to play dumb on one info ("but it doesn't state in clear words that .... bla bla bla") and to pretend to read more in another info, right? I mean it works if you want to be a hypocrite, but otherwise nope.

In other words: "but we don't know what the mic is used for, because it doesn't state in clear words on the site that the mic is used for chat so we don't know anything" /s

What are you talking about? I'm talking about this.

"Headphone and Mic-Jack - You can connect headphones, a microphone or headphones with integrated microphone"

 

[BahamutPT]

Yeah that's fair. It would be very weird to see a friends list with no way to message your friends, but I suppose all of this app stuff is very weird too.

So, in other words, (New) Nintendo 3DS/2DS