Skittzo0413
Member
Yeah this is incredibly confusing.
Nintendo really needs to have an Online/VC/e-shop/OS direct before launch, because their messaging on that has been awfully poor.
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Voice chat on the Switch will consist of a paid app on "smart" devices (your phone)
- Thread starter Trojita
- Start date
Yeah this is incredibly confusing.
Nintendo really needs to have an Online/VC/e-shop/OS direct before launch, because their messaging on that has been awfully poor.
Ninja Scooter
Member
What happens if you are deep in a game chatting with friends and you get a phone call?
i still don't get how i'm supposed to get voice chat audio and game audio into my ears at the same time, especially when i'm out in public and don't want to use speakers.
i wonder if they could solve this incredibly difficult problem by having the game system output both. no idea if that's technically feasible though!
i wonder if they could solve this incredibly difficult problem by having the game system output both. no idea if that's technically feasible though!
Considering the bulky headset thing I think they expect you to put everything on speaker. Audio from both devices at the same time in a revolutionary move only Nintendo could have thought of.
Ninja Scooter
Member
I wonder if the reason Reggie keeps making it a point to shit on "gamer headsets" is that they simply expect people to use their phone speaker for voice chat and the Switch speaker for game sound simultaneously and there is no real solution for headsets or headphones?
What's a phone call?
If I'm playing Splat 2 with a bunch of randos and this app is synced with the game and lets me chat with the randos and not just friend-only matches, this is fine. If it lets me text chat after each match with the people i was just playing with while the next match loads, amazing. And on that note, if the next Splat has regional matchmaking, HALLELUJAH.
My experience with smart devices has typically been that the speakers and microphones on them are not very high quality. My Samsung tablet has a poor speaker, and the microphone picks up everything.
I don't see how that could possibly be better then my dedicated earbuds + mic combo I have. : \
I don't see how that could possibly be better then my dedicated earbuds + mic combo I have. : \
Most smart devices come with dedicated earbuds and a mic.
Ninja Scooter
Member
I know one that apparently doesn't.
I know Apple/iOS devices do, but I haven't seen many Android devices (or at least, not the cheap ones) come with them.
My tablet certainly didn't come with them.
And if you're using earbuds and mics on the smart device, then you miss out on the audio slightly. That's really not an ideal solution...?
Rellik
Member
Every Android device I've owned., all the way back to the OG HTC Desire phone, have come with horrible sounding cheap earbuds and mic.
Right, I'm not arguing that it's fine to take money for these kind of services. I'm a PC player first and foremost, I won't pay for any online service.
But many people seem overly upset about the way this service is set up. Simply because it's not on OS level.
I'm genuinely interested to see what Nintendo has cooked up. Might work, might fail horribly like friends-codes. If they managed to develop a modern OS that's not taking up 1/3 of the available RAM and small amounts of CPU, it might be worth it to source it out. Especially on a low powered device.
I'm curious as to how it works, but the logical and practical aspects of it boggle my mind.
I do hope there's a standard PC app too. If I'm going to be loading up a separate app at home, at least give me the option of using my PC + it's accessories.
Huh. News for me. And this still doesn't solve the problem that they're a) cheap and horrible sounding, especially the mic and b) how you hear the game audio when you've got earbuds in your ear giving you voice chat. >_>;
I do hope there's a standard PC app too. If I'm going to be loading up a separate app at home, at least give me the option of using my PC + it's accessories.
Huh. News for me. And this still doesn't solve the problem that they're a) cheap and horrible sounding, especially the mic and b) how you hear the game audio when you've got earbuds in your ear giving you voice chat. >_>;
Into the Light
Banned
Why do I have to use my cell phone battery up? This is madness, and very poor infrastructure.
Ninja Scooter
Member
For the elegance.
Not quite sure I follow.
I have some really nice earbuds that even allow enough ambient audio in to keep me aware of my surroundings. I also have a really nice set that blocks a lot of noise. Sound quality on both is probably a step up from the built in speakers.
Into the Light
Banned
Perfect answer.
Interfectum
Member
You have to use both your Switch and phone battery to do multiplayer and tie up your phone for the remainder of the online session. This seems like the exact opposite of elegant.
What happens to your online session if you get a phone call or minimize the app for too long?
I think he is trying to say where do you plug in ear buds with a mic? Into the phone for voice chat, or into the Switch for game audio? Either way you are blocking the other source.
There appear to be two sources of sound (switch and phone) unless in addition to connecting the Switch via wifi you also have to connect it via bluetooth to the smartphone to move sound between them and output from a sole output. Which is a huge waste of battery.
You're going to have earbuds in, and you're going to have voice chat in your ears. That's going to make it more difficult if you intend to hear the game. It is especially impractical for any game where hearing sounds is important.
Hypothetical scenario as these games aren't on the system, but imagine if you're playing Counter-Strike or Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon on the Switch. Hearing the small sounds is going to be crucial there, and it'd be much easier to miss if you've got earbuds in your ears blocking out at least SOME sounds.
And of course, not everyone will be using nice earbuds like yours, which just compounds the issue entirely.
Come on, even when you're on the way, having to hold both the Switch and the phone in your hand/lap so you can play multiplayer is a bad solution. Imagine Splatoon. Take the Switch, enter the MP, switch to the phone for the lobby, starting the game, quickly switch back to the Switch, start playing, hear a dumb kid talking and what to do? do you abandon the game for a bit and mute him/chat/phone or you keep playing and try to ignore it. 3 minutes later the game ends. Rinse and repeat?
You have both devices active and powering through their batteries.
How long before you throw one of them or both away?
You have both devices active and powering through their batteries.
How long before you throw one of them or both away?
WhiteRabbitEXE
Member
Is this the new "courage!"? lol
Interfectum
Member
Yup. This idea is so bad that I have to believe we are missing a piece of the puzzle here. As it stands this solution makes no sense whatsoever.
You very well know you can't expect all of that from Nintendo.
Time will tell, but I'd be surprised to be wrong on that one.
So an absolute Nintendo online solution
Skittzo0413
Member
The only thing I can think of is that this lets your Switch connect to the internet through your phone's data network when you're outside of a wifi network. That would be the only possible problem this would be solving.
When you're at home, this makes absolutely no sense. It's probably nice to have as an option for those who want it for whatever reason, but for the only way? It's baffling.
visiblemode
Member
Will be fun to have a powerbank with one wire running into my switch and another into my phone, meanwhile the earbuds from my phone will be nestled tightly under the over-ear headphones I'll have plugged into my switch. Very elegant solution...it'll be like living life as Robocop.
DrROBschiz
Member
all they had to do... was look over at the vita
I can already do that in like, 2 taps on my phone screen. And it's free.
Wrestlemania
Banned
It's only free because your contract includes it. In the UK at least, most contracts require you pay extra for tethering, so a back channel way of doing it through an app would actually be really useful.
chillybright
Banned
"solution"
The more I think about it the more it sounds like the opposite of solution. It creates more problems for user experience than it attempts to solve.
DrROBschiz
Member
Even if technically possible, I doubt carriers would be okay with Nintendo using some unofficial form of tethering if it's something they want to charge you for. Even Apple itself doesn't authorize tethering apps to bypass this I think.
And I'm not sure why anyone would need voice chat somewhere they don't have Wifi.
Wrestlemania
Banned
I just mean that it's not the official way of doing tethering. If there's a way that an app can send the required data to a tethered device to allow online play, then it'd be useful for a lot of people who don't have tethering as part of their plan.
I think it's incredibly unlikely though.
Wrestlemania
Banned
It seems pretty unlikely to me they'd do anything that enables full online play through sharing your data connection for those reasons. At most I can imagine something where it can sent bits of asynchronous data from the phone to the Switch, the sort of stuff Streetpass could do - turns in an Advance Wars game, time trial ghosts etc.
brochiller
Member
With Reggie confirming that you can use a Bluetooth headset with the phone app, I'm actually in for this. I won't have to shell out more money for a new headset just for the Switch and can use the Bluetooth headset I already have. Plus I won't be tied to my controller like I am my Xbox.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_OgxrwWZU8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_OgxrwWZU8
Interfectum
Member
Switch has bluetooth as well so...
Ninja Scooter
Member
They could have just allowed you to use your bt headset with the Switch though?
Do they even make phones that don't support Bluetooth? It would make no sense for an app not to use....
Forgot what we were talking about. This is reassuring.
casey_contra
Member
Psh, typical Nintendo fanboy. You're letting them brainwash you into thinking this is even a remotely acceptable idea.
Kidding I actually don't care and think the app idea is really good. Even on PlayStation I hate having to stop the flow of my game to chat or organize parties. Haters gonna hate.
Interfectum
Member
So you going to play the Switch one-handled to keep the 'flow' while organizing parties on your phone with the other?
Or... and I know this is crazy, maybe they could provide the ability to do all of that on a single system so you don't have to juggle pieces of hardware.
joecanada
Member
just like ps3 10 years ago. groundbreaking
casey_contra
Member
Ah, good point. I guess it's a matter of what is more disruptive. Picking up your phone or going into a separate menu. Both are a distraction honestly. We also need to just see more about what it entails. It could work though. I mean, that parental control app seems pretty dope.
Yeah, how inconvenient it is to hear game audio out of both ears while simultaneously hearing chat. So are you going with the single ear Bluetooth adapter? I'm sure that will be a great experience, with game audio coming out of the TV being picked up by your Bluetooth headset or you only hearing out of one ear. Why not make it as ridiculous as possible, and go dual ear headset and crank the volume on your TV.
test_account
XP-39C²
I was just watching that interview too and caught the same thing. At least thats better than having to use your phone, but the extra part in between (the smart device) still seems unnecessary to me.