Nintendo is so proud of the feature that it even included a little C button right on your Joy-Con (which was a point of excited speculation before the reveal) so you can jump into Game Chat whenever you like.
Unfortunately, it also tried to bury the fact that this Game Chat feature will actually require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription once the free trial period ends on March 31, 2026.
Now, you may be wondering what the button does if you don’t have a subscription? Thankfully, Nintendo’s vice president of player and product experience, Bill Trinen, was interviewed by Polygon on that very same topic. Trinen explains that the button will let you “find out about the NSO subscription there and get a sense of some of the functionality.” It’s basically a button that asks you to pay up.
It’s basically a button that asks you to pay up
We’ve gotten to the point where button functions are microtransactions…
This is why I emulate games and just use Linux
Wait, you have to have an online subscription to play with other people remotely anyway… Why does it matter that you can’t use a voice chat feature without that same subscription…?
Like, as a splatoon player who played and grind-ed rank without actual game servers while paying a subscription I absolutely was and still am mad about THAT, but given that thats the case, does it matter that you can’t use voice chat without a subscription…? Am I just totally missing something?
I’m not sure I would use it for something else than online games.
For now, I’ve stopped due to asking my phone number.
No, that’s pretty much it.
Sure it’s annoying to have a whole button dedicated to it (I mean, even to me, I do have an online subscription but I never use that feature).
Were they planning to use their switch 2 as a phone? That would only work between switch 2s that would have to be connected, but not subscribed to any actual online service?
That thing is of very little use outside of online gaming.