In one of the more curious moves of the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct yesterday, The Big N spent a lot of time talking and showing off a new feature for the system called GameChat. Long story short, this is a new form of communication that can happen with players at the literal press of a button. They can decide to just do voice chat, or they can attach a webcam and see everyone’s reactions to what’s happening on screen. Fans have been asking for a built-in chat like this for a few generations now, and this seems to be the one that could work the best.
In a special developer interview on Nintendo’s website, the trio behind the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct broke down what it was like making the GameChat feature. One of the trio, Sumikazu Ono, revealed that the feature was made earlier than you might think:
“I believe development began around 2020 when we started thinking about what we could do with built-in features in the next hardware. At the time, I still didn’t know what the next hardware would be like, but I’d heard that the team was considering creating a Nintendo Switch successor. Then, Kawamoto-san asked us, “Do you have any ideas for built-in features that would make the next hardware stand out?”
He went on to note that the inspiration that was given to him was a “student lounge,” you know, like one you’d find at a college?
“A student lounge is a space where students gather and mingle. We were discussing how it would be nice to recreate that student lounge-like atmosphere, where everyone gathers not only to play games but also just to hang out. The concept of the student lounge matched the idea of the built-in voice chat feature the team had in mind.”
Ironically, multiple members of the trio had already been contemplating such a thing for Nintendo’s next console, and they had also been looking out for cameras and how they could be used in a console. So, when Nintendo asked them to do video chat and voice chat, they were ready. The trio even got things rolling in less than six months.
They did plenty of prototyping with it, including playing various games, both ones with online features and ones without, and even having Nintendo executives play them. Each time, they felt more and more comfortable with the system and realized that this could be a defining feature of the Nintendo Switch 2.
