Nintendo Switch Smartphone App Needed for Voice Chat, Online Lobbies, Matchmaking

You know, I’ve been reporting on the Switch a lot, as of late, and even I’m starting to get a bit sick of it. I’m as big a Nintendo fan as you could find, amongst people who enjoy their earlier works but couldn’t be bothered to buy a Wii U, but my excitement over the Switch has turned into a wary anticipation to a depressed slog. Now, I cringe whenever I see more details have been revealed, because the news is inevitably bad.

Such is the case now. When talking about the Switch’s online capabilities, all we knew until now was that it would cost money (eventually), and that you would be able to borrow at SNES or NES title every month as thanks for your subscription. And, when talking about the companion smartphone app, all we knew for certain was that you could do parental controls through the thing.

But we had no idea, until a recent interview with GameSpot, how intrinsically linked the two were.

As it turns out, you’ll need the Nintendo Switch companion app for everything from online play, to matchmaking and lobbies, to voice chat. It seems the systems online capabilities are impossibly linked to the smartphone app, and there’s no other way to play online. To me, that sounds super annoying and exclusive, but for Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Amie, it’s an “elegant solution.”

"The smart phone app that we're creating, that will be part of our online service, we believe is going to be a very compelling part of the overall proposition because that's how you'll voice chat, that's how you'll do your matchmaking, and create your lobby… We also think it's a very elegant solution because if you've taken your Switch on the go, you've put yourself in a hotspot, you're looking at get a quick match of Mario Kart in, to whip out some sort of bulky, gamer headset is a bit of a challenge."

Yeah, see, the thing is Reggie, the reason we call them “gamer headsets” is because they’re headsets that gamers like. It allows clearer communication that doesn’t use your phone's battery or possibly even data, and it helps us drown out things like distractions. So, I would hesitate to call it an “elegant solution” and more a “terrible idea."

But hey, I’ve been wrong before, I’ll be wrong again, and for the sake of everyone who pre-ordered I really hope I’m wrong now. Check out the full interview below.