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

  • OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    I don’t have a Switch 2 and am not interested in getting one, but I do know rage-bait articles about non-issues. I can’t understand someone throwing a tantrum because there’s a button on their controller that they don’t need. Just ignore it?

    Hey, I bought a car that has a “Bluelink+” option to talk to their support people. It’s a subscription service which I don’t pay for. It doesn’t harm me in the least that the button is there and I don’t use it. I don’t even mind that the ads for the car mention that it’s a feature. It would be weird if it did upset me.

    • Infrapink@thebrainbin.org
      0·
      9 days ago

      Get out of here with your facts and rational thought, if Nintendo does something it’s automatically uniquely bad.

      • 4am@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        9 days ago

        Especially because video games are theMOST IMPORTANT METRIC of a FUNCTIONAL SOCIETY

    • stylusmobilus@aussie.zoneEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      It was clear before the release of the console that gamechat was part of NSO.

      People bitched, but in the end most of us have the thing anyway. Personally, I don’t use it at all but I did get the camera now it’s dirt cheap because it has other functions

      It’s a nothing burger but I guess I can see a larger point that may grow into a real concern at some stage.

    • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      The rational thing to do is to allow binding that key to some other function, but that wouldn’t be miserable for the users so they won’t allow that