One of the shocking announcements from last week’s Nintendo Switch event was how the console would handle online interactions. Players will be able to use an upcoming app on their smartphone to talk to other players online. In a new interview with GameSpot, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime discussed the app in a little more detail.
When asked about how “smartphones tie into the Switch” Reggie responded with the following message:
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.
So we think we’ve got an elegant solution. That’s a very specific answer to your question.
The important takeaway from this interview is the apparent fact that all of your typical online interactions will be facilitated by the application. This begs the question of which, if any, of these are usable without the app?
The Nintendo Switch launches in March, but the app won’t be available until Summer. With Mario Kart 8 Deluxe available in April, we’ll likely know more in-depth details about what’s possible without the app soon enough.
