Nintendo has revealed that the upcoming Wii U console doesn’t have a universal, system-wide voice chat feature. Instead, developers will be tasked to provide voice chat for their games. Furthermore, Nintendo revealed that the built-in microphone in the GamePad controller will not be used for voice chat. Instead, players will have to purchase a third party headset in order to use voice communication.
Despite these rather disappointing news regarding voice chat, some games will have the feature. Games such as Call of Duty Black Ops 2 and Assassin’s Creed 3 will have voice chat support. However, players will have to purchase a separate headset from one of the licensed third party Wii U accessory makers. Turtle Beach has already announced such a headset for the Wii U.
The Wii U Pro controller does not have a headphone/microphone jack, which means voice chat is limited to the GamePad. It’s disappointing that Nintendo doesn’t allow the on-board mic for use in voice chat, as this seems like the obvious thing to do. Another disappointment is that Nintendo doesn’t make a first party headset, like Microsoft and Sony does.
So far the only headsets that are licensed for use with the Wii U come from Turtle Beach and Mad Catz.
