They really don’t.
Nintendo has to be one of the most hilariously stubborn companies of all time. Throughout the years, they have made some baffling decisions regarding the online functionality of their consoles, friends codes, voice chat and features in their flagship titles or hardware. Fans have been voicing their opinion in social media ever since social media started being a thing. Nintendo just doesn’t care.
THE WHY
The simplest explanation is that they have some kind of strategy, a grand plan about maximising profits that sometimes leads to decisions that make sense from a financial and legal standpoint but can seem almost anti-consumer at times. One of the best examples that comes to mind is voice chat. While the Nintendo DS and 3DS had a microphone ready to go, this important hardware feature was omitted from the Switch, replaced by a phone app of all things. Of course some games like Fortnite can support voice chat with a headset or headphones, Nintendo’s games do not. Was it a cost cutting measure? Was it meant to protect Nintendo from potential lawsuits from children coming into contact with inappropriate language online? No one knows. All I know is that it can be a major pain in the ass to play Splatoon with my girlfriend and chat at the same time. Voice chatting while playing any game on Xbox takes literally 5 seconds to set up.
LITE MY FIRE
Which brings us to the next thing on the docket today. The Switch Lite. Nintendo announced their new edition of their Switch console, which can be played only in handheld mode. While the reception has been largely positive, with many journalists and analysts seeing the potential for massive sales numbers, some fans are extremely disappointed that it can’t be docked and played as a home console, like the original. Nintendo could have thought of a way to make the Lite “dockable” but that would mean you would have to buy a controller in order to play on TV. Joy-cons are already tiny, making even tinier versions for the Lite would be an ergonomic nightmare. That’s where the idea of a universal dock comes in. But whatever the case, Nintendo doesn’t care what fans think. They know that a cheaper, more affordable portable console is very attractive to their consumers. The rest is just background noise.
STILL AROUND
This stubbornness has been a staple of Nintendo. The cartridges in the N64, the crazy N64 controller, the incredible yet funky design of the GameCube controller, the tiny GameCube discs, the DS and 3DS…the….the Wii U. Nintendo takes ideas and runs with them. Sometimes they pay off, sometimes they seem insane to outside observers and fail miserably. Fans may be often furious about some of Nintendo’s design ideas or hardware releases but time and time again the oldest theory in gaming is proven correct; if it has great games and it’s fun to play, people will buy it.
THEY STILL DON’T CARE
That’s why I can’t easily voice chat with my friends while playing Splatoon 2. Because Nintendo would rather do whatever they want rather than let the consumers sway their biggest decisions left and right. There’s nothing I can do about it. They make awesome games. I am powerless to the Marios, the Zeldas and the Metroids. Goddamnit Nintendo.