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Wii U will have in game voice chat for some games. Damn.
News reported by 
(Editor)
October 18, 2012, 18:51
 
The Wii U will support in-game voice chat, but you'll be forgiven if you're not sure exactly how that will work. Nintendo hasn't shown an official headset for the WIi U and the Wii U's Pro Controller—the one that looks a lot like an Xbox 360 controller—doesn't even have a port to connect one.

So how does it work?

The new Nintendo console will support in-game voice chat for "select games", a rep for the company tells Kotaku. Among the games supported will be Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty Black Ops II and Mass Effect 3, all games with significant online multiplayer modes and all which support in-game voice chat on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The Wii U GamePad—the console's signature twin-stick controller that contains a 6.2-inch screen—contains a microphone and speakers, but that mic does not actually work with the voice chat. Nintendo tells me that users who want to be able to talk to each other can use a licensed stereo headset from Turtle Beach or Mad Catz (Tritton). The headsets plug into the GamePad's headphone jack.

At least one of the aforementioned games, Black Ops II, supports the Pro Controller, but that controller's lack of a jack will require Pro Controller gamers who want voice chat to do something a bit counterintuitive. They'll have to plug their headset into the GamePad, the controller they are otherwise not using, according to a spokesperson for CoD publisher Activision. That rep believes that gamers might be able to use a standard set of headphones that contain a mic (iPhone headphones, for example) with the GamePad, but that's not something I've been able to clarify yet with Nintendo.


From Kotaku

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10/18/12, 18:51   Edited:  10/18/12, 18:53
 
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I'm just hoping that the messaging works well enough that it'll turn out fine. We could all just say "We'll be on around 8:30." We get onto the WiiU, and we all get a message that someone is running late. Alright cool. So then I see that Stache is in a Mario Kart lobby, so I join up with him and the voice chat kicks in. A few other people join in and we all shoot the shit. The last person finally gets on and we go on our way.

In the end, it's not that big of a deal assuming that we can easily send each other messages. If I can't send you guys a text/picture/voice message and you don't get it immediately...well then we have a problem.

The only other big convenience we'll have in game is if a few of us want to play with strangers. Am I going to have to mute people every game? Or will I have an option that I can tick off that says "Voice Chat with Friends (and friends of friends) Only"? It'd be convenient to maybe have a list that you can tick off who you can and cannot communicate with in voice chat. At that point, it'd be very similar to XBL's party chat (enabling you to talk with only your buddies), but we just couldn't do it while we're changing games or whatever.

Posted by 
 on: 10/19/12, 19:17   Edited:  10/19/12, 19:19
...Will the Wii U support the USB Wireless Keyboard that the Wii used?

Posted by 
 on: 10/19/12, 19:36
@canonj There is an official one, though, right? By Turtle Beach?

Posted by 
 on: 10/19/12, 19:48
VickiL said:
@canonj There is an official one, though, right? By Turtle Beach?

Sure, but the interface is not proprietary, you can use whatever headset you already have with the same connector.

I think the bitching is really overblown. There will be communication in games that allow it, i.e. every single multiplayer online game you could think of, except perhaps first party ones, because Nintendo is crazy. And you can use whatever headset you want.

It's basically exactly like PSN, minus the bluetooth.

Posted by 
 on: 10/19/12, 20:07
Thanks Zero for saying something - I wasn't going to wait much more..


**
Anyways.. I'm going to wait and see on this one.. I think Nintendo needs to be a lot more flexible - especially with hardware already geared for online VC. The more options a system has - the more of an audience it will gain and the more players will play. For a gaming company, I'm shocked - sometimes I feel that most of the decision makers are not gamers themselves.

S

Posted by 
 on: 10/19/12, 20:28
@Guillaume
PS3 didn't already have a built-in mic that Sony ignored. THAT is the real issue here it seems. If the mic didnt exist on the Gamepad, we'd all be having a very different discussion right now. Nintendo deserves all the flack they can get for this. Is it earth shattering? Maybe not. But it's really stupid and short sighted of Nintendo to treat an important feature like this.

And no one seems to mention the monetary waste of paying for the same thing twice.

Posted by 
 on: 10/19/12, 22:24
@Guillaume
But it's not like PSN because the PS3 supports both standard USB headsets and Bluetooth headsets, so consumers have a plethora of choices in both wired and wireless format (including decent 1st party offerings). Not only that, for the PS3 the headsets are independent of the controller, so it doesn't matter if you're using the Move or the DualShock 3, you headset will work, comfortably and conveniently. Being forced to be tethered to the tablet for voice chat, draining it's batteries while your not even using it, isn't really like the PS3 experience in any way, and to me it doesn't seem like a clean, convenient, customer-friendly, well-thought-out solution, it seems like a slap-dash hack-job.

If Nintendo would clarify and announce that Bluetooth and USB headset will work at launch (or at least they plan to make them work through an update) then I'd agree the bitching is overblown. Right now I think people are justified in complaining about this bonehead move, and the lack of information about the online network in general.

Concerning the party-chat thing, I can see why people are upset, but at the same time party-chat isn't that integral to gameplay, and it's only offered by one company, who charges $60 a year for it. So personally I don't care, it would have been nice but I think we'll be able to get along without it (assuming you can message your friends to set up games, unlike the 3DS, which maybe is a dumb assumption on my behalf).

Posted by 
 on: 10/19/12, 22:37
I said in game video chat before because he got done chatting with his grandfather in the video and almost instantaneously went back to his game save and started fighting the boss. Which to me says he paused the game to check miiverse and video chat then unpaused the game. Its not even close to being that fast for ps3 just chatting where you have to quit the game entirely to even do voice chat! Then restart the game!

And Ubisoft prolly assumed like the rest of us that when you put a mic into a controller THAT YOU CAN USE IT!!!

Posted by 
 on: 10/19/12, 22:56
Guillaume said:

I think the bitching is really overblown. There will be communication in games that allow it, i.e. every single multiplayer online game you could think of, except perhaps first party ones, because Nintendo is crazy. And you can use whatever headset you want.

Wanna bet?

Posted by 
 on: 10/20/12, 00:17
@Stephen

If it was opt-in anyone who doesn't opt-in would be bad guy zoned.

Posted by 
 on: 10/20/12, 00:31
@Jargon

Wanna bet on what?

Posted by 
 on: 10/20/12, 00:40
@Renjaku

That's silly.

Alexander Graham Bell: Lets release my new telephone to everyone so we can all chat!
Gamewizard's Ancestor- Fuck that! If people want to communicate with each other they can use the telegraph. Fucking whiny school girls.
Renjaku's Ancestor- Besides anyone who doesn't want a Telephone is going to be ignored and never be sent a telegraph again!
AGB:......Who the fuck are you guys? Get out of my workshop!


Posted by 
 on: 10/20/12, 00:44   Edited:  03/28/14, 12:14
@Shadowlink

The 'telephone' there has already been released...the PC.

Posted by 
 on: 10/20/12, 00:56
@Guillaume

That there will be communication in every single third-party multiplayer online game.

Posted by 
 on: 10/20/12, 01:39
The 3DS has a mic close to buttons and all, and if a headset plugs into the gamepad then the gamepad is processing voice stuff all the same.

I think the gamepad mic will work for voice chat, but some devs will choose not to use it that way because it has to be even more sensitive than the 3DS mic (controller on your lap instead of held up to your eyes), making button presses louder. Nintendo is only speaking on decisions made for COD/AC3/ME3.

But I want the option since the system doesn't come with headsets and it's really just a lower quality version of the same thing. Like that afterglow wireless headset..$90? For real? Wouldn't spend that much on a peripheral in a million years.

Posted by 
 on: 10/21/12, 07:09   Edited:  10/21/12, 07:13
Yeah let's really hope so. I wouldn't mind it as an option either I guess. Who knows, maybe I would opt out for a headset instead anyway, but just completely locking us out sounds idiotic.

Posted by 
 on: 10/21/12, 22:56
SEGA Racing has been confirmed to not have voice chat for Wii U due to it being a launch title apparently. Either that's a crock of shit or Nintendo are not communicating well with certain third party devs.

Posted by 
 on: 10/21/12, 23:18
@warerare
It's beginning to seems like the base-level OS doesn't support VOIP at all, instead leaving it up to 3rd parties to build it into their games. This means a lot of 3rd parties will probably opt. not to code voice chat into their games since they're probably used to just piggybacking off of Microsoft's and Sony's built-in, OS-level functionality.

It's seriously baffling, especially after they showed off the video conferencing thing, does the OS really allow you to video conference but not voice chat? It sounds insane but Nintendo is the king of insane I guess. I can't imagine 3rd party's are very happy about this, and I wonder if it will mean publishers are less likely to want to port over (or develop) multiplayer games for Wii U.

If the Wii U doesn't support voice chat, I wonder what kind of other basic online functionality it will be missing? Of course maybe Nintendo is just scrambling to get the console launched and then it will patch in some of the online functionality a little bit later.

Posted by 
 on: 10/22/12, 02:45   Edited:  10/22/12, 02:48
Yeah, after having a couple days to digest everything, it's basically like PSN but without the option to use any BT headset you want.

Still, I'd like to hear more about text and voice messaging (if it's there?), as well as Swapnote integration. As long as all that stuff is virtually instantaneous, then I'd be a fairly happy camper.

It would also be nice to enable an option on the OS level that says "Voice chat with friends (or friends of friends) only." I have to imagine something like that will be there, right? It only makes sense because Nintendo doesn't want children voice chatting with strangers (nor would I want them to).

Posted by 
 on: 10/22/12, 03:39
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