To those of you prospective Wii U owners who’ve been wondering if Nintendo’s upcoming system will indeed have the option for voice chat, the answer is- yes, it will. Now, hold on to your horses. There’s a catch, as is always the case with Nintendo.
Nintendo has decided not to implement voice chat as a feature universally for the entire system, rather given the devs to add it as a feature as on game-by-game basis.
What’s more, the GamePad’s microphone is not what will be used for voice chat- you will have to buy third party equipment and attach it to the GamePad if you want voice chat in your games.
Reads Nintendo’s statement: “Wii U will have in-game chat functionality for select games, including, but not limited to, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Assassin’s Creed III and Mass Effect 3. This feature will be supported by licensed stereo headsets that plug directly into the headphone port of the Game Pad. Licensed headsets are available from Turtle Beach and TRITTON.”
It’s also interesting to note that the Pro Controller does not have the option to plud third party mics into it, which means, if you want to play a game with the Pro controller while voice chatting, you will have to use two different controllers.
Seems a little stupid, doesn’t it, Nintendo?
What’s your take on this? Fire away in the comments section below!