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Wii U Voice Chat Options Specific to Each Game?

By Jorge Ba-oh (jb)

18819 on 20.10.2012 at 01:00

Wii U Voice Chat Options Specific to Each Game? on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

A Nintendo representative has spoken out on the options available to upcoming Wii U gamers who want to become vocal to other players online.

Speaking to Kotaku this week, the consensus is that only specific, branded devices would work with the Wii U, and these would have to be wired to the GamePad's 3.5mm socket.

Despite a microphone and speakers present on the controller itself, the representative noted that a headset must be used for online chat rather than natively from the GamePad.

Likewise with the lack of a 3.5mm jack on the Wii U Controller Pro, gamers will need the GamePad to act as the middle man if using the Controller Pro - connecting a headset to it just for chatting purposes.

According to peripheral manufacturer PDP though, games that utilise audio over the USB port instead can use the company's wireless devices, but this is again specific to each game and whether developers would support it.

Call of Duty publisher Activision noted that regular headphones with speakers should be compatible with the GamePad, but this has still yet to be confirmed.

Finally, in-game chat and voice chat are both specific to each game and currently not a universal feature.

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RudyC3 on 20.10.2012 at 09:50#1

At E3 this year, it appeared to me as though you didn't need any form of accessory other than the gamepad itself to do video chat.

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meeto_0 on 20.10.2012 at 12:20#2

RudyC3 said:
At E3 this year, it appeared to me as though you didn't need any form of accessory other than the gamepad itself to do video chat.

The guy here is using just the gamepad. So why all of a of a sudden would you need to buy headsets and the like?? Or was that explanatory video just for Miiverse? But if the console AND gamepad can work together to provide video chat while viewing Miiverse, why not during gameplay? Or if not video chat, at least audio chat? The console is apparently clearly capable of doing so. That doesn't make sense.

What you should have learnt from 2006 E3 is that nintendos promotional videos are very loose examples of what they are hoping to achieve. I remember the game reel featuring what people could do with the wii remote it kind of led you to believe the remote was a very accurate device.

They showed you a video of a game where a guy had voice chat during a game session and you presumed this would be a uniform feature across all games working in a universal manner.

That was entirely your fault and Nintendo is not responsible for your interpretation of their promos

Darkflame on 20.10.2012 at 13:34#3

That set up also has a gamepad (ie the bit with the camera) on a stand by the tv - you clearly wouldnt have that set up during gameplay.
I think the idea is a "skype" style thing can work that way, but during gameplay itself not.

That seems reasonable to me as to have the audio streamed to the net at the same time as running game code probably requires developer specific co-operation.

As for "branded devices" I suspect thats bollocks - you cant have DRM or security over 3.5mm unless they are doing something very weird.
It will probably be like any other headset setup over 3.5mm - probably works for audio out, but the light differences between brands on the pin layout mean sometimes you have to pull it slightly out or in to get the mic to work Smilie
"representatives" tend not to be very relayable.

Please give our little random review show a try;
http://randomreviewshow.com/index.html
We have special effects and umm...stuff...

Mush on 20.10.2012 at 13:35#4

RudyC3 said:
At E3 this year, it appeared to me as though you didn't need any form of accessory other than the gamepad itself to do video chat.

The guy here is using just the gamepad. So why all of a of a sudden would you need to buy headsets and the like?? Or was that explanatory video just for Miiverse? But if the console AND gamepad can work together to provide video chat while viewing Miiverse, why not during gameplay? Or if not video chat, at least audio chat? The console is apparently clearly capable of doing so. That doesn't make sense.

As far as I'm aware mate, this is ONLY referring to in-game chat, which is understandable. When you're playing in an online lobby in say, a Call of Duty game which has.. I don't know. 16 people in it? Imagine if all of those people were using the GamePad's internal mic, all you would here is them pressing the buttons on the GamePad and the sound quality would be absolutely terrible. From what I've heard, headset designers wanted Nintendo to go this way and I personally don't see a problem with it.

You should still be able to use the internal mic for video chat, as demonstrated by the video seen at E3 because no one's going to be pressing buttons and making a lot of noise. It'll probably just be one-to-one or a small group of people. The internal mic will probably be used in single player games too. I don't see this as a huge problem myself, you can pick up a cheap headset if you want to chat online anyways and whilst it would've been nice to have universal chat, it's not a feature that's necessarily needed and it could probably be added in a future update, depending on the structure of the system and how it uses the OS whilst in game.

One other thing, reps are known to be wrong at times and this could all be a misunderstanding. (I doubt it, but you never know) The best thing to do is wait until the system comes out and find out then. If you were set on buying the system before, I doubt something like this would stop you from buying it.

( Edited 20.10.2012 13:43 by Mush )

Edit this post:

[quote][b]RudyC3 said:[/b]<br/>At E3 this year, it appeared to me as though you didn't need any form of accessory other than the gamepad itself to do video chat.

The guy here is using just the gamepad. So why all of a of a sudden would you need to buy headsets and the like?? Or was that explanatory video just for Miiverse? But if the console AND gamepad can work together to provide video chat while viewing Miiverse, why not during gameplay? Or if not video chat, at least audio chat? The console is apparently clearly capable of doing so. That doesn't make sense.[/quote]As far as I'm aware mate, this is ONLY referring to in-game chat, which is understandable. When you're playing in an online lobby  in say, a Call of Duty game which has.. I don't know. 16 people in it? Imagine if all of those people were using the GamePad's internal mic, all you would here is them pressing the buttons on the GamePad and the sound quality would be absolutely terrible. From what I've heard, headset designers wanted Nintendo to go this way and I personally don't see a problem with it.

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Mandown on 20.10.2012 at 18:53#5

Out of games. from what I gather there are two forms, Wii U Chat, and Miiverse Chat. I imagine they both provide different options such as a closed private community, and a wider one in Miiverse. They don't want you to use the GamePad mic during gameplay. I think it makes sense, it's not good for the image of the console among core gamers, they know the quality wouldn't be as good.

Mush on 20.10.2012 at 19:23#6

Linkyshinks said:
Out of games. from what I gather there are two forms, Wii U Chat, and Miiverse Chat. I imagine they both provide different options such as a closed private community, and a wider one in Miiverse. They don't want you to use the GamePad mic during gameplay. I think it makes sense, it's not good for the image of the console among core gamers, they know the quality wouldn't be as good.

You pretty much echoed my thoughts on the situation. Smilie Smilie

Canyarion on 20.10.2012 at 19:48#7

Hm... I wonder why Nintendo doesn't allow voice chat using the built-in microphone. They were so stubborn with their Wii Speak, saying people don't like headsets etc.

By the way, is there anything stopping developers from allowing it anyway?