cross-posted from: https://ani.social/post/35665810

Nintendo is so proud of the feature that it even included a little C button right on your Joy-Con (which was a point of excited speculation before the reveal) so you can jump into Game Chat whenever you like.

Unfortunately, it also tried to bury the fact that this Game Chat feature will actually require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription once the free trial period ends on March 31, 2026.

Now, you may be wondering what the button does if you don’t have a subscription? Thankfully, Nintendo’s vice president of player and product experience, Bill Trinen, was interviewed by Polygon on that very same topic. Trinen explains that the button will let you “find out about the NSO subscription there and get a sense of some of the functionality.” It’s basically a button that asks you to pay up.

It’s basically a button that asks you to pay up

We’ve gotten to the point where button functions are microtransactions…

This is why I emulate games and just use Linux

  • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
    37·
    12 days ago

    I asked myself one day:

    Why should my remote have Netflix, Disney, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount, Prime, etc., when I don’t have any of those services?

    I kept hitting them by accident because they took full 1/3rd of my remote’s real estate. So I ripped out those buttons and covered the holes with packing tape.

    No regerts.

    Edit: It’s also BAD design to have so many buttons that fully abort what you are doing and force you to spend so much time reloading the service and maybe re-finding your place. Is it really so hard to hit the more consciously-placed home button and then go to your service? Well, maybe not if your fucking TV’s UI takes it as an opportunity to throw ads under your cursor.

    • SPRUNTnsfw@fedinsfw.appEnglish
      13·
      12 days ago

      Those buttons aren’t there for any reason more than the TV manufacturer making money from the company that paid to get a button on the remote.

      For example, the PlayStation Network is not, and will never be, as mainstream as Hulu or Netflix, but I have a button for it on my Roku (never again! Fuck Roku!) remote all the same.

      • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        12 days ago

        Yeah, I was kind of hoping there would be ONE manufacturer in this space that wouldn’t enshittifying. You know how sometimes there’s a duopoly, and so the second-place company is always trying to be “open”, not because they are better, but because they need help competing with the dominant standard (AMD vs NVIDIA) and it’s a marketing boost not to be evil?

        Well, looks like there’s not any money in not being evil these days.