Vivox, one of the world's leading provider of voice and text chat for video games, has announced that developers can now use the company's software to add console-based voice chat to their games on Nintendo Switch. Titles that support Vivox SDK will allow you to converse with other players by simply plugging a headset into the Switch console, as opposed to going through the mobile app. This system is already live on Fortnite.
"We've already seen a great deal of success with Nintendo and the use of our voice services in Fortnite," said Vivox president Dave Verratti. "We are extremely proud to be a part of the Nintendo ecosystem. We're happy to help Nintendo continue to push the envelope in their products by bringing gamers together through enhanced communications."
Additionally, Vivox's software supports cross-platform voice and text communication. With more titles on Switch supporting cross-play with Xbox One, PS4, and PC--starting with Fortnite and now extending to others such as Rocket League and Dauntless--Vivox could allow those playing a game on Switch to communicate with their friends on other platforms, provided the game supports SDK.
Nintendo's implementation of voice chat on Switch through a mobile app has been met with a mostly negative reception. In response to the discontentment, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said, "We believe the easiest way for you to connect and have a peer-to-peer experience with voice chat is with your mobile phone. It's always there, it's always with you."
He also cited Nintendo's history of doing things differently, pointing to examples of previous company decisions that seemed bad at the time but turned out alright in hindsight. "We have a much different suite of experiences than our competitors offer, and we do that in a different way," Fils-Aime said. "This creates a sort of yin and yang for our consumers. They're excited about cloud saves and legacy content but wish we might deliver voice chat a different way, for example."