Nintendo Communication Policies Blamed For SSBB Voice Chat Cancellation
In a great GDC interview with Super Smash Brothers Brawl developer, Masahiro Sakurai, IGN asks what some of us have been wondering for sometime now. Why no voice chat support in Brawl?
In response, Sakurai admits that originally he wanted to include voice support, as well as text chat support via keyboard but ultimately these features were not implemented. Sakurai flat out apologizes for the missing feature, citing Nintendo as the reason.
"Well, when I first started making Smash Bros. Brawl, I thought it would be wonderful if online battles between friends had voice chat and potentially keyboard based chat as well. But there are all sorts of rules and regulations regarding communication on the Wii platform and so it was apparent to me that it just wouldn't come together, we weren't going to be able to do it, so we decided to cancel that feature. I'm very sorry about that. But if you're really desperate for it, you could set up Skype by your game station and go at it with a friend if you like." -- Masahiro Sakurai
I would love to see Nintendo's "communication rules" in their entirety just so I can get an idea of what developers have to work with. While I can appreciate Nintendo's core sentiment of "safety first," I would enjoy my Wii games more if I didn't feel like they were being held back in some way. Is in-game voice chat critical to your enjoyment of Brawl? Hit the comments below and let us know.
GDC 2008: Sakurai on Super Smash Brothers Brawl [IGN]
[via: Kotaku]
TexCub
Posted to Video Games on 23 February 2008
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: gdc, nintendo, nintendo wi-fi connection, ssbb, super smash brothers brawl, voice chat
I can see why they wouldn't want it for just random battles, but not even allowing text chatting between friends (people who have each other's friend codes)? That's just idiotic.
This just adds to the growing disillusionment I'm having with Nintendo even in their moment of triumph. They love to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. If it wasn't for Smash Bros I would have made a nice profit on my Wii a long time ago.
I have a few viewpoints on the voice chat thing.
For one, the random battles online, I don't want it, plain and simple. I've seen X-Box Live and, no thanks.
As for chatting with friends, I'm glad there's no text chat because that makes no sense. The little pop up bubbles are fine enough in the absence of voice.
Would I have liked voice? Sure, I guess, but then again, I don't come close to needing it. If I'm that desperate to talk to somebody, I've got a cell phone with a little headset and free nights and weekends. As it stands, most my taunts only serve to amuse myself, and only I need to hear them.
In the end, I don't really feel a loss. I can sort of understand why somebody would, but I think there's too much emphasis on the need to talk to people through Nintendo when, really, there's about a dozen other ways to do it.
I can understand not having voice or text chat in this game. The content of the game is, in my opinion, focused as much toward a younger audience as it is for an older one.
My experience with both types of chat is that it tends to be dominated with language that I wouldn't want my kids to be exposed to to the degree that they could be with text or voice chat.
As such, for those parents who do actually watch/care what their kids play, I think it would be deceiving to have the potential for exposing kids to derogatory comments and foul language after having purchased a game that does in fact seem innocent on the exterior.
This game does seem to have a T rating which I would hope would deter it from getting into the hands of young children, but even at 13 or 14, I would hate for my kids to have to listen to what gets said on most chat setups.
Well, I'm certainly glad that there is a larger reason for no voice chat in Brawl than I originally thought.
But I guess this means voice chat will never grace the Wii.
I too would like to see the exact Nintendo rule that prevents this popular feature.
I wonder if the exclusion of voice chat also prevents Nintendo from having to pay some kind of tax in some countries now and in the future. You know, some company could sue them for offering what could be compared to free phonecalls or something like that.