Following Nintendo's less-than-thrilling announcement of text communications for Mario Kart Wii, the author asks if there might not be a more serious reason that the company has yet to integrate voice comms into any of its online titles.
From the article: "I can't help but wonder if there isn't a more insidious reason that we've yet to see meaningful voice chat from the Wii. What if the Wii CAN'T do it. What if it's such an underpowered system that they can't get it to work reliably? Remember when Sony left rumble out of their controllers, calling it "last-gen." Later we found out that the real reason was that they were getting their pants sued off for patent infringement.
I'm not buying what Nintendo is selling here (both figuratively and literally). I think they grossly underestimated the demand for voice comms when designing their mac-influenced PS2. But what the hell do I know? Why do you think Nintendo keeps screwing the proverbial pooch with their online experience?"
For a lot of people, Mario Kart Wii was their introduction to the franchise, and what a terrific introduction they had.
Major 2023 game anniversaries include The World Ends With You, Mario Kart Wii, and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, among many others
Nintendo has provided a sales update on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and it's confirmed that the game has now outsold Mario Kart Wii.
Always remember Polygon's take on MK 8 and how it would end up being worse selling entry in franchise history. Oof. MK 8 deluxe is going to have one hell of a holiday. You know that Switch bundle is coming back.
Baffles me that they haven't made any new dlc for this, and yet they focus on the mobile game smh
I can only imagine that the Mario Kart devs have been hard at work on the follow-up to 8, hence why it got no dlc.
We can only assume that they'll show something next year if they are working on the next game. With the way Ninty has been announcing games close to their release they don't leave room for any leaked info
Its not like its the same developer. The one working on the mobile game isnt even a Nintendo developer
I'm fairly certain that Nintendo doesn't actually know what this new-fangled "internet" is.
This is a ridiculous joke. Text-based chat in a racing game? It would make more sense to just say "We don't support any sort of player communication, sorry." I mean, for one thing, isn't a USB keyboard against the entire concept of the Wii in the first place? Secondly, why waste the developers' time implementing a chat mechanism that NO ONE will use?
The only I use see for it is in some sort of pre-game lobby area, but even still, who is going to hook up a USB keyboard to their Wii?
I heard they're holding out to see if the "internet" is really here to stay.
Well Nintendo has stated that they don't feel online gaming really is all that important so why would they put voice chat on a high priority?
"I think Nintendo needs a calendar. Somehow they’re stuck in 1993 or something. How on God’s green earth is anyone playing a RACING game supposed to reach down and type a text message without pretty much throwing the game away..."
I'm looking for reasons to own a Wii. This effectively ends my search; I'll just play brawl at my friend's house. I can't justify owning a system for a handful of games + no voice chat.
"What is Nintendo hiding?" - What's there to hide? They have nothing.