Summary
- Nintendo Switch 2’s C button activates a suite of social features called GameChat, but requires a Nintendo Switch Online subscription starting in April 2026.
- Nintendo risks confusion and backlash from players and parents when the C button stops working for everyone without an NSO subscription.
- Solutions that would avoid this backlash include making GameChat permanently free for everyone, or allowing users to remap the button to another function.
The Nintendo Switch 2’s chatroom-activating C button is a big leap forward for a company that’s historically struggled with social features. However, that lack of know-how may come back to bite Nintendo unless it makes one of two simple changes.
What Is GameChat?
When you press the C button located on the bottom of the right Joy-Con 2 controller, you enter a chatroom with up to 11 other players on your friends list. This is called GameChat.
This can take a number of forms, such as voice chat using the Switch 2’s built-in microphone, video chat using a USB-C camera (of which Nintendo sells one of its own), and screen-sharing where other people’s live gameplay is displayed in boxes below your game. Basically, it’s a twist on the chat functionality many already use on Discord, except nested entirely within the Nintendo ecosystem.
To use GameChat, you’ll need to be subscribed to the base plan for Nintendo Switch Online (NSO), which costs $19.99 annually. Nintendo’s making the feature free for all Switch 2 owners for the first 10 months the console is on the market (ending March 31st, 2026).
The company’s hope is that players will choose the Switch 2’s built-in chat over third parties after a generation where players chose Discord over the original Switch’s mobile app voice chat. This is particularly apparent in how at present it doesn’t look like Nintendo will be integrating Discord into the Switch 2 like its competitors have.
There’s a Problem With This Free Trial
While the free period for GameChat seems savvy on Nintendo’s part, I think it’s going to backfire. The C button is useless when a Switch 2 owner isn’t subscribed to NSO, and it’s going to be quite the April Fool on April 1st, 2026, when players find this out unwittingly.
As of September 2024, roughly 23% of the 150 million Switch owners had any form of NSO subscription. Those are pretty decent numbers given how broad the Switch’s demographic is, and that hardcore subset is likely to contain a majority of Switch 2 early adopters. Even so, I think it’s fair to run with the assumption that at least 50% of Switch 2 owners won’t have NSO once GameChat’s trial period ends, and that’s a safe estimate that will only grow against NSO’s favor with time.
So, we’re left with numerous customers confused over a prominent button that will either do nothing when pressed or will prompt them to purchase an NSO subscription (I suspect the latter). That’s a pretty dang bad user experience, especially with the ongoing uproar over pricing surrounding the Switch 2. Chances are that people will quickly default back to Discord.
Put otherwise, the C button would represent consumer unfriendliness for anyone without NSO, and it’ll be staring them in their face every time they grab their Switch 2.
Parents Will Also Take Issue
How this bricked or money-asking C button goes over with parents may be an even bigger problem for Nintendo.
Part of GameChat’s appeal is that by controlling the social ecosystem, Nintendo can offer greater parental control over online play. This is a big win for a company that is more family-friendly than other players in the console market both in optics and game output.
However, once parents start seeing the button asking their children for a credit card, it’s going to give them pause. Higher game prices are already going to cause consternation that they may begrudgingly swallow, but a “pay me money” button is the antithesis of a family-friendly experience and won’t go down quite as easily.
It doesn’t help that kids are the demographic most likely to use GameChat. Games popular with kids tend to be online titles like Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite. The appeal of these games comes from chatting with friends while playing. Moreover, the latter two don’t require an NSO subscription for online because they’re free to play, but the chat functionality will.
This is to say a lot of kids who previously never had to ask their parents to subscribe to a service will now be doing so, and that can only be a point of tension that may have parents reconsidering what console their kids play on.
Nintendo, Let Us Reprogram the C Button
The simplest fix that would make all this go away would be making GameChat free. Since Nintendo dedicated a prominent button on the controller to the feature, that would be a gesture to consumers that would avoid all pitfalls. That’s not the route the company will take, though, leaving a plan B of letting players remap the button on a system level just like they can any other button.
While the C button isn’t ergonomically situated for use in gameplay, being able to map an input or macro of choice to it would give it a chance at functionality for the many people who won’t use GameChat. Importantly, it would prevent anyone without NSO from an unwanted constant reminder of the subscription they don’t have. It’s possible Nintendo is banking on exactly this to boost subscribers, but I would wager that the temperament of the internet-dwellers will lead them to mock it instead.
As glad as I am to see Nintendo genuinely trying to modernize its social features, it’s asking for trouble by having them be accessed via a paywalled button on controllers. It may work fantastically for those subscribed to NSO who use it, but that’s always going to be a minority of owners. Luckily, the solutions are easily implemented, and hopefully Nintendo will do so in short order to avoid the negative connotation between Switch 2 and cost from exacerbating further.
All this said, the 10-month trial period for GameChat is one of many reasons to buy a Switch 2 on launch day.
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