Nintendo Switch 2’s C button was a late addition, with a brand new interview stating it was added following a “very last-minute request.”
The Nintendo Switch 2 Pleasure-Con 2’s mysterious C button sparked debate forward of the Switch 2 Nintendo Direct, the place it was revealed to be a devoted button for the console’s Discord-like GameChat characteristic. In a sequence of developer interviews posted on Nintendo’s web site diving into numerous points of the Switch 2’s creation, Sumikazu Ono, a member of Nintendo’s leisure planning and growth division, stated the C button got here because of ensuring the GameChat characteristic was straightforward to make use of.
He stated he thought the concept of getting to pause the sport and go to the house display, discover the precise menu, make a chat room, after which return to the sport (the best way mainly each different fashionable online game console does it) was “bothersome.” That resulted within the thought of the C button.
“So we requested for a particular button to be added whereas the {hardware} design was in progress,” Ono stated. “It was a really last-minute request, simply earlier than the controller molds have been about to be made.”
Ono stated he thinks GameChat’s ease of use, in addition to the truth that the Switch 2 comes with a built-in microphone, will lead to extra gamers attempting voice chat for the primary time.
“We knew lots of gamers would ultimately cease utilizing this characteristic if it wasn’t straightforward to know, so we labored laborious to make sure it could possibly be used simply to play with family and friends with none fuss,” he stated.
Within the interview, Ono described GameChat as one of many Switch 2’s “defining options,” and that its origins got here from attempting to seize the vibe of a “pupil lounge” the place individuals can collect not simply to play video games but in addition hang around.
“Till now, on-line play for Nintendo video games has meant everybody coming collectively to play the identical recreation,” Ono stated. “However greater than something, we needed to create an area the place individuals would naturally collect, whether or not it is to play the identical recreation collectively, or totally different video games, and even simply to observe.”
GameChat will technically require a Nintendo On-line subscription to make use of, however could be accessed at no cost till March 2026, round 9 months after the Switch 2 releases in June 2025.
In a earlier developer interview, Nintendo stated the Switch 2’s magnetic Pleasure-Con 2’s have been initially an thought for the primary Switch, however the thought was shelved following a gathering with late Nintendo President Satoru Iwata the place he gave suggestions on the prototype.
The Nintendo Switch 2 will launch on June 5 for $450, with preorders, together with a Switch 2 bundle with Mario Kart World, going dwell April 9. Nintendo introduced a lot of new first-party video games coming completely to Switch 2, together with Donkey Kong Bonanza and Switch 2 variations of video games like Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.