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With Switch, Nintendo made the curious decision to integrate voice chat with a smartphone app, rather than building the functionality into the system itself, as is the case with competing consoles. Now, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has explained why the company offloaded voice chat services onto smartphones.
“We believe the easiest way for you to connect and have a peer-to-peer experience with voice chat is with your mobile phone,” Fils-Aime said during the Geekwire Summit, as reported by Ars Technica. “It’s always there, it’s always with you.”
Currently, to talk to others in most of Nintendo’s major multiplayer experiences you’re required to use the Nintendo Switch Online app on iOS or Android to create a party and chat. This method has proven to be divisive, given that most people are used to using one piece of hardware for both their gaming and social needs.
The exec noted that Nintendo has a history of adopting different strategies that it believes are appropriate for its own platforms and audience, instead of homogenizing with competitors. “Nintendo’s approach is to do things differently,” he said. “We have a much different suite of experiences than our competitors offer, and we do that in a different way. 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.”
On the subject of PlayStation and Xbox, Fils-Aime was asked if he sees them as competitors and replied, “I don’t,” adding that he believes Nintendo is instead competing simply for “entertainment time.”
He continued: “That’s what I compete for, minute by minute. That time you spend surfing the web, watching a movie, watching a telecast of a conference: that’s all entertainment time we’re competing for. My competitive set is much bigger than my direct competitors in Sony and Microsoft. I compete for time. When I do that, I have to be creative and innovative in order to win that battle.”
Nintendo Switch Online, the first ever paid online service from the company, is now available. Those that sign up for a membership are given access to online play, cloud saves, and a growing selection of NES classics, which have been updated to enable online multiplayer. However, the service comes with some caveats, most notably that Cloud saves aren’t available for all games, and NES online games are only playable offline for a week before requiring a check-in with the online service. For more information on the Switch Online service, check out our wrap-up of everything we know.
Cameron Monaghan, who has played Ian Gallagher on Shameless for “roughly ten years,” announced that this Sunday’s episode will be his final one as Ian.
Monaghan announced his departure on Instagram.
Alongside the above photos, he wrote a letter to fans of the show and of Ian Gallagher and ended his heartfelt message with “Goodbye, Ian Clayton Gallagher. We’ll meet again?”
I have been a series regular on this show for roughly ten years. I was the tender age of fifteen when we shot the pilot, and I came of age in so many ways, both legally and personally. I was very lucky to mature and grow with this show. Experiencing so many firsts, maturing as an actor, a professional, and a human. In the process gaining friends, family, and the best coworkers a very lucky actor could ask for, and for this I can be nothing but gracious.
While early projections put Venom between $50 million and $60 million, it actually over-performed, in a big way. Venom’s estimated $80 million debut was more than enough to best the previous October box office opening weekend record of $55.8 million, set by Gravity in 2013. While this debut is definitely stronger than expected, it doesn’t exactly hold a candle to the rest of the Spider-Man franchise but is strong compared to most superhero spin-offs.
Venom’s debut actually doesn’t even come close to the original Spider-Man trilogy from director Sam Raimi, starring Tobey Maguire as the webbed wonder. 2002’s Spider-Man ($114.8 million debut, $403.7 million domestic) set an opening weekend record at the time, but the 2004 sequel Spider-Man 2 did slide significantly ($88.2 million debut, $373.6 million domestic). 2007’s Spider-Man 3 (which starred Topher Grace as Venom/Eddie Brock) rebounded with another then-record ($151.1 million debut, $336.5 million domestic). The record debut is almost ironic, though, since it had the worst domestic haul of the three and is considered the trilogy’s worst by many fans and critics alike.
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With so many new games and movies coming out, it can be hard to keep up. Lucky for you, IGN is here to help with a weekly round-up of the biggest releases each and every week. Check out the latest releases for this week, and be sure to come back next Monday for a new update.
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The grand finale for Fortnite’s Fall Skirmish event is set to take place at TwitchCon 2018 along with other events featuring Call of Duty’s Blackout and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Epic Games started the Fall Skirmish on September 21 and will conclude the six-week event on the weekend of October 26. The event throws the best Fortnite players and selected competitors into highly competitive matches for a $10 million prize pool. TwitchCon will feature open and invitational tournaments to determine some of the participants.
The Fall Skirmish is not the only Fortnite representation at TwitchCon 2018. Something dubbed the “Fortnite Hall” allows attendees to stop by for “fun activities for solos and squads” along with “frights, delights, and fun surprises.”
One of the unique qualities of Fallout 76‘s massively multiplayer world is the ability to rain fiery nuclear destruction down on your foes or to create a zone with high-level mutants. Thanks to some hands-on time with the game, we now know just how that looks. In the video above, we become Death, the destroyer of worlds. Grab some popcorn and gather around to watch a mushroom cloud form up-close and personal.
Recently, Jean-Luc Seipke and Alessandro Fillari traveled to West Virginia to play about 3 hours of Fallout 76, the next post-apocalyptic RPG from Bethesda coming to Xbox One, PC, and PS4. Though the upcoming Fallout game has some very familiar details and gameplay from its predecessors, the big difference here is that it’s entirely online, and that you’re one of many Vault Dwellers trying to survive in the wasteland. After spending some extended time the game, they have a stronger sense of what the online Fallout game is all about.
During this chat, the duo went over the many new mechanics, such as the increased focus on survival gameplay, crafting, and just how the online features works. However, they also describe how similar it is to previous games, and how many players returning from Fallout 4 won’t be too put off by the change of pace. They also detail some of the stranger encounters they had, including taking on a group of “unruly golfer feral ghouls” at an expensive resort–which totally feels like a Fallout kind of quest.
Set for full release on November 15, Fallout 76 has some big plans in store for post-apocalyptic RPG series. For more info on our continuing coverage of Fallout 76, which includes our detailed hands-on impressions and over 50 minutes of gameplay, be sure to check out GameSpot for all the latest news and videos.