The Nintendo Switch 2 is doing very well for Nintendo financially, even as fans settle into the knowledge that it is essentially a more powerful, premium Switch system. The Switch 2 lacked the new bells and whistles that typically come with the notoriously experimental company. One major exception was the addition of a new C button, for Chat, a shortcut key for the new GameChat functionality. Now almost a year into its lifespan, the free-trial period for that feature is closing on March 31, 2026, after which you’ll have to pay for it going forward. And we can confidently say, having played Switch 2 for almost a year now: Don’t do that.
Now, to be clear, GameChat isn’t going to be its own paid subscription service. Instead, it will be part of a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, which is required to play many online games and comes with a few perks like the NES and Super NES game libraries. You may already have an NSO subscription, and even the basic version of it includes GameChat. So if you’ve already got it, you’re covered, and nothing is really changing for you. Some players have speculated that Nintendo will be raising the price of NSO to accommodate the new feature–and simply because all kinds of subscriptions have raised in price over the last couple of years–but Nintendo hasn’t announced a price hike yet. If you’re already subscribed, the change will be virtually invisible to you.
And to be frank, if you aren’t subscribed, the change will also be invisible, because you’ve probably rarely if ever used GameChat. Nintendo has not shared usage statistics for the feature, but anecdotally, it doesn’t seem to be used all that often in multiplayer settings. The screen-sharing functionality is neat, but it can be laggy and it makes your play-screen smaller.
At best, GameChat has been a way to turn on voice chat functionality, and to be fair, it’s a step up from Nintendo’s old method that required logging in to a Nintendo app with your phone. But many players have already found their own workarounds like using Discord. Even being in the games press, writing about video games, and focusing heavily on Nintendo, I hardly ever used GameChat. The rare occasion that I did, it was usually because I was attending pre-release sessions with Nintendo employees to review Nintendo games. I can’t really imagine, if I were a regular consumer, how this one feature could possibly tip the scales and make me finally purchase a Switch Online subscription.
If you aren’t subscribed, the C button will just be an odd, useless part on your controller, like the third udder of the N64 controller. If you accidentally hit the button, it will take you to a sales page for NSO. And if one day a multiplayer game comes along that does encourage you to buy in, you can cross that bridge when you come to it.
The timing of this is coming shortly after the launch of Pokemon Pokopia–one of thebest-reviewed Pokemon games of all time, and a game that is meant to be social. So maybe GameChat will get some renewed interest and utility this month, in the few weeks remaining while the feature is still free. Maybe that experience will be compelling enough to prompt players to join so they can continue exploring each others’ islands with all the voice and social features intact. Maybe. Still, barring that very specific use-case, it’s difficult to recommend GameChat. The feature is nice to have if you’re an NSO subscriber, and entirely skippable if you aren’t.