So everyone in the Gamersphere (so sorry) is buzzing about that supposed Switch 2 leak. Now regardless of if its actually real or not I geniunely just need to know if the microphone is built into the console itself or the new joycon.
Honestly that leak about the increased RAM and microphone from like 3 months ago(?) is what has got me most excited over a Switch successor so I was happy to see it be corroborated here. I'm really just hoping that with 12gb of RAM the Switch 2's OS is going to be massively different and better, like the original Switch OS has less flavor than the famicom boot screen to be honest lol
But the moment I heard the rumored leak thing about the successor having a built in microphone, supposedly on the console itself, it immediately gave me Wii Speak vibes and I think that's a concept that with more processing power could really really be something cool and console-wide. Because if there's some sorely missing from the current iteration it's social features. There is like no (good) way to interact with anybody on your friend's list.
And when it comes to the idea of voice chat "rooms" and the original concept of Wii Speak of including everyone in the physical room in the conversation I just think that's neat. A large aspect of the traditional console gaming on a TV in a living room method(?) to me is that feeling of togetherness, it's always super easy for someone to just sit down and chat about what you're up to in your game or hop in and play around themself. For how much the traditional console gaming experience engages the entire room in the act of being a spectator or just like, Witnessing The Videos Being Gamed, voice chat has always (and understandably) been a super insular social aspect. (which I do hope a Switch 2 would include as well ofc)
Voice chat has since it's introduction to console gaming always been done with a headset in some way and isolates the player from that "together in a room" feeling and vice versa. Honestly the concept behind the Wii Speak to create a voice chat system that engages the rest of the rooom in this newer aspect of modern gaming is something really fascinating to me (and yeah I know this was also definitely Nintendo's typical Think of the Children logic too lol)
But that also got me thinking of Wii no Ma... Wii Room and then like chat room. Idk I think it'd be sick if the OS visualized the voice chat room with friends as an actual 3D space similar to Wii no Ma, like there's no way that's what's going to happen but like could you imagine lol. It also made me think of the Xbox 360's watchparty app where yours and your friend's avatars where all sitting together in a movie theater environment and could emote and stuff while in the watchparty, that's just such a charming way to do it.
Oh and speaking of the Xbox 360 avatars I've come to appreciate some of their features more than the Mii's, particularly being able to have clothes makes them way more expressive than the same 12(?) colors they've had for shirts since 2006. Anyways thanks for coming to my Ted Talk where I barely even talked about the Switch 2 leaks, I'm just really interested in if the new OS is going to be Good or not, I have to imagine there's a whole bunch of folks at nintendo who have been itching to make a Good OS again since iirc the Switch's OS design was heavily throttled by only having only one GB of dedicated RAM to work with and the feature set shows.