Multiplayer voice chat finally arrives on Wii
- July 18, 2008 00:00 AM PST
Better late than never. GamePro gets an early look at WiiSpeak, Nintendo's tardy but unique answer to Xbox 360 and PS3 headsets for online trash talking.
The speaker phone peripheral sits atop the Wii sensor bar
In a crowded press room on Wednesday, Nintendo demonstrated the WiiSpeak microphone (sold separately) for the first time to GamePro and other journalists hoping to learn more about the multiplayer voice chat peripheral.
The demo was driven by Nintendo, but we successfully spoke with two other persons via their remote Wii consoles while playing Animal Crossing: City Folk, the first game to support WiiSpeak; Charles Martinet (the voice of Mario) in New York, and a second Nintendo representative one floor down in the Los Angeles Convention center.
WiiSpeak allows anyone in the room to communicate online
I was one of five people in the living-room size, um, room, and could clearly hear and communicate with those on the line. When Martinet said, "Itsa me, Mario!" it sounded just like it had a thousand times before. In short, the newly unveiled device works, and we're thrilled that Wii owners will finally be able to interact with others online like Xbox 360 and PS3 owners have before them.
But unlike headsets, WiiSpeak is the equivalent of a console speaker phone, and lets multiple people in a single room communicate with up to three other systems, all of which could potentially have multiple people in their respective rooms. "It's like you're all in the same room," Nintendo says. And from what we heard, they're right.
Animal Crossing: City Folk the first game to support WiiSpeak
It's unclear at the moment if the number of total systems (currently at four for Animal Crossing) will increase to support greater numbers, but High Voltage Software says it will support WiiSpeak on The Conduit, which promises 16-person online multiplayer.
Nevertheless, it's apparent the USB-connected mic should do the trick when it arrives later this year. Lets just hope the list of supported games rapidly increases in the coming months. Given the constant clamoring by gamers, we're confident it will.
-
Other related E3 previews:
- FaceBreaker Wii disputing the title
- Nintendo E3 previews in three sentences
LIke this story? You may also enjoy these articles.
Comments [34]
-
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 3
- 4
-
- Jul 18 2008 at 10:48:17:AM PST
-
Once the Nintendo Wii Conference was over almost everyone started to bash it for not being great as it should have been. But for some reason, everyone forgot about this HUGE announcement of a voice chat capabilities. [p] For the past year and a half, casual and (mostly) hardcore gamers have been telling Nintendo to give us voice chat capabilities since it's an almost essential for online play. And when Nintendo does announces it, no one cares and they just focus on the bad of the conference. [p] But when you look at it, Nintendo's Conference wasn't as nearly as bad as people said it to be. With this announcement being one of the biggest in E3. [p] V_O_R
- Vote:
- Down
- Up
- +0
- report user
3rd party companies will make headsets in no time... but for multiplayer games (like MarioKart) I guess this is a better option.
- Vote:
- Down
- Up
- +0
- report user
I don't need everyone in the room to hear the profanities that come with online game play. I try to shield my small children from this.
- Vote:
- Down
- Up
- +0
- report user
looks pretty interesting, my general concern is the ability to block certain players, and if it is picking up all the talking in the room, your likely to hear a lot of jimmy it's time for dinner, no mom, I am in the middle of a game, I said it was time for dinner, turn the off now or I am going to spank your little bottom mister., gee mom, all my friends just heard that, someone please call social services I am being beaten by my mom, help me.
- Vote:
- Down
- Up
- +0
- report user
Hey VOR, there conference was that bad, they just had some little morsels for the gamer, this being one of them, but in general they had little for the hard core gamer, and didn't really seem concerned about it. Aminal crossing my be a decent game, kinda of doubt it, but maybe, but for Regi (head of Nintendo North America) to state it was plenty to kept the core gamer happy, does not sound like Nintendo really cares much about you.
- Vote:
- Down
- Up
- +0
- report user
this is good. it always annoys me when i have to explain the sequence of comments that happened on xbox live when i laugh to my friend. this doesnt seclude three players from one. hooray nintendo!
- Vote:
- Down
- Up
- +0
- report user
