I hate writing hit pieces—especially against tech outlets 100,000,000% bigger than TechInform.us—but sometimes you have to speak up when someone reads the room this wrong.

I usually read WIRED with a mix of admiration and low-key envy. Their access, their writers, their production value—top tier. But every now and then, one of their stories lands with the grace of a wet Joy-Con, and I find myself muttering: Wait, what?

That happened this morning over coffee when I read Megan Farokhmanesh’s piece titled “The Switch 2’s GameChat Social Feature Could Revolutionize the Way You Play With Friends.” And I mean no shade to Megan—she’s done solid work—but this article feels like it left its critical thinking Joy-Con in airplane mode.

And look, I hate going after other tech writers. Especially ones with bigger audiences, more resources, and probably a fully functional espresso machine in their office. But what were they thinking with this one?

Also—I have to ask: how much did Nintendo pay for this article? Kidding. (Mostly.)

Nintendo Just Invented Discord, Again, But Worse

Let’s be real: GameChat is Nintendo’s late-to-the-party attempt to bolt voice and video chat onto a system that has never been good at online anything. It supports up to 12 people, lets you chat without playing a game, and even share screens.

Cool? Sure.

Revolutionary? Absolutely not.

This is a clunky remix of Discord, a platform that’s been around for nearly a decade doing this exact thing but better—and on more devices, with fewer restrictions, and an actual sense of community baked in. Nintendo is acting like they’ve discovered sliced bread, but forgot to bring a toaster.

The “Friend List Only” Thing Isn’t a Feature—It’s a Limitation

The article frames GameChat’s “friends-only” restriction as a safety feature, which… sure, that’s technically true. But it also conveniently sidesteps the fact that this makes the entire thing feel incredibly gated and small.

It’s like Nintendo saw what made online gaming expansive—finding new friends, joining communities, jumping into casual chats—and said, “Let’s do none of that.”

You can’t chat with people unless they’re on your friend list. And you better hope they’re into chatting, because otherwise, you’re staring at a silent list of ghosts. It’s not social; it’s awkward.

Also—btw—when’s the last time someone randomly called you on Discord that you didn’t know? I’ve had Discord since launch, and it has literally never happened. Sure, if you’re part of some big public servers, you might get the occasional sketchy DM or spam friend request, but even that’s rare. And more importantly: Discord lets you lock all of that down. You can shut off DMs from non-friends, block invites, hide your presence, and curate your own experience.

So Nintendo treating the “friend list only” limitation like a revolutionary safety move? It’s not. It’s just them refusing to build real moderation tools or give players control. Discord figured this out years ago. Nintendo just built a gated garden and called it the future.

The Safety Talk Feels Like PR Padding

Look, I appreciate Nintendo trying to take safety seriously. In a world where platforms like Roblox are a minefield of moderation issues, proactive guardrails matter. But GameChat’s safety discussion in the piece reads like it came straight from a PR script: “Parents can approve friends.” “Adults have to be friends.” “There’s a report button.”

That’s all bare minimum stuff. It’s not innovative. It’s reactive design that’s decades overdue from a company that still doesn’t understand how people behave online.

If you’re going to call something revolutionary, it needs to go beyond checkbox features. Don’t pat yourself on the back for a “report” button. That’s table stakes.

A Revolution That Needs a USB-C Webcam?

One of the most absurd moments in the article was the casual mention of a “USB-C camera” for video chat. So let me get this straight—Nintendo is launching a next-gen console with a social feature that requires buying and plugging in a separate webcam?

In 2025?

That’s not revolutionary. That’s 2011 Skype energy.

This isn’t a feature—it’s a hardware scavenger hunt. It feels like Nintendo saw people loving FaceTime and Zoom and said, “What if that, but clunkier and in 480p?”

People Will Still Just Use Discord

Here’s the part that baffles me: players aren’t waiting on Nintendo to solve this problem. They already solved it themselves.

If you’ve played anything online on the Switch before—Mario Kart, Smash, Monster Hunter—you already know the drill: open Discord on your phone or laptop, start a voice call, and carry on like normal while Nintendo’s system sits quietly in the background doing… well, very little.

Nobody’s about to abandon that setup for GameChat, especially not when it’s friend-gated, webcam-dependent, and only works if you’re a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber.

Speaking of Which… Let’s Talk About Cost

If this whole GameChat rollout is supposedly about safety, then why isn’t it free?

Well—it is. For the first year. After that, it’s locked behind Nintendo’s subscription paywall. So yes, Nintendo is giving you a chat service… where you can talk to your friends… but not actually play online with them unless you pay.

That’s right. You’ll be able to chat with your friends for free in Year One, but if you don’t pay for Switch Online, you won’t be able to game with them. Brilliant thinking there, Nintendo.

This whole thing is just strange as hell. Imagine offering free coffee, but charging people to drink it with friends.

If this were really about player safety and access, this would’ve been included in the OS with no strings attached. Instead, Nintendo’s monetizing a half-baked social feature and calling it community-building.

The Real Missed Opportunity Here

What WIRED’s piece fails to interrogate is the larger problem: Nintendo still doesn’t understand how modern gamers socialize. GameChat isn’t a leap forward—it’s a band-aid. Discord, Xbox Live, PlayStation Parties, hell, even Fortnite’s voice chat are all far more fluid, open, and reliable.

Nintendo’s move is classic them: late, over-controlled, and pretending it’s fresh. WIRED’s article could’ve explored why Nintendo insists on reinventing the wheel with square corners. Instead, it reads like a press release with a byline.

Even the idea that GameChat lets you “watch friends play games you don’t own” sounds like Nintendo just stumbled onto Twitch, but made it weirdly private and non-functional for anyone not already in your circle. That’s not innovation. That’s a locked door where a welcome mat should be.

Final Verdict: 

3/10 – One USB-C Webcam Short of a Revolution

I usually save scores for game reviews, but from now on, I’m giving everything a final verdict—because sometimes, you just need to draw a line. This is the first one.

GameChat could’ve been more. It should’ve been more. But today, it’s just another example of Nintendo stubbornly refusing to learn from the rest of the gaming world.

Discord exists. It’s better. It’s free. It’s already on your phone. And it doesn’t require a year-long trial period followed by a subscription fee just to do what you’ve been doing for years.

Sorry, WIRED—but you read the room wrong. This isn’t the future of gaming. It’s a confusing, paywalled voice call that’s already five years too late.

Closing Thought

I don’t like writing hit pieces, especially on folks whose work I usually respect. But when the emperor’s new social feature shows up wearing last-gen tech and a confused smile, someone’s gotta point out the bathrobe.

– Trevor, waiting for someone on my friend list to accept my GameChat invite… and still using Discord in the meantime.