Wii Speak Channel only available to new Wii Speak-ers

What the hell did you just say?

You can also make a voice chat with your friends instead of using the game channel, and you can do it in ANY Xbox 360 game (you can chat with friends playing Halo 3 while you're in Viva Pinata for all they care).

Excluding a choice that you don't want doesn't make it a better service.

Nintendo might be in the process of manufacturing electrical appliances that don't need to be replaced. In the next five years you may be buying a television that doesn't break a, what if at some point soon you'll be buying a microphone that you won't NEED to be replaced for a hundred years you certainly wouldn't need the receipt. Shit. Here in the good old U.S. of A. we've had a problem with recession. Some people myself included seem to think it has something to do with consumer confidence.
Microsoft is a company that I've heard of who has had alot of trouble because of negative consumer confidence because they sold a person something they knew was broken or would break but I don't think it's cost them just millions (billions?) I think it just might have cost them everything. I really believe that a consumers' trust and confidence is a thing that after you lose it,even if it's only 1 per cent you never one hundred per cent get back sure you might get five per cent back you may even get ninety nine per cent back but way down deep where it really matters never a 100 per cent back.I just don't think it's in us as a race of people. What electronical manufacturer could ever get say 85 per cent total consumer trust?In a hundred years 90 percent in 1000 years 99 per cent in a million years. One hundred per cent. I'm honestly truly deeply scared not because Nintendo has never sold me an electronic product that broke but Nintendo has never sold me an electronic product that THEY knew would break thereby giving me my 1 per cent consumer dissatisfaction.
The little tiny piece of twine on the carpet that I wished to God in Heaven I never saw. A little tiny piece of twine... Unless time you me or anybody else on this beautiful little planet of ours can prove... Nintendo is the only electronic manufacturer in existance that will be able to sell a spaceship w/ one hundred per cent consumer confidence. Spaceships that don't break.

I'm 9

Logic? How do I deal with this?

*consults Hivemindstiq*

I could downvote it, or I could spew hatred at the poster... acknowledge that he has a point? Pfft fat chance, I'm too hardcore to do something like that

"Using a pack-in code to give original buyers a small, but mostly useless, perk isn't a bad a idea. It won't hurt anyone who wants to chat while gaming. So suck it up and stop bitching."


If I'm reading the article correctly the main problem is that currently the Wii Speak channel is ONLY available with the codes. So, for example, say someone buys this and then later sells their Wii. Before selling their Wii they will likely wipe the storage (if they're smart). But after doing this the new owner will be unable to use the WiiSpeak. They'll have to go out and buy a new one just to get a new code for the channel.

All Nintendo really has to do to rectify this is either just offer the channel for free (which they really should be doing) or offer it for a small fee like the browser. The complaints against the current set-up are perfectly valid.

@Vidikron:
"...the new owner will be unable to use the WiiSpeak."

Nope, you missed it.

You don't *need* the Wii Speak Channel to use the microphone - it is just one option in case you want to chat with your Wii friends while NOT playing games. It doesn't affect how the hardware works, and isn't mandatory. (Also, note that you can't use that channel to chat and play games at the same time.)

Most people who want Wii Speak want it for in-game chat... which is much better than using Wii Speak Channel to turn your Wii into a glorified speakerphone anyway. For those people, a used (or supported third-party) microphone would do just fine.

People need to take a deep breath and calm down. All downloadable software is locked to your console with Nintendo, so this is nothing new. I do find it odd that they won't sell the software via the Wii Shop Channel, but if Nintendo thinks that their microphone needs added value from a near-useless chat channel to sell, so be it.

...be a noisy clusterfuck of epic proportions. You are correct.

...actually be a reason to turn on the Wii?

...be something that the haters would shit on regardless?

Oh, too late.

It's called speakerphone. And I doubt WiiSpeak in a room full of 12 people is going to be any more useful than a speakerphone in that room. It will be just as hard to tell who's talking to who, or pick up any meaningful conversation.

Just pass the damn phone around, and have everyone in the room shout "Hi!" together loud enough to hear on the other end, just like every year.

shh.

logic isn't welcome here

Except voice chat is hardly a "casual" feature. I chat with friends outside actual games on my 360 all the time.

It is pretty casual if you purchase a headset for gaming and intend to use it for something that isn't gaming-related at all.

It's about as unrelated to gaming as getting a Wii and buying Wii Fit and Wii Sports, the very titles these "hardcore" fuckers bitch about Nintendo for making.

People are upset because the ability to speak was a function desired by core gamers to communicate in-game.

Then Nintendo release the thing and aim it straight at the casual crowd, completely forgetting (it seems) the core gamers, whose cries it was that spawned it's creation.

"People are upset because the ability to speak was a function desired by core gamers to communicate in-game."
Wii Speak Channel =/= Animal Crossing, The Conduit, w/e

Wii Speak Channel is a separate thing from games that would support voice chat

"Then Nintendo release the thing and aim it straight at the casual crowd, completely forgetting (it seems) the core gamers"
By what, releasing a speakerphone for games?

Could you elaborate more on what you're trying to convey here, or are you presenting a case for more console retardation?

It's ok I don't think anyone saw what they were going to become, so no one can really blame anyone for falling into the trap and waking up to reality. At least you figured it out though, there's still some that just don't get it.

The "trap" is the FUD that's been rolling around since E3. The myth of abandonment that so many have fallen for.

bewiiver

Metal Gear? D=

Bloggers are not equal to journalists.

Well, Joystiq is going to be asking questions to Reggie soon.

Just a side-note...

What would you do if, after you initially paired your Wii Remote with your Wii, you found out you could never pair it to another Wii console ever again? Meaning, if you ever damage your Wii, you'd have to trash every Wii Remote you own with the console.

I know I'd be pretty soured on ever buying another Nintendo product again after an experience like that.

Here is a better reason to boycott this: Nintendo trying to sell you 20th Century tech at inflated prices in the 21st Century. Epic fail.