Wii to eventually get voice support, hints Fils-Aime

We've been hearing rumors about voice capabilities coming to the Wii almost from the very start, and it looks like plans are afoot at Ninty to bring the dream to reality: speaking to reporters during this morning's rainchecks-and-shortages conference call, Reggie Fils-Aime sad that he "wouldn't be surprised" to see voice chat come to the Wii. That's about as straight a confirmation as he gave, although he did say the holdup was mostly in making the right peripheral. Hmm, we're not totally sure we buy that, but we're willing to bet Nintendo is a little more focused on actually getting Wiis out the door first.

[trancer @ Dec 14th 2007 6:09PM]

"Hey, your mii is hot, wanna talk?"

[AlexP @ Dec 14th 2007 6:25PM]

DON'T MENTION IT, they'll make a second friend code per game for voice communications if this spreads around. D:

[GioNYC @ Dec 14th 2007 6:11PM]

Damn, he's young. Wonder how much he's making a year?
Half a mill ?

[mrpaco @ Dec 15th 2007 10:13AM]

My guess from the gray suit is that that's an older pic, cause he's 46.

[sam @ Dec 14th 2007 6:18PM]

i saw some of the early mockups for the wii boxes...and they touted voice support from the get go....which I'm thinking was dropped.

[Haxxy @ Dec 14th 2007 6:22PM]

Well http://wiikaraoke.com has redirected to nintendo.com months before the Wii was actually released. I'd say it's definitely likely, especially with games involving DS connectivity. I'm sure Animal Crossing will put it to good use.

[Guzzie @ Dec 14th 2007 6:25PM]

How about they make a proper online component first.

[moby211212 @ Dec 14th 2007 6:27PM]

Sorry but he is a very scary looking person

[Matthew Hilario @ Dec 14th 2007 6:28PM]

he heard you. O_O

[Conda @ Dec 14th 2007 6:44PM]

he's gonna kick your ass and take your name now

[Andrew ? @ Dec 14th 2007 7:45PM]

what is he, Conda - Big Bad Leroy Brown?
No, he's Reggie Fils-Aime - is that French?

[Conda @ Dec 14th 2007 8:42PM]

"My name is Reggie. I'm about kickin' ass, I'm about takin' names, and we're about makin' games. " - Reggie, E3 2004

he's from Haiti. I dont remember where his name originates now, but yah I think it is French

[Brennan @ Dec 14th 2007 7:26PM]

if this does truly happen, then i dont see it supporting SSBB anytime soon unless Sakurai delays SSBB for the voice chat. That or re-release SSBB later when voice chat becomes avaliable.

he's almosted finished with SSBB. Oh well, at least SSBB has online is all SSB fanboys really wanted next to voice chat eh?

[Chuckles McGee @ Dec 15th 2007 11:46AM]

Or maybe you'll just be able to download an update to Brawl at somepoint.

[Chuckles McGee @ Dec 15th 2007 11:46AM]

Or maybe you'll just be able to download an update to Brawl at somepoint.

[RamJaw @ Dec 14th 2007 7:37PM]

"although he did say the holdup was mostly in making the right peripheral."

=

We are going to sell a casual game such as Animal Crossing or Pokemon with a headset so the attach rate will be extremely high.

I'm slowly beginning to realize that Nintendo is not just taking the Apple design approach, but also the Apple software approach of adding things incrementally in ways that fully enhance the pre-existing features of the system.

[Phrogg @ Dec 14th 2007 7:55PM]

Personally, i'm curious as to what kind of application voice would have aside from karaoke. Most games i've seen that use voice seem to try too hard to work it in, and it's always seemed unnatural to me. Again, that's aside from karaoke games.

[Matt @ Dec 14th 2007 8:12PM]

Um....voice chat, which is kind of the point of the article.
It would be nice if they could release some stuff like Live Arcade.

[Phrogg @ Dec 14th 2007 10:02PM]

@Matt:
Okay, so voice chat is an application. Guess i was more looking at the gaming aspect of...y'know...a gaming console. My bad.
Voice chat is a good idea, but how well can it be implemented without a solid online community like XBL or...whatever it is that Sony's got?

[Phrogg @ Dec 14th 2007 10:05PM]

Okay, so voice chat is the point of the whole article. I lose. U_U

[Matt @ Dec 14th 2007 8:11PM]

Bluetooth headsets, now!
Er, do those have a standard protocol? And will they work at a decent range?

[phlavor @ Dec 14th 2007 8:13PM]

Everyone has a right to their own opinion.... except you.... you suck.

[James Ollier @ Dec 14th 2007 8:19PM]

As much as I love Nintendo, I hate that guys face

[Luis @ Dec 14th 2007 8:49PM]

That guy's face hates YOU!

[James @ Dec 14th 2007 8:36PM]

There should be no holdup whatever. I could do this in a day: find a company that sells a Bluetooth stack that supports handset, headset, and hands-free profiles; buy the stack (or the company); issue a firmware update. There, I just saved your company a few million dollars in research. Email me for an address you can send the check to =-)

[Yoshi Likes Boys @ Dec 15th 2007 3:04AM]

The last thing Nintendo needs is for a bunch of people to hook up complete crap headsets, experience terrible performance, and blame Nintendo for it. Clearly when rolling this kind of service out they'll want to partner with a leading manufacturer and at least offer the CHOICE of a Nintendo-quality set, so people have a good starting point.

[DerekKramer @ Dec 14th 2007 11:16PM]

yeah yeah yeah.. voice support.. i want more songs for GH III come on now.. how hard is that.. huh... might as well wait for the Next gen Wii to come out..

[wud_e @ Dec 14th 2007 11:19PM]

Now if they'd just get rid of Friend Codes, Allow console number exchange for EVERY game and bigger storage then we'd be all gravy!

[Ethan @ Dec 15th 2007 7:54AM]

I was surprised when the Wiimote didn't have a mic on it.

[snazz @ Dec 16th 2007 12:19PM]

That'd be a quite the goofy looking headset :P

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Dec 15th 2007 7:55AM]

No networked games => no need for voice support. IMHO.

Unless of course they are going to add a Skype as a channel.

[Dhomas @ Dec 15th 2007 12:51PM]

Before adding new features and peripherals, why don't they develop the features they already have? The WiFi on my Wii is being horribly underused. I still cannot play any games online with my friends. My DS, which also sports WiFi, has yet to connect to my Wii for any kind of content download(Pokemon doesn't count). Speaking of the DS, it already has a microphone. Wouldn't it be the perfect microphone peripheral for the Wii?

[Bombaclaat @ Dec 17th 2007 5:57PM]

he looks surprised, in a geeky way. lol.