{"id":1169804,"date":"2026-02-12T14:49:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=553458"},"modified":"2026-02-12T14:49:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:49:06","slug":"nintendo-confirms-you-will-have-to-pay-to-use-the-switch-2s-c-button","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/nintendo-confirms-you-will-have-to-pay-to-use-the-switch-2s-c-button\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo confirms you will have to pay to use the Switch 2\u2019s C button"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nintendo has made its own Discord-like chat app for the Switch 2<\/a>, and it\u2019s going to charge you for it. Once the free period is over on March 31, 2026, GameChat<\/a>, and the C button that activates it, will require a Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) membership.<\/p>\n

So what happens if you aren\u2019t a subscriber and press the C button? Not much, vice president of player and product experience Bill Trinen told Polygon in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would be able to find out about the NSO subscription there and get a sense of some of the functionality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Presumably, this is how you\u2019d learn that GameChat works a lot like Discord video chat works on PC. You can talk with your friends in handheld or docked mode via a built-in microphone and stream your gameplay to each other. There\u2019s even a camera you can buy<\/a> to overlay onto your stream, or just to chat face-to-face.<\/p>\n

But unless you have an active NSO membership, you\u2019ll have a whole button dedicated to nothing on your Switch 2. It doesn\u2019t even sound like you can remap it to something else. It will just be a reminder of the annual $19.99 fee you may or may not be handing to Nintendo every year (or $49.99 for the Expansion Pack).<\/p>\n

Trinen says the C button has a price tag because GameChat is \u201cpart of the overall platform experience\u201d and that \u201cNSO really is a critical piece of the Nintendo Switch 2 experience.\u201d He listed off some of the new Switch 2-exclusive benefits, like access to old GameCube games<\/a> and free upgrades to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild<\/em> and Tears of the Kingdom<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

That subscription fee will be on top of a console that\u2019s already going to cost you $449.99 \u2014 or possibly more if U.S. President\u2019s Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a> prompt Nintendo to increase it. We won\u2019t know if GameChat will prove to be worth it until the Switch 2 releases in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Correction (April 8):<\/strong> A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the frequency of Nintendo Switch Online\u2019s fees. It has been updated to reflect NSO\u2019s annual subscription fees.<\/p>\n

\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nintendo has made its own Discord-like chat app for the Switch 2, and it\u2019s going to charge you for it. Once the free period is over on March 31, 2026, GameChat, and the C button that activates it, will require a Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) membership. So what happens if you aren\u2019t a subscriber and press the C button? Not much, vice president of player and product experience Bill Trinen told Polygon in a recent interview. \u201cYou would be able to find out about the NSO subscription there and get a sense of some of the functionality,\u201d he said. Presumably, this is how you\u2019d learn that GameChat works a lot like Discord video chat works on PC. You can talk with your friends in handheld…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1169805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1169804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"\nNintendo confirms you will have to pay to use the Switch 2\u2019s C button | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nintendo has made its own Discord-like chat app for the Switch 2, and it\u2019s going to charge you for it. 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