Payday 2 arrives on the Switch next week, nearly five years after its initial release on PC. A lot of questions have already been raised about how it will be missing a large chunk of the additional content that has come out since 2013, but a bigger head-scratcher remains the lack of proper voice chat.
Payday 2 is a heist game. The whole point is to expertly orchestrate and execute actions like bank break-ins and the safe transportation of drug shipments, all of which require close coordination with other players. On PC, PS4, and Xbox One, this is easy to pull off through built-in voice chat or third-party programs like Discord. Players encountering the game for the first time on Nintendoâs Switch, however, will be in for a rough ride, because it doesnât have voice chat.
The company has created a workaround for this issue with its Nintendo Online app, a program you can download to your phone and run in conjunction with Splatoon 2 in order to talk to other players using a ridiculous, but still mostly functional, setup. As of now, however, no other game on the system can use this app. Nintendo says as much on the appâs FAQ section on the website. Seven months after Nintendo Online was introduced, it still only supports one game.
âWe are waiting to be able to participate in Nintendoâs VOIP app solution,â said a spokesperson for Starbreeze Studios, the gameâs publisher, in an email to Kotaku. âAs soon as we are given the go-ahead, this is definitely on our list to look into to update.â
In lieu of this option, the company is encouraging players to pursue other alternatives. âPAYDAY 2 is as you know a co-op game first and foremost and we want to give our players the means to communicate. For now, we have our official and verified Discord server as an option,â the spokesperson said.
A representative from Nintendo did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking when other games besides Splatoon 2 will be able to take advantage of Nintendo Online.
Discord has become the go-to solution for lots of online games on PC, since itâs easy to meet new players on official servers and create your own smaller groups for chatting during matches from there. Discord isnât available on the Switch, though, so for that option to work youâd need a second device close by. In addition, itâs not ideal for casual sessions where youâre just looking to play online with whoeverâs around. On Switch, as in the other versions of the game, Payday 2âs online co-op consists of contracts which are linked to specific lobbies via the in-game service called âCRIME.NET. The whole point is to find a contract you like and then team up with other interested parties, and not being able to talk with those people is a huge drawback.
The gameâs description on Nintendoâs website instead boasts about its new local multiplayer mode, CRIME.NET Local Play. Using this feature, players can easily set up local matches if theyâre on the same network, a convenient feature given that one of the best ways to communicate with other people on the Switch remains being in the same room as them.
Nintendo Switch Online, the companyâs paid ($20 a year) version of its current network service, doesnât launch until September. Itâs still not clear what changes it will bring to the way players currently communicate (or donât) on the console.
[Update â 6:05pm] Nintendo offered the following statement regarding the Nintendo Online appâs current one-game applicability:
âVoice chat is only enabled in games that have been specifically designed to use the feature in conjunction with the Nintendo Switch smart device application.â
