Splatoon Dropped Voice Chat Over Toxicity Concerns

In an interview with UK gaming magazine Edge, Splatoon's co-director Yusuke Amano said that his game doesn't have voice chat now, and never will. That's thanks, in part, to the somewhat notorious reputation online players tend to have.

"This is coming from personal experience," Amano said. "When I played online games, I didn't like the negativity I got and people telling me, 'You're crap. Go away.' So we wanted to focus on the positive aspects of online gaming."

Having the ability to chat with other players in shooters, particularly to plan routes of attack, or coordinate movement is one of the genre's oldest features. And Amano admitted that he thought this might be seen as limiting to some. To him and the rest of the people on the team, having a safe, clean environment in which to play is worth it.

This falls in line with Nintendo's typical stance on voice communication in online games. Historically, only a handful of their first-party games have shipped with the feature, namely Pokemon Diamond and Pearl as well as Metroid Prime: Hunters for the Nintendo DS. Some recent Nintendo games like Mario Kart 8 and Pokemon X and Y, include voice chat, but only under very limited circumstances.

Splatoon is set to release for Wii U on May 29. For more coverage on Nintendo's unusual shooter, check out our preview.

The full interview with Amano is available in the latest issue of Edge Magazine, available in stores and online now.