Nintendo sneaks Wii Speak Channel announcement out
by JC Fletcher 
{ Oct 2nd 2008 at 1:14PM }
According to NOA's announcement, it works for up to four groups, with each participant in each group represented by a Mii. The Channel allows sending of voice messages and photos. It's simple, yes, but at least people who buy the peripheral outside of an Animal Crossing bundle will have something to do.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sonic_13 @ Oct 2nd 2008 1:21PM
Sounds cool. We'll have to wait for more information before making any judgments about it.
The Dom @ Oct 2nd 2008 1:34PM
Would be cool if this could run in the background for online chat during mario kart and brawl, but thats asking for too much i guess...
Ethan @ Oct 2nd 2008 1:59PM
That's pretty good actually.
supa_s @ Oct 2nd 2008 2:37PM
wait there's a AC bundle coming out in the US?
TheOverlord#2 @ Oct 2nd 2008 2:48PM
It's $70, was revealed during a GameStop Conference Call.
Mr Khan @ Oct 2nd 2008 2:49PM
I doubt Nintendo has the foresight (or Wii has the power) to make it a background application. That would be so many kinds of awesome.
But this is good, too, i suppose. We could use it as a lobby for Game Night.
guttertalk @ Oct 2nd 2008 3:10PM
Except, if I'm reading it right, you can have only four groups in a conversation, unless there's a way to create groups of different Wiis. (I assumed a single Wii Speak was a group in that it's for several people in one room.)
iambob98 @ Oct 2nd 2008 5:13PM
the only reason i will be getting wii speak as of now is because of the conduit... and for a confrence room type thing there is someone who is (at least trying) to make that kind of homebrew app.
http://wiibrew.org/wiki/User:Beardface/WiiChat
NinKenDo @ Oct 2nd 2008 6:09PM
@the Dom
I'm with you on using it for other games. There has to be a way to make the Wii Speak Channel a portal to the disc Channel and allow for voice chat. But if it did, I'm afraid it would mess up some games, especially SSBB which already has enough trouble with lag, VOIP would probably kill it all together.
Michael Sliczniak @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:12PM
What would be cool is if the wiispeak was actually a wireless 802.11b/g device and the usb cable was used to communicate with the Wii. So for games without chat you would fire-up this Wii speak channel and setup a connection and then leave the channel. The Wiispeak itself would then keep going and you could start another game like Mario Strikers Charged.