One of the features distinguishing the Switch 2 from its less powerful predecessor is GameChat. Much was made of this new feature on the device’s announcement, a way for people to communicate with friends while playing games, even having their live faces appear as avatars within games. It’s such a Nintendo-ey idea, reminiscent of Wii-era novelty, so why doesn’t it work in handheld? Why doesn’t the Switch 2 arrive with a front-facing camera?
It’s kinda weird, right? You’ve got this device that works in a hybrid model, so when sat in its dock it can be wired up to a free-standing camera, but then when grabbed to be played on the move—nothing. Yet, hasn’t everything got a cheap little 720p camera mounted in it now? I mean, I’ve not double-checked my electric toothbrush, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
OK, I’m not entirely naive to the annoyance front-facing cameras can be to device manufacturers. The feature has become vital in cell phones, but often at a significant cost to the form factor—that’s how we ended up with those god-awful chunks taken out of the top of iPhones, and the weird-ass punch-holes in Androids, as bezels shrank and screen size could no longer be sacrificed for the sake of the camera’s presence. But, if you look at a Switch 2, there’s still a decent amount of bezel present, despite the larger screen. Especially if it were mounted to the left or right. It might have been uglier, perhaps undesirable, but it was surely possible.
Under display cameras (UDCs) have existed for a few years now, but they’re super-expensive and only feature in the most high-end phones, and they come at the cost of visible cross-hatching on the portion of the screen behind which they’re hiding. Even Samsung may be backing away from them now. You have to assume Nintendo at least looked into the tech, but realized it’s both far too costly and too many years away from good enough. (An inclusion for the Switch 3, perhaps?)
But given just how much of a fuss is being made of GameChat, isn’t it just a bit weird that the sacrifices weren’t made? Given that games are going to have ways of integrating players’ faces into characters, of letting you see your friends’ live reactions as you crushingly defeat them in Mario Kart or delivering their celebratory dances to you in Mario Party, it feels like such a missed opportunity to make this exclusive to playing at home on TV, and even then, only if the player has bought a camera peripheral.
You might wonder if it could be a quality issue. That tech that’s going to allow the Switch 2 to detect your face, cut it out, and apply it to your avatar, perhaps that needs too many pixels for an affordable teeny pinhole camera? Except, well, those cameras Nintendo are selling aren’t exactly top-of-the-range. Hori’s Piranha Plant Camera (which appears to have disappeared from the U.S. Nintendo store) has an incredibly low resolution: 640 x 480. And that will apparently still work.
The Pixel 9a phone, which will cost you much the same as a Switch 2 with a camera, has a selfie camera that can film in 4K at 30FPS. The $55 official Switch 2 Camera by Nintendo can only capture at 1080p, although that’s still a mighty step up from the Piranha’s 480p! The point is, if the tech can work on a 480p camera, then quality is clearly not an issue, and something that cheap would barely touch the device’s price.
And let’s not forget Nintendo is hardly averse to sticking a camera in things. The DSi had a camera mounted in the clamshell’s bevel in 2009, and even more relevantly, the bonkers Wii U handheld screen thingamajig had a camera in 2012, thus allowing video chat with other players!
I’m sure Nintendo has its reasons. It could be cost, it could be a complete lack of a desire to give up valuable screen size to a camera, perhaps it couldn’t be done in a way that didn’t just look plain ugly. UDC’s aren’t viable, and pop-up cameras introduce a whole new fail-point to a device (but still seems like it could have been a viable solution here). But it remains significant that it hasn’t happened.
Sure, you can still plug in your camera when the Switch 2 is out of the dock, but it’s not like you’ll be wanting to carry that with you and set it up on the train! Or in bed. Or just about anywhere other than in front of your TV.
If GameChat’s camera-based abilities really were an integral part of the Switch 2's ethos, the handheld device would feature an in-built camera. It’s daft that this tech is not only reserved for the way in which a person is least likely to play some Mario Kart, but is also exclusive to those who fork out an extra fifty bucks for the camera peripheral to boot. It makes clear live video in GameChat is never going to be anything more than a bonus gimmick.
And honestly, I find that a shame. On the tech’s announcement, I was super-excited for the possibilities it could offer, that special touch of weirdness only Nintendo offers. But—and yes, it has taken me two months to realize this—it’s clearly not a priority for the new console. If it were, the Switch 2 would have a little mounted 480p camera, and developers would be encouraged to go wild with the tech.
Updated: 06/02/2025, 1:05 p.m. ET: A short line was added to this post to make clear you can still plug the camera into the Switch 2 in handheld mode.
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