Nintendo confirms you'll have to pay a monthly or yearly fee to use the Switch 2's C button once the free trial period is up

Nintendo confirms that we'll have to pay to use the Switch 2's built-in voice chat and screen-sharing features, essentially making the C button useless unless you pay an extra $20 per year for Nintendo Switch Online.

If you missed the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct news, let me catch you up. The mysterious C button actually opens up the system's chat features. Much like Discord, you can join group audio calls, share your screen so friends can watch your gameplay, and even buy a camera that will then overlay your face on your screen. It's a cool feature and means you won't need to use any third-party tools to play multiplayer properly. There's a huge catch, though. Once the free period runs out on March 31, 2026, you can only use this if you're paying for Nintendo Switch Online.

Given that Nintendo is already facing countless calls to "drop the price" of its record-breakingly expensive Mario Kart World, which is $80, this feels like a comically greedy thing to do. Luckily, other upcoming Switch 2 games aren't quite as expensive.

In an interview with Polygon, vice president of player and product experience Bill Trinen says that if you press the C button without an NSO membership: "You would be able to find out about the NSO subscription there and get a sense of some of the functionality." So, unless you pay, you have a button that directs you to an advert on the console you're already paying $450 for.

Trinen adds that the chat feature is "part of the overall platform experience," and "NSO really is a critical piece of the Nintendo Switch 2 experience," which, to me, only makes it more incredulous that it's not included free of charge.

PS5 and Xbox Series X|S players have to pay to play most multiplayer games, too – that's unfortunately become an industry standard for console games – but they can still use all the chat features without needing to pay anything extra at all.

In the meantime, check out the best free games you can play so you can save some money.