One thing's clear. The Switch 2 is launching into a very complex environment. Just a look at today's Nintendo Direct, or rather the comments scrolling on the side of the IGN feed over on YouTube. Someone wants a proper 3D Donkey Kong game. Someone else wants Waluigi in Smash. Someone wants Jet Set Radio - I promise that one was not me - someone else wants a full-blown sequel to Twilight Princess.Actually, looking at the Nintendo Direct itself, you can see a bit of that complexity. You'll be able to play Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 on the Switch 2. Surely the kind of thing you might lead with, or at least put right near the start? Yes, sure, but then you'd bring up the uncomfortable reality of a world that already has the Steam Deck in it. Best bury this stuff a little, before it serves as a reminder that Nintendo's no longer the only bunch out there that have the full video game experience you can enjoy while sat on the bus.I registered all these thoughts watching today's Direct, just as I registered the thoughts at certain moments that this really didn't feel like a classic Nintendo console unveiling. Aren't the other guys the ones who spend time talking about HDR visuals? Is it Nintendo to spend that much time talking about SD cards or the new fan? That third-party reel towards the end was one DoorDash namecheck away from being a Geoff Keighley production. Is Nintendo losing its nerve - or, with a console that is in so many ways so similar to its last console, did it just not have that much new to say right now? Image credit: NintendoOn balance, I don't think that's the case. I think the really big thing was up-front after the Mario Kart World reveal - in a way, it was a part of the Mario Kart World reveal, but we'll get to that in a moment. It's the C Button, which, yes, does sound like the kind of thing you say when you're trying to swear in the presence of children. It's what the C Button does. It's chat. It's audio and video chat. But it's all done in a very Nintendo way.By which I mean Nintendo's looked at a part of the world very closely, and has delivered a solution in a distinctly Nintendo manner. I'm not sure that I personally would have understood the area they are working in if I didn't have an eleven-year-old child, because I'm 46 and, like many people post-Covid, deeply eager to never log onto another video conference ever again. But I share a house with someone who uses technology - and games - in a very different way. Someone who sees video chats and online chat of all kinds as part of their everyday reality. This is who Nintendo is thinking of.To put it another way, I've long realised that my daughter relates to games in a very different way to me. To her, and her school friends, games are social spaces, an extension of the playground chat. They chat at school. They chat on the bus home from school. And then they get home and they continue to chat in Fortnite or Among Us or Minecraft. Are they chatting about the games? Sometimes, but most often they're just chatting about anything. These games are part of the way they socialise, a bit like the FaceTime skincare routine chats they'll go on to have later in the evening. Image credit: NintendoThis is what that C Button is all about. You're playing games together, so chat makes sense. But even if you're playing different games, or just watching one of you play a game, it still makes sense for this kind of player. The C Button is basically the party line from Mean Girls - it just happens that people are much more likely to communicate through consoles than landlines in 2025.I love the fact that you don't have to play the same games as each other in Nintendo's GameChat. It seems to speak to the way focus shifts when you're chatting with friends - what are you doing? What about you lot? What are you doing now? - and it speaks to the simple joy of just being together regardless of what you're actually up to. Image credit: NintendoFold in Mario Kart World, though, and it becomes even more interesting. When I heard that you'd be able to go off road and explore in Mario Kart World, I thought: fun, but a bit weird. What's everyone else you're playing with going to be doing? Turns out they'll be doing their own stuff, connected to you but not connected via GameChat. The Switch 2 is weaponising aimless free time, in the same way that Twitch or Discord does.I know none of this is new, and despite the example I've used of my daughter and her friends, none of this is unique to school kids and Gens Z and Alpha. All kinds of people use games as spaces to meet up in. But it's fascinating to see Nintendo get in on the act - Nintendo who often arrives late, having cooked up very distinct ideas. Maybe Nintendo hasn't lost its nerve after all.