Yesterday's Nintendo Direct came out swinging with a surprise direction for the Nintendo Switch 2. In a break from recent tradition, Nintendo showcased only few unique hardware advancements and instead focused on a field it's been historically reluctant to dive into: online multiplayer.The mysterious "C" button, it turned out, wasn't some button that unlocked magical hardware capabilities, but instead quickly brings players into a feature called "GameChat." GameChat appears to be a slimmed-down version of social platforms like Discord that acts as an all-in-one hub for group multiplayer, video calls, private game streaming, and more, all run through the Nintendo Switch 2.In other words, the company that rolled out a mobile app to support voice chat on Nintendo Switch has gone all-in on a console-based micro social network.Why would the normally multiplayer-shy Nintendo dive deep into online multiplayer this way? Well in a world where players are asking developers "can I play with my friends?", the company seems to have picked up on a growing game industry trend: a future where playersespecially younger oneswant to play together at all times.Nintendo thinks it can finally make "safe" online spacesIn a follow-up presentation at a media event held during the Nintendo Direct, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser seemed to tip the company's hand as to why it seems to have finally committed resources to robust online features. He spoke of how players of all ages can now "safely connect" and play games with friends and family.Related:"Safety" has been the watchword for Nintendo's hesitance to jump feet-first into online play. The company has long prioritized family-friendly games, building an audience of young players that isn't as present on competitors like the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. Unfortunately as platforms like Roblox have demonstrated, the slightest flaw in content and player moderation can expose children to dangerous situations.Wired's Megan Farokhmanesh pressed the company on this topic in a roundtable Q&A during Nintendo's preview event. Switch 2 director Takuhiro Dohta explained GameChat is an online system built around the Nintendo Friends list instead of random game lobbies. Parents monitoring their children's online activity through the parental control app will be able to personally approve any friend requests they receive, reducing the odds of encountering a stranger in the wild. He didn't address the topic of safety measures for minors whose parents aren't monitoring their activity through the parental control app.Related:Image via Nintendo.Nintendo touts GameChat as a feature that lets people "play together, anywhere," painting a picture of friends or family seated in a family room across great distances.. It's also a strange echo of the mantra "together, apart" you sometimes heard in the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an "Ask the Developer" interview posted by Nintendo, producer Kouichi Kawamoto said GameChat's streaming feature (which lets players stream gameplay to each other, a popular feature on Discord) was "born from" Nintendo's experience developing games in 2020-2021."Back then, we were using a video conferencing system to check the software we were developing with our team, but the screen-sharing function built into the video conferencing system only allowed us to share one gameplay screen at a time," he stated. "So we had each person place their game screen in front of their camera instead of their faces. When we did that, it felt like we were all in the same place, each bringing our own console to play the game together, which was a lot of fun."That's an experience many players had in the pandemic, to the point that much has been made about how young players spend their time in Roblox hanging out and goofing around. Developers everywhere are describing how it's shaping multiplayer design. At DICE, Owlchemy Labs boss Andrew Eiche and Riot Games co-founder and chief product officer Marc Merrill both described how their upcoming games create spaces for players to just hang out and chat, and not automatically force them into head-to-head gameplay.Related:Some third-party-published games shown in yesterday's Nintendo Direct like Survival Kids and System Era Softworks' Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions seemed particularly designed with this concept in mind.What first-party game is Nintendo using to showcase this kind of social gameplay? Unexpectedly, it's Mario Kart World. In hands-on time with the game at the preview event, players had the opportunity to drive around a large open world that hosted elements of the game's many tracks. It was only after I saw a few of the other 24 players driving across the track I was zooming on that I realized I could go off course, and the experience revealed a fun open lobby perfect for players to goof around in.In the Nintendo Direct, the company explained that the open world won't just be an empty sandbox, but an area filled with opportunities for exploration. It was easy to imagine friends logging in not to race, but to just drive around and play bumper cars.Online multiplayer is a big business opportunityLook, let's get brass tacks about all this, with a socially-designed Switch 2, Nintendo can cash in big time on multiplayer.Gating communication behind a Nintendo Switch Online subscription? $20 a year. Adding in the expansion pack? $50 a year. The most they charge for online play is $80 a year for a full family plan.Those prices are low compared to subscription plans on Xbox and PlayStation, but up until this point its offerings were relatively light. A robust suite of social tools is more likely to convince a bunch of dedicated Switch users to make the jump.Image via System Era Softworks/Devolver Digital.The Switch 2 also now has a clear hardware feature that sets ahead of other handhelds. To set up comparable multiplayer services on say, an ROG Ally, players need to download an app like Discord and calibrate it to fit with their playstyle before they can chat with friends. With the Nintendo Switch 2, players can start talking with the push of a button.Then there's the mysterious but ever-present concept of "brand loyalty." Nintendo isn't short on loyal players, but its scaled-back social systems have created an exit vector for players to leave its ecosystem. Now, in a very Apple-like fashion, Nintendo can support voice chat and screen sharing without pushing users to another service (and with the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera, it can also eliminate the need to buy non-Nintendo hardware).The runaway success of the Nintendo Switch certainly raised expectations for the Switch 2's sales performance. While the multiplayer tools themselves may not propel the system to over 150 million units sold in its lifetime (Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods might do a lot of heavy lifting), it sets the table for more monetization opportunities down the line.However the Switch 2 performs, its multiplayer-centric hardware shows Nintendo is keeping an eye on changing trends. Multiplayer has long been a domain into which Nintendo barely treads, so its choice to go all-in on the technologyespecially in lieu of drastically new physical hardware featuressignals the weight of its strategic shift.