After months of conjecture based on a handful of details, Nintendo finally announced their full intentions with their upcoming Nintendo Switch Online service, launching in September of this year.
The service will allow continued access to multiplayer games as well as Save Data Cloud Backup (finally!) and access to a growing library of classic NES games with “added online play.”
The pricing for the plans start at $3.99 for 1 month with $7.99/3-month and $19.99/year options. Compared to other online subscriptions like Playstation Plus and Xbox Live Gold, both $59.99/year, it’s a fairly easy fee to swallow.
However, it does seem that Nintendo is going to stick with their smartphone app to connect players to in-game chat sessions. This heavy reliance on an external phone and app is baffling, but then again, online gaming isn’t really Nintendo’s forte. Hopefully, they can learn some lessons and adapt along the way.
You can read more about the upcoming service on Nintendo’s website.
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I’m mostly into classic gaming, and I’ve been on the fence about the Switch. If I was getting a current-gen console, this would be the one I’d want. I have a Wii hooked up to the TV now as my main “modern” console, and I haven’t had it for long. This news release from Nintendo isn’t compelling enough for me to get the Switch.
The handful of NES titles won’t seem like much of an incentive, I’m sure. And Nintendo doesn’t plan on porting their Virtual Console that was available on the Wii and Wii U over to the Switch. They may have more free titles in the future as a part of their subscription, but it’s impossible to guess if that will extend to games from the SNES or even N64 era.
I’m surprised that the Virtual Console service isn’t coming to the Switch. Nintendo seems to like selling the same titles over and over, and people like me sure seem to like buying them over and over.
Same. I’m wondering if they’re just going to keep expanding the included NES games and introduce other system’s games into that available pool of titles. I’m just happy they’re doing a collective group of titles instead of the previously proposed idea of only having a couple of games be available every month and then expiring at the end of the month, like a rental.