Topic: I think Nintendo forgot about profile icons.

After the Switch Launched it seemed like we were getting new profile icons fairly often, with more Zelda, Splatoon 2, Arms, Mario Odyssey and Kirby Star Allies icons all being added. But as far as I can tell, we haven't gotten any since Kirby Star Allies.

It's a totally minor and completely inconsequential thing. But considering they are purely static images, I don't see why we either can't upload our own, or why Nintendo has stopped adding to them. I really had assumed we'd get more every couple weeks or so, along side each significant launch on the system. But instead, it seems Nintendo has completely forgotten about it.

I can't be the only one who finds that odd.

I was thinking it would be neat if we could crop sections of our screen shots as icons.

It is possibly wishful thinking, but maybe the feature is going to be scrapped entirely, in favor of a new theme system, and icons will be tied to those themes. But that could just be my long standing wish for home menu themes bleeding through again.

Thoughts?

This is Nintendo we're talking about, don't expect weekly updates... I mean... you'd also expect some way to organize the home menu after two years, but no.

Also why would you want icons to be tied to themes? sounds very inconvenient

@Heavyarms55 I agree with you, the nso update should have had some let's go ones, maybe Nintendo will give us one for every smash fighter this year. We can't upload our own because people would put inappropriate images in, this people hacked their accounts and did anyway, which caused a ton of kids to see this ng a they shouldn't on odyssey. I like the screenshot idea though, especially which the expressions you could get from characters in smash, but honestly, I don't know how likely it is that Nintendo will do it

If the games weren't so good you might never forgive them for it.

@BMO_Advanced Well, I more mean you get them with the themes. Like a set. But once you have them, you could mix and match.

@Heavyarms55 Profile icons get added with the .0.0 updates, the last ones we got were Captain Toad Treasure Tracker ones with 6.0.0. I'd guess that whenever 7.0.0 appears there will be some Smash icons.

It is a bit silly when you look at your friends list and see everyone has the same five icons and use the same few colours. A bit of variety in icons would be nice and is the kind of thing I assume the work experience guy could handle so don't see the issue in more.

Surely they have stats on what are the most and least used icons, so they could even rotate out the least used ones so it wouldn't get cluttered. (Lookin' at you, Microsoft)

I'd be down with paying for sets of icons

Please, no. All they're doing is making you pay for renders that already exist. There's no reason for them to cost money. I know Sony does that, but that doesn't mean that Nintendo needs to as well.

I'd be down for unlocking icons for games when you purchase/play that game on the Switch. That'd be fair. But Nintendo isn't going down that route either, so... Might as well just leave them free for everyone. I think that suggestion would apply more for other companies like Sony. If I buy a game, I should unlock the icons for it instead of being expected to pay extra, darn it!

where the **** are my Xenoblade 2 icons Nintendo

@Harmonie The worst part is, that's something they totally have setup. The Kingdom Hearts Collections unlock a free theme every time you finish a game, which is completely awesome! It also means that my PS4 background is permanently set to KH as I refuse to actually spend money on themes. But as far as I've seen, no other game provides free themes or icons in that fashion. I'm sure there are others, but it certainly doesn't seem to be the norm.

If Nintendo were to implement a system-wide achievement system as some people have suggested (not that I think it will happen though), it would be cool if completing achievements let you unlock profile icons based on the game in which you got the achievement.

I'm suprised Nintendo hasn't allowed 3rd party dev's to add icons if you buy a game from them.

@Dogorilla I remember a few 360 games had this and it was a neat little reward!

I know not everyone would want to pay for them, but in the end, they're only cosmetic. Besides, it sounds like a very Nintendo solution to me.

@BigMac1204 They are purely cosmetic. That is why I think it would be fine to have some paid icons. I think it would be nice if the paid ones were a little fancier. Maybe they could make them animated. But being a totally optional feature, it would hurt no one if they couldn't get them. And it would let the artists who make them still earn a buck. Since I imagine these icons would not be made by major team members, more likely, they'd be made by newbie employees given easy jobs at the beginning.

@BigMac1204 It's already Sony's idea (and maybe Microsoft's as well? I don't know, I've never owned a Microsoft console before), and it is NOT a trend that Nintendo needs to follow.

It's funny that we live in a world where people get mad about having to pay for actual content that took time and money to create (DLC), but are perfectly fine with the idea of icons - which are simply made from pre-existing renders (something pretty much any of us are capable of doing ourselves with very little time or effort) - costing money.

Icons should not cost money. At most they should be unlocked behind the games that they feature, but never should they cost money in of themselves.

Microsoft was the same in 360 era. Purchasable themes, purchasable icons, purchasable avatar items, etc. though there were also unlockable content by completing certain achievements and awards.

Xbox One was rather different apart from avatar items and that you could have your icon be your avatar. Every XB1 achievement when completed has an image you can use as a theme and icons initially went the way of how you would've expected Switch icons to work (i.e. as more 1st party games get released, more icons become available to you for free irrelevant of whether you've played the game). The icons stopped when Microsoft introduced custom icons, you can use USB to transfer images to your XB1 and if the size is right those can be mostly be used as your icon. Custom themes work the same way but have been available for longer.

The last XB1 game represented by the icons Microsoft provided was Halo Wars 2 by the way.