Nintendo Switch Online Finally Revealed: Cloud Saves, NES Games And Pricing Confirmed

Wow, kind of sad that they’re only offering NES games so far though...

20 bucks is cheap enough to set it and forget it. I know where I am moving to for my fighting games.

@MotaroRIP Maybe right away, but I'm sure they're working on their other older platforms, too. There's no way they just leave it at the NES.

#ItsStillTooExpensive

You guys are off on a detail about the family membership.
The 8 accounts don't have to be on the same console. They can be on different ones. So theoretically you could split a family membership with 7 friends and pay less than $5 each unless there's a limit on how many Switches a family can be split across.
https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/nintendo-shares-new-details-about-its-nintendo-switch-online-service

Edit: Looks like you guys caught it while I was commenting.

Not bad, and you get the whole library of whatever retro games they put on there? Not bad.

All the games will have multiplayer support?? I get that for Dr. Mario, soccer, tennis, even Mario Bros....but Zelda? Or SMB?

@SwitchVogel But could we still see the likes of GameCube? I've wanted GameCube Virtual Console for what seems like an eternity now, but I can't imagine they would want to give away their entire catalog of GameCube or even N64 games under their $20 plan when they know they could make that much off of each individual game.

Yes!Cloud save backups,finally! I'll be paying up for that alone.

@DonSerrot Good catch!

At $20 a year, I am happy. Cloud saves, online gaming and classic games with added online features is pretty good.

Hopefully the implementation of online features is what has been holding up apps like Netflix and we can finally see them on the Switch.

The people complaining that it’s too expensive confuse me. It’s cheaper than their competitors, what more do you want? Complaining for complaining’s sake.

@Not_Soos I think SNES is a sure thing, and as for N64 and GCN, I could see them charging extra for access to them. I'd pay sixty a year easily if it meant I could have access to all those games.

Still too much for p2p connections, oh well been thinking about upgrading my pc anyways. I really hate how paying for online has become standard now.

@SwitchVogel $60 a month? $720 a year? You’re keen as beans lol.

The monthly total on the annual price is less than $2 per month....that’s very cheap.

online multi-player for nes games sounds cool but how many good simultaneous play nes games are there really

Nintendo and their naming problems. How hard is it to make unique names?

Heads up, Nintendo! Nintendo Switch Online is the name of an app!

Kinda underwhelming as most of this is old news. Surprise, surprise. Is it voice for these games or for every game? Unless Nintendo is holding out on us, I'm unsurprisingly worried

Certainly can't argue with 20 bucks. And I love cloud saves.

@Not_Soos @SwitchVogel I think they'll do NES and possibly SNES with this Netflix style on demand system and give N64/GameCube their own individual releases.

@607jf If they are charging us for online I'm pretty sure they are going with dedicated servers. Otherwise people would riot.

Off-console server saves! (I loathe the word “cloud”.)
Finally!!!

@SaturnHero They say it will also support the "pass the controller" type games, and friends can watch streams of other friends.

$20 per year is great. Pretty reasonable price, glad there's a family option not that most families will ever own more than 1 switch, its pretty expensive, I know I won't be buying a second one any time soon.

Despite of a price i still not justified this subscription for myself, the only online game on Switch to date i care of is Splatoon 2 while all other bells & whistles aren't so compelling to me. I'll buy for a first year but as soon as splatfests will over it's seems too useless for me.

"Also, all these games will include voice chat and online multiplayer support."

The Legend of Zelda is going to have multiplayer support? O_o

I'd imagine we will get more info at E3 I'm sure Nintendo is holding a surprise or two, so far I'm onboard I'm psyched for the online play and leaderboards getting added to classic NES titles and twenty bucks for unlimited access to classic titles for a year is cheap in my opinion .

Only NES at launch? Talk about retreading old ground.
It's getting exhausting having to restart from the 8-bit era and slowly work our way back up again each time a new VC service comes out. I just want to see something new from the service like the GC, DS or Wii at this point.

@DonSerrot well I'd better hope so, but so far we only have splatoon 2 that's p2p, also I was hoping they would drop the stupid phone app and just have voice chat on the switch. I've watched my frinds get togather on XBO and it seems so easy. Unfortunately I have to text my friends and hope they have their phone to play with them on switch.

The pricing seems reasonable, and TBH this news had me at "cloud saves". Voice chat and multiplayer are a nice given. While the "free" NES games seem like a nice plus, I still hope that you would soon be able to optionally buy some of those games and tote them around with you if you wish.

Seems reasonable. The family pricing is especially thoughtful.

If this is how they do VC, and they support it like they did on Wii U, I'm on board.

So far it seems pretty solid but they still need to get rid of the phone app for voicechat. I’d also like an account system, not the FC’s we have at the moment.

Otherwise, pretty good. Looking forward to seeing more details/games.

Seems alright enough for $20.

The Nintendo Gods please improve the online of your games. If you improve the tick rate and features of games like Splatoon 2 I’ll gladly sacrifice 20 dollars and partake in your sin.

Not bad, a dollar a game per year with more to come. Maybe they'll eventually roll out a "pick 20 for $20" when they get enough VC games on the Switch.

Playstation Plus includes free games from current generation, and Nintendo gave us games from over 30 years ago? Nintendo is still in their nostalgia mode, hanging on their retro games... no one cares about them anymore. They are freely available on the internet roms sites.

Xbox Live 1 year subscription = $60.
Playstation Network 1 year subscription = $40.
Nintendo Switch Online 1 year subscription = $20.
This price is so good that it feels ike bargain level.

NES games only at launch feels like a mistake. It’ll be 18 months since Switch’s launch and this is the paltry virtual console we’ll have? Xbox has done way more with backwards compatibility than Nintendo has in the past year. There are so many more 360 and original Xbox games that have released on XB1 in the past couple months alone. Not much reason why we can’t get so many more NES titles on here right off the bat and so many more within weeks of release.

@Elvie And thus, you will get bargain level service.

I think it sounds fine. $20 a year and some black box games to start. I'm sure the retro library will expand on a regular basis with online play for several titles. I'm up for that!

I truly don't understand how anyone could be upset with this announcement.... I mean 20 NES games for $20 a year is worth it alone. You're telling me if Nintendo dropped a game pack on the e-shop with 20 (with online added) NES games on it for $20 you wouldn't buy it?? This along side all of the other goodies (cloud saves?!?!) for the low price of $20 per year??? This seems like a great bargain to me, sign me up!

@Agent721 SMB already has 2 player where you take turns, so possibly no surprises there. Zelda will be interesting.

@Elvie you’re right, this feels like a bargain. But the kind that seems too cheap because it doesn’t offer enough. Xbox and PS offer some great games from time to time with their service- Both have offered Metal Gear Solid V, and then separately, The Witness, Bloodborne, PSVR games, Bayonetta, etc... For some, the NES games feels worth it every month, but I’d rather get the newer AAA titles for just a couple bucks more. Plus, PS and Xbox have built in voice chat, no awful app

That's pretty good for our money, especially cloud saves. The downside to Classic Games is I don't see 3rd party NES games being added unless they either make some kind of deal for them or have an option to buy classic games like Virtual Console for those without a Sub. Even if you make a deal, those 3rd party games won't be offered for the sub forever.

Ahh well, early days. Guess we'll wait and see what the Selection will offer....

This is great!! I don't have a Switch yet, but potentially losing my save files was my biggest worries about owning one. But it seems that Nintendo has put my mind at ease. And holy smokes!!! Only $20 a year for online!! That's waaaayy cheaper than Playstation or Xbox!!! Hopefully I'll have a Switch within the next couple of months.

I wonder if these games will still support Restore Points. I'm not sure how you would implement that given the new online component.

Incredible value and pricing, as always , Nintendo reset and sets the standard of what current next gen gaming is and should strive to be

ONLY issue, is they need to update the app for party making or just get rid of the app altogether, because if you dont have a iOS device handy its not fair and also the party making for online battles sucks, like splatoon and soon to be call of duty need serious revamp for party system

Oddly enough, I'm most excited by being a creeper and watching my friends play.

@Yorumi I’m unsure about Xbox, but PS does require PS plus for cloud saves. However, what you might’ve meant is that it’s impossible for Switch to do backup saves on a thumb drive or external hard drive

@Wazeddie22 Ditto, fellow Lunar legend! I’ve been itchin’ for cloud saves.

Definitely

@Whalehome Thing is, we don't even know if 3rd party NES games will be added. Take them out, and you're only left with Nintendo's selection, which after 20 there's not much else.

There has to be some limitation on how many switches on the same online plan can be online at the same time..

Love the teased info. Greater things will come for launch. It is cheap and with retro perks included!

This needs to be online by servers not PvP. If we are going to pay is only fair.

Not sure how much online gaming I'll be doing, but cloud saves are worth $20.

Why can't we just have regular Virtual Console?

It is the year 2018, right?

Also, no matter how you spin it, that NES thing is a joke. Even the folks defending it are operating off of the assumption that there will eventually be SNES and N64 (and beyond) games available as well.

$20 a year for save back ups. Wowzers.

So many whiners about Virtual Console... LOL. Get over it.

So if I have one switch with two accounts on it, Mine and my sons, so I need the 20 quid option or do I have to shell out for the family one? Bit confused

With Xbox Live @ $60 a year I'm given 3 free games a month. As in, 3 current gen games. XB360 games I get for free I also keep even if I cancel the service.

I want to play my Xbox online for just one game (Halo 5), but no way I’m paying $60.00 to do so.

At least if I want to play just one Nintendo game online, $20.00 sure beats what the other consoles make you pay for the privilege.

I planned on it. Seems like any other online it as long as they took, it has to be better than the usual Nintendo effort.

I'll take 1 family plan for my 3 Switches please.
Thank you online cloud save!

Sign me up for 1 family plan for my 3 (maybe 4 in the future) Nintendo Switches... Thank you cloud saves!

Cloud Saves on the Switch? It's gotta be a late April Fool's joke, right? Right?

@Yorumi

It’s $1.67 a month to have online gaming, a collection of henhanced NES games that you do not have online play anywhere else on, AND cloud saves.

If all that isn’t worth $1.67 a month, I suggest you get a better definition of what a good value proposition is.

@DonSerrot Can all 8 accounts be playing an online game at the same time?

Day one purchase!

So if you can find 7 other friends, then the Family Membership Cost will come down to ~$4.40 per person. That's a pretty good deal.

It's a damn shame that the phone app is still required to use voice chat, but 20 NES games and cloud saves for <$5 per person with the Family Membership plan is probably the best one could ask for.

YYEEEEEEEASASSSSSSSS!!!!!

Well, Already pay for PSN. Ill wait and see how it plays out end of year - don't really care for NES games.

The phone chat kills it for me also. Hope there is another way to back up saves - I don't need PSN Plus to back up my PS4 saves.

@Yorumi PlayStation also requires a sub for sever based saves. At least on ps4.

I’ve been gaming for over 40 years now, so love a bit of retro ... but NES games just don’t hold my interest. Maybe a few SNES titles I’d play again. I’d also be intrigued to know which N64 first-party titles people would be excited about? But if Nintendo move into GC territory, then I’d be super excited.

Sometimes retro ain’t cool; sometimes it’s just old...

I think I know the answer to this already, but online play remains free for the 3DS, right?

@Agent721 ‘henhanced’ games? That would be clucking cool. Especially if you could peck a couple of new games a week. I would flutter to that service straight away, no matter how fowl the connection. I am officially egg-cited

@Not_Soos Im thinking leaderboards for SMB and other single player games that keep score, but i don't think all games will have online.

So we don't own the NES games, it's more like a rent? That's lame.

Cloud saves are nice! I unlocked all the ships in Steredenn Binary Stars, and that was so hard, I wouldn't want to lose it.

And if se want to play the NES game offline? My Internet data limit will cost me more just to play them?

@illmatic20xx Not sure about that. I think they said you would be able to "pass the controller" to another friend online, so I think you'll be able to play through games like SMB and even Zelda cooperatively by taking turns.

There has to be more to it than that?

I have to say this is a major letdown.
The only feature that interests me is Cloud Saving.

I don’t care much for NES games, but the rest is pretty reasonable. The family subscription is really nice.
People keep complaining it’s no as good a deal as Xbox live (or whatever it is named) but those complains are ridiculous. The service’s price is a third of what Microsoft is charging.

Now why would I want to play any of those NES games on the go when I have a 3DS? Why would I want to play any of those NES games at home when I have a Wii U? Nintendo's so discombobulated right now they have no idea what they're doing!

Not earth-shattering but definitely nice nonetheless. $20 for online, cloud saves, and free NES games with online support is pretty neat. Looking forward to hearing more!

We have to wait until September for cloud saves? Really Nintendo?

$20 is fine, for cloud saves and the ability to play online alone. But I absolutely could not give a sh*t about NES games. Hopefully SNES Games and GBA games come to the free to play service. Anything beyond that such as N64 and GameCube games I'm happy to pay individually for, but for the love of God can we actually get some access to them?

Don't mind the NES only for now just feel the selection needs Ice Hockey.

20 bucks for a whole year? I can do that. Not really interested in the NES games though.

Why do we need multiplayer support for the NES Zelda games, or leaderboards since there no score involved? Seriously with the exception of 7-up Spot which supports 4 with an obscure mutitap you can already play 2 man multiplayer on switch from your couch with the detachable controllers! Not everyone has access to a good internet connection at home (like me I don't have any connection period) so it just seems like a huge waste of money for games I don't get to keep.

Am I the only one who HATES the idea of a subscription service for Virtual Console? That means they’ll just pull the plug on it someday and the games are gone for everyone, whereas the ones I bought on Wii and Wii U are mine to play forever. This totally sucks.

So basically 20$ a year for cloudsaves. Seems like a rip-off considering that cloudsaves are free everywhere else. Nintendo. You ****ed it up.

Still need the option to buy; not rent the virtual console.

A neat CGC list for a launch, didn't expect big ones like two SMBs and Legend of Zelda so soon. Although I guess they may be why game streams have been added - there's not much multiplayer to do in LoZ, for instance (Mario games might at least throw in leaderboards at some point, I suppose)? Curious that they're still leaving half the package under the wraps, too - a mere marketing roadmap, or SNES CGC starting early after all?

Quite a bargain for $20 per year (although the government's Google tax burnt into Russian eShop prices to pay regardless of whether you live anywhere near Russia means it'll be somewhat more expensive here), but of course there are and will be fanship-intoxicated blind complaints from "Sony giving out modern games instead" to "the only company charging a subscription for cloud saves". Someone sure doesn't sound like they ever had a PS Plus (and I'm saying that as someone who does and is generally satisfied with it). Not to mention the imageboard-minded audacity to counterargument piracy as a customer alternative - let's be honest already, there's zero customership in the realm of freely distributed commercial roms, and the primary reason they're considered viable is that legislature limits and anonymity still keep us fineproof/jailproof in regards to illegal access to someone else's IP. ¯(ツ)/¯

Will we be able to stack subscriptions like with PS+?

Its $20 now, but give it a year & it’ll
jump to $30.

I'm hoping they will sell these VC games separately since i have zero interest in playing online on the Switch.

Awesome

Virtual console really is dead!

@Lizuka Gah, your nostalgia card is officially revoked!

@jomo32 Hardly unique.

Sounds good to me. $20 bucks a year for the Switch's Online service is pocket change.

@Spectra If you're actually worried about a $1.67 per month fee, you should definitely save your money instead of spending it on this.

For $20 a year I'm fine with that. Count me in.

There’s nothing I play on Switch that I’d play online. That said, I’d still pay for this. For cloud saves and the classic games.

However.

Has it been mentioned how they validate your eligibility? What I mean is, you become an online member and get access to these games. My presumption is it would need to validate you have online membership in order to play them. But the switch has no 3G or 4G. So if you’re out and about can you play them?

Nothing of interest for me. I'll wait for something more probably.

Nintendo says that backups for most Switch games will be stored online.

2K18 requires a 5 GB save file, per save.

This’ll be what they mean by most then.

@Geeks4Life No, definitely not "free everywhere else."

Microsoft and Sony offer Xbox 360/One/ps3,4 games for free with subscription. Nintendo offer NES games...NES, not even SNES or GC ifs!! And most hardcore gamers already bought these games more than once on 3ds, Wii U VC

Also, will you be able to play with your friends? (Fifa etc).

@Spectra (Edit: If you go for an annual membership...) For 1/3 of the price of one Starbucks coffee per month, we'll have cloud saves, online play, access to 20 VC games, and more. That's not "nothing" in my book. Plus, given the family membership option, I'll be able to share all of those perks with my son and other relatives. Totally worth it for us.

So built in voice chat or via the phone app?

@kirbygirl a coffee at Starbucks cost 12$??

@dimi They are absolutely NOT free. Both of those services on the PSN and XBL cost $60 per year (yes, that's 3x the price of the Nintendo service). And, frankly, I'd prefer NES games to most of the $#!+ offered with PS+ and Gold most months, though I have actually found enough value to subscribe those services too. But, please, stop misrepresenting the situation.

Plus, I think it's important to remember that this is just what is being offered at the launch of the Nintendo online service. I'm sure they'll be adding more games along the way. Context is a wonderful thing.

I sure am glad I wasted seven bucks on Arcade Archives: Super Mario Bros...

@dimi An annual membership to the Nintendo service is $20 a year, that's $1.67 per month. An average Starbucks coffee is in the $4-$5 range.

And still no Virtual Console news in sight... Hopefully Nintendo does something remarkable for E3 because this announcement is kind of sad.

@Geeks4Life except they aren’t.
I can’t talk about Xbox, but on PlayStation you need to pay for a PS+ subscription to have cloud saves.

What took them so long to announce it? It’s not like there’s anything too different from what we knew before...

Are the games announced permanently available or will they be rotated out with other titles?

Also, do we have a reasonable voice chat system yet, or is it still that silly phone app and a mess of wires if you want to hear game audio as well?

$20 (or the equivalent for me in the UK) is nothing! I don’t need some all singing all dancing whatever, I get online play, and cloud saves, it costs me more than that for Apple cloud extra space and that’s just storage. The VC has never been a huge deal for me and even on XBOX the games would have to be something I really wanted to play for me to download anyway, free doesn’t mean I am going to want to invest my time unless it was something I seriously enjoyed first time round.

I think Nintendo did a great job in listening to what people were looking for.

@maruse Exactly! IIRC, a paid membership is required for cloud saves on PS systems and also for the Xbox 360. I do think it might not be required for cloud saves on the XBO, though honestly I don't remember because we've had a continuous Gold membership since we got ours. Gold membership is required for online play. They are both $60 per year (or more expensive in terms of a per-month rate if you choose a shorter membership option). And when you first sign up, you do not get instant access to 20 games, many of which are classics. Instead, you get access to 2-4 games (mostly old, often crappy, and now very cheap), and you can build up a bit of a library with that over time, if you keep paying long enough to do so.

People ranting about how this is such a "bad deal" don't seem to have any idea what the competition has been offering at triple the prices. C'est la vie.

@Joeynator3000 ...hahahahahahahaha good one

This makes sense for outdated games like NES games, at least they're not— yet again selling you 'SMB3' and 'Donkey Kong Jr. Math' for the same price. Wouldn't like seeing this with SNES or higher though.

I'm a bit disappointed all around, remember when Nintendo was selling ya DS and Wii games on the eShop? Those were the times.
And they never got to Sonic Rush! Or, uh, Hotel Dusk! I'd love to play that one on the big screen.

Good, but lackluster non the less. I'm glad about the cloud saves, but I don't play games online so the retro games are the only thing that really interest me.

"Ten more unannounced games will also be available at launch, and more will then be added on a regular basis."

Regular like on the Wii? One or two games a week? Titles that (for the most part) nobody really wants to play? I'm gonna wait and see what happens but the idea of building my own Retropie console looks more and more appealing.

So not all games will require this for online play? Good, only things I play online are Doom and Street Fighter II anyway...
But you know, the Nintendo community is so small in Bulgaria we basically know each other, so I might as well just gather some of my buddies and split the money to pay for a "family membership".

@AlienX I'm relatively certain more is in the works in terms of VC, but you bring up an interesting point. I have played portable games on bigger screens with the SNES and GC Gameboy player attachments and those were relatively okay, but the graphics were pretty simple. But they must have to do a lot of work to make a DS port palatable, both due to the dual screen adjustments and sheer graphical issues. Don't get me wrong. I love so many DS games, and I don't get easily hung up on graphics. I do a lot of retro gaming. But I can't imagine playing very many DS (or even 3DS games) on a big screen. Don't they look like $#!+?

Well, sounds good to me.
I will consider it once it launched.

This is painful for me. I hardly play online at all, but I do enjoy a few matches of splatoon every now and then. The NES games hold no interest for me, because I have an NES. Basically, this is going to be £18 a year for a few splatoon matches every now and then. I’m really not seeing the value in that.

Ooh voice chat on old NES games. Spoiling us.

Oh crap, please don't tell me that they're going to limit the whole Virtual Console to the online subscription.

Well I guess I’ll have to get it if I want to keep playing Arms and Splatoon online, also yay for cloud saves!!

I guess this means that I will need a family membership to use two Nintendo Accounts on the same Switch making the service 44.99CAD per year. Not too bad, I suppose. It could always be better, of course.

I wonder what other NES titles they'll have. I see that "It will also be possible to play these games offline." That's good. At least that's what is stated on the Nintendo of Canada site.

The Nintendo of America site seems to suggest that some games may have online functionality without this service. Maybe that will be the case for Rocket League or Minecraft or Stardew Valley (when online starts), for example.

Sign me up for three years. Same price as I was paying for psn, but two more years. Cloud saves shouldn't be tied to this, I think that's scummy. Stoked for the games tho.

About a month after Nintendo effectively pulled the plug on Wii download purchases, no mention of permanent VC purchases concerns me. Subscription use sounds great now, but how about in 12 years or so when the service ends? There needs to be a purchase option for VC titles.

I dunno. I'm very much on the fence about paying for stuff my other platform (PC) is offering for free. It's not like I'm not already paying for the internet access in the first place.

Not to mention apparently it does not include my region.

@RunninBlue the competitors have a ton of games and free games monthly. My PS4 library is huge.

On the Switch I will pay $20 a year just to play splatoon and Smash Bros when it comes out. Switch has no games.

Off-console server saves! (I loathe the word “cloud”.)

@BornInNorway81 Who are you, Sephiroth?

Voice will be discord, as it should be, nes games don't do much for me but hey, cute, and the cloud save thing is awesome.

I like the mention of live viewing of friends. In combination with discord it can be hilarious and a good time even if you're apart.

More online multiplayer is a welcome bonus. I hope gamecube games will show up at some point, I'd really like to play fzero gx on my switch

I very much appreciate the family plan. With 6 Switch in the house - and everyone playing Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart - this could have got very expensive.

Subscription use sounds great now, but how about in 12 years or so when the service ends?

Then you will just have to play those NES games on whatever Sony or Microsoft console Nintendo is producing games for in 2030.

@Geeks4Life
Because online is free om PS4 and Xbox ome?...

A mixed bag in my book.
The price is absolutely fine, especially considering the family plan.
The NES titles are...as someone already said, "cute". At this point, it's a gimmick rather than a selling point.
Cloud Saves however are awesome, but i feel they should be available to everyone to some extend.
At least the Switch offers a much better save game management than, say, the Vita did, which also locked Cloud storage behind a paywall.

But overall, for this price, there isn't much to complain about really.

No Virtual console no buy.....I will stick to playing with games that don't require online service single player ones cause Nintendo are money hungry bootyholes now to be honest.

Just NES games? No N64, Snes, GBA, DS, or the like? And we can't keep the older games unless we subscribe to this? Not sure what to feel.

Not that interested in NES games on the Switch, don't need my backlog to keep increasing and I already have them on my NES Mini, but it's a nice feature, I guess. As long as they don't keep rotating the games and you have access to a game only for 3 months, for instance, and after that time it gets deleted and if you haven't had the time you lost your chance.

The price is reasonable enough, anyone complaining about it should check the price of the competition's online. The same goes with when Nintendo embraced the paid DLC: isn't it true that other companies did it before?

@Agramonte yes you do

FREE access to retrogames??? FREE access???? You have to pay a subscription! What the **** is free if you have to pay a subscription??? I would have been more than happy to buy again retrogames I like and bought on Wii and 3DS, but I have no interest at all in a service that stream ggames as long as I pay a subscription. I want to buy the things I like, if I can't buy them then I don't accept anything else. Also the fact that the saves backup function is behind the paywall is unacceptable, they are trying to STEAL online multiplayer services money from the customers like myself that are not interested in online multiplayer.
I love Switch and I love Nintendo games so I'm still happy that I own a Switch and I will continue to support the games that I like and the console but I will never pay this subscription and in this case Nintendo is behaving just like a thief, this is DISGUSTING.
I really wish all the best to Switch as a console but I wish exactly the opposite to this disgusting subscription that they are trying to force even on those people who are legitimately not interested.

go to hell nintendo; like sony and crosoft. I already payed my game, I will not pay again for play with them.

now, online games means PC games

People are insane, really. Xbox One and PS4 "give" games AS LONG AS WE ARE SUBSCRIBED, and for 60 bucks a year. No one is complaining about that.

20 for just the multiplayer online feature would be way cheaper than we are charged for in other platforms. But hey, Nintendo is stealing from us.

$20? For a year? That's nothing. Plus free games. I never got the NES mini so this is great for me.

20 quid? For the year? For backups!? Yeah I'm sold. Hopefully the VC came fast and are not drip fed.

Not bad, probably at the price point for me to subscribe though not sure how much I will use the service. To be honest, I just want cloud saves because I live in constant fear of losing my BOTW save file.

OK, constant fear may be overegging it but mild trepidation when I think about it.

Funny, PC games make do without a subscription (unless you get scammed into paying for a MMO).

This online multiplayer supports needs more detail. Because if I could play the original Zelda together online, that’s sounds pretty amazing to me!

@Moroboshi876 I can have all the saves backups I want on PS4 without paying anything for them, except the USB device to copy them to. And I can keep those saves backups forever, Nintendo could always cancel old games data when they will move on to the next system. They give me no guarantee about that. But anyway if the only thing that I'm interested in is having my Skyrim character backups stored for the rest of my life why should I pay anything for it since there could be a way to have them really for free? Nintendo is tryng to force this service to people that dislike multiplayer but care about keeping a backup of their saves and this is stealing. They are asking to people like me to pay for something we just dislike (online multiplayer) to have something that we should have for free (saves backups). They are trying to turn their retrogames into a "game as service" format while previously they were simply available for purchase. This is disgusting.

I don't pay any subscription on PS4. I can have all the things I'm interested in except online multiplayer, and I'm absolutely NOT interested in online multiplayer. A game can be discounted for subscribers and not for me, but if I really want it I can still buy it. I cannot use their servers to store my backups but I can use anything else. This is why is perfectly fine what Sony does. They lock behind the paywall only things that actually have something to do with the subscription. I'm not interested, I don't pay it, but everything else is still available to me.

It is not bad. Their rollout of games are classics, but let us not kid ourselves. There is not going to be 3rd party releases for this service. Sega ages are coming, NeoGeo is already here. Capcom released a Megaman collection. We all know that this is the case.

I’m not that interested in the VC service, but $20 is nice enough for cloud saves and online play.

Yes, many seem to forget that the price is primarily for online gameplay, which is still free now. Anything else is basically a bonus.

Family package seems good tho I’m really only getting it for cloud saves which should of come from the start. Nothing intersting here

What get's me is that even on only 1 Switch you can't play online on multiple accounts unless you join up for the family plan.

Then the Cloud Saves are just ok, but Nintendo Still need to have a way for people to backup there game saves to either micro sd or external hdd that are not going to subscribe to the online service. Sony and Microsoft let you backup to usb, also xbox one cloud saves are free.

The $20 isn't bad for online play and the free vc games, but hopefully Nintendo actually has where you can Purchase VC games on the Switch to actually keep. Also if they do hopefully they will not be over priced just because they add so online play in a few VC Games.

Kind of shows that Nintendo is still way behind on the times.

One thing I really dislike is the age limit on the voice app. At 13 it’s too high. What if my 10 year old wants to play with his friends and chat. Yeah I can set up Skype or discord but that’s not the point. It’s archaic.

It doesn't cost much, but you get what you pay for, I suppose.

@Banjos_Backpack There was a time many years ago when you would have said the same thing if I were to suggest that Sega would stop making consoles and would make games for others instead.

I will commit to paying €19.99/$19.99 when it launches but I am sure this will go up in price within the next coming years. They did listen on cloud data so that is good news since it is highly requested. Not really interested in the NES games but it'll be joyful those who want to be play online against other players.

@LuckyLand I'm not much of a multiplayer loving person either, and I'm really not interested in cloud saves, but I still think people complain too much.

It sucks, but online gaming (multiplayer or not) is trend, paying for it is trend, subscription services such as Netflix are trend and digital games are trend. I wasn't going to accept any of that, yet I've accepted them at last. And I'm an old school gamer and prefer physical releases and all, but things are like this nowadays and Nintendo is just following the trend. And cheaper than the competition. That's far from disgusting. You have the right to not like it, of course. And until now you didn't have the opportunity to save your data on the cloud, no one is forcing you actually.

I for one won't be using that feature, save data is peanut in terms of space required in Switch's internal memory.

@Elvie Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Sony up PS+ to $50?

Anyway, this sounds great to me. I'll be buying one of those 12-month family subs and giving away 7 spots to people I know or randoms. Cloud saves are a blessing, and I don't play NES games so those don't really matter. Virtual console was never something I cared for.

I don't think $20 is bad for an online service if its good. I just don't know why it has taken so long to offer people what they can already do. I can already play online multiplayer on old systems such as the NES and have Achievements and Online High Score tables on those games also.
I like the idea of a Netflix style gaming service, heck I was a massive supporter of onlive when it came out, I suppose I'm just disappointed in the offering of ten games that through the retro gaming community already has the online features that Nintendo are offering up.

I want to know what those special offers will be

@Geeks4Life ps4 requires ps plus for cloud saving

@Blizzia Sony's Playstation+ is $60 a year so is Microsofts Xbox Live, but most of the time you can get either of them on sale for as low as $34.99 a year.

@Moroboshi876 I am playing Skyrim on PS4 instead than Switch even if it runs much worse on PS4 only because on PS4 I can keep my saves backups while on Switch I can't.
I wanted to have Skyrim on Switch and I am really happy to have it but at the same time is almost useless because I don't want to play it on a version where I cannot keep my backups. I don't even play the main quest, I just play it like a "life simulator with fantasy setting" so for me saves backups are very important. I will never get to the end of that game, I will play it forever (or at least until something better - Oblivion remake - will be available), I feel the need to have full control on my saves data backups

Anyway, they are trying to lock behind a paywall things that don't belong to this paywall at all. And doing so they are trying to force people that are not interested in online multiplayer to pay this subscription too. This is not honest at all. It is disrespectful towards us imho.

@gatorboi352 why are you here?

Why complain? 20$ nothing for a year, if that to much for some to pay, then you better ask your parents to pay it. Cloud saves, VC-games and a decent online service is certainly worth it.

Even bigger news tropical freeze is number two in uk chart!😱❤️

What if I have only 2 accounts, one for me one for my wife, should we get individual or family prices?? Or should we share 1 account in the future to save money? (Some games supports 1 account for multiple save files)

@mowerdude Well, seems like those good deals ain't available at the moment. Cheapest I found was like 56$ at G2A. And in the rest of the world they rarely go for less then like 50$. So like 20$ as a recommended retailer price sounds nice.

Slightly disappointed it's going to be $35 to include my kids' very occasional use, but better that $20*4 I suppose.

@LuckyLand I understand, but can't you save your Skyrim game on Switch? I can load mine, I don't get what you're trying to say here.

This is a worrying caveat though:

"Save Data Cloud
Securely back up your console’s save data to the cloud.

Please note: not compatible with all software."

Nintendo fans are delusional.

PlayStation Plus is more expensive but an amazing service. You got tons of online games, free to play games, sales with retail games for ($5-$10) and free games every month, including 2 Switch games(Rime, Rayman) the last few months that would've cost more than PS+. Plus the ecosystem is way more engaging, with trophies and video streaming.

On the Switch you pay to play the maybe two online games you own, get crappy 10% off discount on games that are cheaper in regular stores and get crappy nes games. Wooohooo Dr Mario and Balloon kid.

This is the worst service ever. Just embarrassing.

@shaneoh That's because PC gamers are not tied to a single "shop" for their games, Steam's dominant position notwithstanding. If one could buy games for PS4 or Switch outside of Sony or Nintendo, without their license tax, it would look very different.

Steam came into being after online multiplayer has been "free" for years already and they offered cloud saves as their selling point (I remember a lot of people being angry about having to be always online to play a single player game back in 2004). Nowadays you can't really get away without a connection to Steam unless you're Blizzard or EA (GoG is an oddity and has their own Galaxy client too; but then their focus has always been retro games from before Steam). Even Microsoft is struggling to get people into their store. If they required Xbox Live to play multiplayer on PC...

@BigKing how dare you.....it’s balloon fight. Balloon kid is the game boy sequel. Hang your head in shame

So $20 roughly means it will be £17, which is £1.40 a month. So for less than a decent large size chocolate bar there isn't much too complain about.

For me though, there is only a handful of NES games I would consider playing these days, and with an SNES Mini, I doubt there there will be many SNES games I would play either, when they eventually turn up.

So yeah, it's cheap, but could be fairly limited for some people. So I would to see some extras, like discounts for eShop purchases or physical discounts on the nintendo.co.uk store.

@JaxxDuffer I wouldn’t count on that exchange rate mate. Knowing Nintendo they will call it 20 pounds over here

@JaxxDuffer $20 is a lot for some NES roms that you could play in your browser but don't want to because they're boring.

The wait for this announcement was definitely not worth it.

@mowerdude Alright, thanks for the correction Discounts are discounts though, sure you can technically get it sometimes, but I'd always go by the non-discounted price when it comes to what you get and what you pay.

Sounds like a good start to me, though I expect we'll see extra value added as time goes on. So far online play has been plenty reliable so chuck in some classic games and cloud saves and that's all good for me. Cheap enough for me to keep going alongside PS Plus, too.

As for the cloud-storage: I hope this doesn't mean "keeping your save-files on a micro-sd" isn't coming. I am against cloud-storage, since all your files are lost if the service (or the company) ends.

Probably go with this just for the cloud saves; less than £2 a month. Plus I suspect the Classic titles will hopefully expand over time.

Now , these are some very good news! I'm suprised that it's looking so well.

@Mr_Pepperami @JaxxDuffer it's £17.99. All the details are on the UK site.

@BigKing Your reasoning doesn't make sense at all.
You said it yourself, and I quote: "PlayStation Plus is more expensive"
There you have it. Of course PS+ is a better deal, it costs almost thrice the price of Switch Online. I'm not saying that the service is perfect, but for $20 per year it is a very reasonably priced service.
Calling people delusional when you give contradictory reasons doesn't make you look good in the least.

I hope they bring the NES versions of Castlevania and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles to VC.

@gatorboi352
Why are you here to boast your xbox machine ?

I didn't see them adding all those NES games permanently to the service - Last thing I read was it was a couple a month and then they vanished - more than happy with that a starting batch and them adding more - at £20 a year its a no brainer for me.

So from some of the comments on here I see a few along the lines of:
£20 is too expensive, NES games yuck, it's useless for me.
When the Switch breaks it will be "Oh I lost all my saved data, woe is me. If only could have backed them up to the cloud".....oh wait.

What I'm not sure on, & apologies in advance if this has been covered above & I scrolled passed it, is whether 1 subscription will cover 1 user or 1 system - in my case I have 1 Switch but two users. Does this mean I would have to buy the family subscription for it to work?

And just like I said before, the safety of your saves will now be paywalled, while other consoles offer local backup options.

Massive disappointment, but I guess the Nintendo Fanatics are happy?

@Einherjar You mean the Vita save management that let you backup all your psx/psp saves alone and psv saves together with the game to any PC, ps3 or ps4 you connected it to? Yeah, I can totally see how that's worse than Switch's complete lack of backup options.

Cya
Raziel-chan

it's only $20..so who cares..

but cloud saves should be free just like xbox live cloud saves are free (a fact that is commonly misstated. people always say that you need gold to get xbox live cloud saves which is not true)

@Elvie when have you last checked PS+ prices? it's been $60 for a long time lol

@Captain_Gonru you actually get to keep all xbox 360 games forever.

@sikthvash It seems it's tied to the account, not hardware.
Now I don't know about multiple Switch accounts that aren't tied to a Nintendo account. When I bought my Switch used as soon as I made a Nintendo account I couldn't play the games previous owner had and had to rebuy stuff like Snipperclips. But after I've made a few accounts for my family members (mostly as a joke) without creating Nintendo accounts for them they had no problem accessing my games and making new save files for things like Zelda and such without erasing my progress.

I don't use the cloud at all. Simply transfer your sd card into a PC and copy your data, put your sd card back into the switch and you are good to go. Heck with that setup you could transfer vc games from the 3ds to the switch!

I was really expecting them to keep basic online play free, but then charge for retro game access, cloud saves, and other services.

This is all a somewhat underwhelming prospect.

@Razzy
If you read the comments here, I'm not sure you can find very many happy Nintendo fanatics.

The only thing I can see as an upside is that for me personally, online play never mattered, so now those that care for it can pay for it themselves, but that is a rather egotistical point to raise.

@GameOtaku um, copying the SD card doesn't touch your save games at all. save games are stored internally and copying the SD card only copies downloaded game data.

@Pod Yeah, the prospect of having random online Mario Kart races with friends or 90% of Splatoon content locked behind an additional paywall is not a happy one. I think they would be much more willing to pay once for something like Guns of Icarus or Vermintide and just pick up and play when we all have time.
Heck, a lot of online games are free from the get-go: League of Legends, World of Tanks, Fortnite Battle Royale, Team Fortress 2...

@Pod Dunno, I've seen quite a few touting it as the greatest deal ever.

The problem is that the only way to backup your saves on this portable and thus much more at risk of being damaged or lost console is going to be paywalled behind the same fee.

@Hyrule More like "if only I could have backed them up locally for free like all the current consoles and Sony's portable consoles from the very first on'.

Cya
Raziel-chan

@Moroboshi876 on PS4, and on PC too of course, you can copy your save files anywhere to have backups. I can save my game on Switch but I always play with the constant fear that some problem could make me lose the data. With PS4 (I don'tlike to play on computers that's why I use the PS4 even if the port sucks) I make a copy of my files everytime I achieve something important for me (for example building a home or improving my character stats)

@manu0

• If a microSD card is inserted, the save location will default to the microSD card when downloading or redownloading software.

From the Nintendo website.

@maruse I don't have a problem paying for a great service. I have a problem paying for a crappy service. It doesn't matter how cheap it is. How does that not make sense to you? Even when PS+ is three times more expensive, it still offers way more value. I got a 103 games/apps/demos in my library and only own a PS4 for half a year.

I would have zero problems if it was more expensive but you got, let's say, Gamecube and Wii games every month instead of NES games. I would pay $60 a year if I could play No More Heroes and Killer 7 on the Switch. And even that is stretching it, considering that you get PS4 games on PS+

Online services are for the more hardcore gamers out there.

@GameOtaku yes. emphasis on "when downloading [...] SOFTWARE". your save games are always stored internally ONLY no matter if you have an sd card inserted or not.

@LuckyLand I see. Well, let's hope nothing bad happens to our Switches then. They say, though, that if you send it to customer service in case it needs repair, they can save your data on a cloud of theirs and transfer it again on your new or repaired console.

That's now, of course. We don't know if it's going to be this way still in 25 years.

@LuckyLand what port? most ports these days are from console TO PC and often times those PC ports suck lol

@manu0
A simple "send data to sd card" option would help.

NETFLIX????

@SmaggTheSmug
You are very right.
Even on the handheld devices that Nintendo are effectively going to be measured up against, online games are free.

Downloading Fortnite or Vainglory and playing online to your heart's content costs NOTHING on an iPad.

@manu0 Depends on who's doing it, but often PCs offer a great upgrade over the console version, unlocked framerate being just the start.

We still get stinkers like Arkham Knight or original Dark Souls, but ever since Steam put in a working refund system developers have been more careful. Generally in-studio or QLOC ports tend to be great while Iron Galaxy ones are awful.

Also for some games mouse + keyboard setup is just superior (like all FPS games) and for others nothing stops you from plugging an XBO or PS4 (and now apparently even a Switch Pro) controller to your PC.

Then there's the whole modding scene for stuff like Bethesda games. That alone makes both PS4 and Switch version of Skyrim a worse deal than PC.

And it don't cost a dime to play online.

Wondering what portion of the online userbase of games likes Splatoon or Mario Kart 8 is going to get nuked after this goes live. The less popular games are going to become ghost towns.

I thought for sure they would have improved the service to delay it a year, but it seems the only thing they were doing was building an online userbase to put behind a paywall. Launching it with Smash Bros was obviously a move to bring in more money, and that's basically it for the service.

I'm really not sure what they are thinking with this - they could have at least put together some SNES and N64 games on the service.

I guess we'll see how the userbase online moves with the paywall.

@Razzy
I'm slightly upset that the Switch cartridges don't themselves house rewritable memory for game saves (and potentially patches) in the first place.

Except for size and power consumption, most of the oldtime advantages to cartridges have been done away with on Switch, leaving us still with all of the drawbacks.

And you are of course right that the system ought to feature save game backup using the SD card port, though Nintendo are likely very aware that this feature is what ultimately made piracy quite easy on their three previous systems.

I am thrilled. But to be honest, I'm more excited about the prospect of playing the original Zelda on my Switch than anything else.

@SmaggTheSmug
That's the thing, Nintendo does have the store. They'd get money from every sale, I imagine they'd also charge for the initial listing of the game on their eshop. The money they make there would more than cover the cost of servers, especially as Splatoon and Mario Kart seem to be P2P. But then it isn't about the cost of servers.

Cloud saving for "most" Switch games (from the press release) sounds a little worrying. Which ones are not supported and why?

Also, these "special offers", they aren't like the MyNintendo offers are they? Some of the discounts applied to Switch games would be good, I concede, but where are the details?

I want to be pleased and £18 doesn't break the bank, but this hasn't elucidated much.

@BigKing It is not crappy, it is offering services tailored to that $20 price range. No more and no less. And anyway, I believe nobody forces you to subscribe, so...

@MarcelRguez
Indie developers on the eShop that struggled to get their games functioning online might take a hard hit.

Their audience are likely specialty gamers that don't spend all their time on Mario Kart or Splatoon, and just enjoy the occasional online bout for the novelty. If they don't decide to pay for the service, this will stop happening. I know I am myself in that category.

@maruse 'Nobody's forcing you...'

They try to. If I want to keep playing Splatoon 2 I need to pay for a crappy service.

And of course it's crappy. You think Playstation/Xbox/Steam consumers would want to trade their service for the Nintendo one? I don't think so. You know why? Because it's crap.

@Sakura
I'm thinking it means Nintendo will leave it up to the individual developer to add cloud save support, and won't demand that they do. Sort of like the video capture feature.

If their other policies are anything to go by, they might even ask devs to provide server space for players' save files themselves if they want the feature in their product. It'd be very like them.

Will be interesting to see how this affects the population of MK8 and Splatoon 2 when this thing launches, because it's so barebones right now and still needing to use that horrid app for voice comms is terrible. And cloud saves won't work for all games, so that's a worry.

I pay £40 a year for PS Plus and feel it's a great deal, especially with those newer PS Plus games every month.

I would like to hope that existing multi-player online games will receive updates that incorporate better match making and voice chat...

@BigKing Ha! Just like Microsoft and Sony do, don't they?
Well, it seems that the only word you can use to back up your arguments is "crap" so, whatever. Who cares.

Pretty weak, but it’s also pretty cheap. So, eh. Whatever.

@Pod That does make sense, thanks. And it is an improvement over the old system where the saves are encrypted on SD card/drive and useless in the case of a format.

I'll subscribe anyway, but lack of details always feels like fudging.

The thing is, Nintendo have been totally upfront about this. Paid online was literally the first thing they announced about the Switch. The price was announced about a year ago. Every online game says a subscription will be necessary on the box. Anyone not willing to pay for online shouldn't have bought online games.

@maruse You compare this service to Playstation Plus? AAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ok bro.

@chardir Why? You can pay to play the games and still think the service is crap.

found full details on another site. Games are playable offline.

@BigKing I'm not comparing anything. You said that Nintendo is forcing you to pay for the online to play Splatoon, and I said that Sony (and Microsoft) do the exact same thing: they force you to play online games. Am I wrong?
Jesus, arguing with you is like trying to argue with a wall. Not that I'm trying to convince you or anything, but your only argument is "is crap because I say so".
I'm done with this back and forth. It's not worth wasting time on it.

@chardir thanks. Great to hear they didn’t up it

I am actually pretty happy about the family plan. I have 3 boys. We currently own two switches in the house (1 for me, 1 for them), so I'll save a lot of money with this.

@gatorboi352 I'm not really sure you have an XBOX, otherwise you'd know it's 4 games a month since 3 years ago. If you can't afford $1.67 a month I can chip in but you'd have to stop trolling

@LunarLunatone I don't have a Switch yet, too. I'll buy one after E3. Maybe Nintendo will announce a new hardware bundle. And the cloud saving is a very good news. I hope it gets better from this point onward.

@maruse You're totally missing the point.

You keep repeating 'BUT MIGROSOFPT AND SONEEY DO THE SAME'.

No they don't. They offer a great service with a ton of content for systems with a ton of online games. You get hundreds of dollars worth of games every year that are actually worth playing. You have hundreds of online multiplayer games.

On the Switch you have a hundful of games and they give you nothing, besides old NES roms.

But never mind, you will still miss the point.

BECAUSE SONY AND MICROSOFFFF

@Sakura
Indeed. Nintendo are the fudgemasters if anyone are.

@BigKing If you don't want to pay for Nintendo's "crappy" onlinr service (an unfair assumption, since it's not in effect yet), then you would need to stop playing Splatoon 2 online. Simple as that.

@Jasspur Totally agree with you. I will sign up to the online service only if we can download the games to an SD card. What's the point of having all these cool classic games if you can only play them when you have Wi-Fi connection? Kind of defeats the point of a portable console...

@BigKing Nintendo has to start somewhere. Maybe later on, they will also give away free games.

@Mr_Pepperami @JaxxDuffer

@Razzy One annoyance was, that you couldn't delete games without deleting their save files as well, since both where handles as one, encrypted data block.
There was no quick way for non PS+ users to swap games, which was necessary constantly, since the Vitas memory cards were both extremely small compared to the game sizes AND laughingly expensive...
That means that if you wanted to swap a game, you needed internet access and physical access to another PS System or a PC.

Plus, data transfer times were severely lacking, making the backup process a chore. Most of these problems could have been avoided if save files would have been encrypted and stored separately.

The same old NES games, fingers crossed more systems get included in this sooner rather than later.

I know psplus is twice the price but it’s pretty reasonable considering what you get; I’m currently playing Rayman Legends, which I only played a little on wiiu, and beyond: two souls, which seems kind of okay so far. Last month I got Mad Max, Bloodborne the month before. The contrast is pretty stark.

I see @BigKing has just made the same point above. 👍🏻

@cowntsikin Yeah, instead of offering a great service it's better that customers just stop buying and playing online games. Great solution, you should apply for a job at Nintendo.

@luke88

Yeah, I'd much rather a service where we get 2-3 Switch games a month (even if 1-2 are eshop games) and 1-2 3DS games a month at twice the price. As it is I'm struggling to find the value. I have the NES games multiple times so they aren't a draw. The only Switch game I use online with is Mario Kart so $20/year for 1 games seems a bit much.

How is it too much ? buy annually and its less than 2$ a month. feels like a fair price to me tbh. Compare to PS4 and XBox One with like 40$ is relatively high imo. I don't like paying for this either but if it means higher stability on the servers I will gladly pay and the NES games are relieving the pain imo.

Terrible value. The most popular online game for PS4 and XBox owners (trolling on Nintendo fan sites) is completely FREE.

@iMarkU No! But the ability to transfer your savegames are in some form everywhere else...

Great! But it should be said it sounds like voice chat will still be current phone based madness. Womp womp

I'm glad we're finally getting cloud saves, they should have been available from the start. However, it's kinda mean to charge for something so expected and essential these days. There's more people than I can count who lost all their saves, and only now, a year and a half later, there's an answer provided but with a price attached. Mean.

As for the rest, yeah I'm disappointed like the rest of you, but we knew this day was coming. I'm just glad it isn't more than $20 a year. They better add a ton of other games, and keep them there. Not cycle them off like the Netflix model.

@MoonKnight7 Yeah maybe but also Playstation charges for cloud saves, and it's 3 times the price.

@Not_Soos
A tiered subscription phased in next year perhaps?

£31 is very reasonable IMO. I wont be signing up at launch though, I'll wait for a few months and see how the service progresses.

wow $20 a year to cloud save games. and some rubbish new games. mmmm my android tablet google charge me how much for cloud saves oh yeah sweet ffffffffffffffffff all. epic fail.

Knew this would be a good one!

Wow no improvement on the awful voice chat! And it's taken them 1.5 years to come up with this crap!

So you get the nintendo virtual console free if you sign up. Sounds good to me!.

@BezBot

True but let me clarify. I can still back up my save data to a device via USB on PS4. If I want to keep my save data safe on the Switch, I have to pay for cloud backups. There's no other way (other than using another Switch). I think that's a bit messed up.

2018 sure is putting nails in the coffin!
The game line up is so poor I've not bought a game since 2017!
No improvement on voice chat!
No VC!

At this stage the Wii and Wii u were in a better place!

@Geeks4Life
Yup aren't going to fight you on that. Even on the Wii U you could just store them on an external HDD. Was mostly talking about the online aspect though.

I wish Nintendo would give an external way for free as well, and make the cloud option optional just like I can use an USB stick for my computer, or pay for extra space in the cloud.

@cleveland124 I hear you. I’d even be pretty pleased with one SNES and one N64 game a month, or something like that. Considering Nintendo’s back catalogue, let alone deals they could strike with third parties for some of their older content, surely something half decent should be possible.

Eight Switches on the family plan is very generous. I doubt I'll ever see that many Switches in my life — though there was that one glorious moment at school when we had 8 Atari Lynxes all synced up with LynxCom cables to play "Todd's Adventures in Slime World", so you never know — but it's nice to know that I could have that many Switches all on the same plan.

Agreed. If there was a USB savedata option, I would not touch this online subscription at all.

@Koke

just get an emulator and the roms if you're so worried.

i don't understand the whole 'omg no VC' whining. nes games suck and they never did it right anyway. the pricing was silly (every game should've been .99$ imo), they only went up to the N64 (why no gba games?), and i guess GC games were just too hard to get running right and may never easily emulate on the switch either.

so yeah, just get the roms if it's so worrisome about 'owning' these old busted games.

I am happy with this. Fine with NES games, would like to see SMB2 to more the set.

There is no word they will expand to other systems but its likely.

Cloud saves is my biggest problem solved. My biggest worry about losing the console would be my save data, the units replaceable.

My only question would be why wait let's get this ball rolling now!

@Dayton311 Yes your right and there are going to be more after launch. I don't see why everyone is moaning its not like no one bought a nes mini or something lol.

18 quid for the year isn't anything to moan about. Yeah i'll do it

@Koke your switch is not lasting 12 years

There should really be an option to store saves on physical media like there was on Wii/Wii U so that those not interested in online multiplayer and NES games don't have to worry about them. Still, it's not a bad deal especially with the family discount

So here's my question re: cloud saves:

When something (a game bug or otherwise) corrupts your save file, and then that corrupt version gets synced to the cloud storage and overwrites your intact one, are you screwed?

This is one of the reasons I was more of a proponent of backing up to SD card, where you can control "when" and keep known-good older copies.

Wow, the family membership is a big surprise. My main account, alt account, and two accounts for other people can be included. What was to be $60/yr is now $35. That makes me happy! And cloud saves! Multiple consoles! Finally my Switch ecosystem works the way I dreamed it would last year. Oh happy day!

Meanwhile I get to pay $120/year to Sony for 2 accounts......

@Einherjar It's still leagues better than what the Switch has, though. And transfer speeds are just fine for me.

@gauthieryannick It's such a forward thinking console that half of its games are old ports, it uses friend codes and got rid of most modern functions other handheld devices have. And it employs the futuristic voice chat technology of not having any native voice chat and requiring a smartphone and a bundle of cables. And the forward thinking extends to expecting us to communicate telepathically, so it also eschews messaging.

Truly, we're not worthy of such a forward thinking gaming miracle.

Cya
Raziel-chan

@sremick Going by other platforms, it depends on the game. If a game supports multiple save slots (Dragon Quest: Builders for example) the good saves are still there. If it's just one save like Odyssey, yeah, you're out of luck if something like the Pokemon X/Y save bug happens again.

Could be worse. Ubisoft games like South Park are account-tied and if your save is corrupt even deleting the save won't let you proceed....

@Yorumi Well, there's the nVidia tax... And the wild west of "any level of quality goes" on PC. I still think it's unfair to contrast PC and console. You save expenses like $20/yr in this service (1/3 the price of a new game?) but add in some obscene hardware expenses and time troubleshooting expenses (the time spent may be worth more than this fee per HOUR...) It's its own thing with pros and cons but I don't think it's as black and white as "I save $20 (even $60) a year!" The Switch costs less than a video card. You for something either way. Is free better? Absolutely. But if it were as black and white in time and expense as the PC proponents love to claim consoles would have died in the 90's.

The family plan kind of says "look we're TRYING to make this thing close to free!" I do wonder how much pressure EA/Ubi etc put on them to charge something.

@NEStalgia I'm also very pleased with that family option as I had no expectation for it. That price is SO easy to jump on. Also... if this all works smoothly enough, I think we'll be much more likely to pick up another (third!) Switch in the future.

Still will need multiple copies of Splatoon or Mario Kart to play online together, though. I guess there's no way around that... how about a family version of Splatoon or Mario Kart?

You know I like it, and the NES stuff is just a nice perk too. The pricing is beyond fair at whatever tier. I know it's not popular around here, but good riddance to the virtual console. If a company wants to put out a game, let them do it on their own terms as Hamster/ACA does with a few entities. Let them collect and manage it. Nintendo clearly will do the same with their own stuff as they see fit. One less reason to feel compelled to buy the same game yet again after the Wii, WiiU and 3DS.

@Hen1roc No, you do not. That is only if you want online. Like I said "another option" - there should be a solution that is not behind a pay wall.

I honestly have nothing negative to say about this other than why it took so long.

Yétait temps!!!! Im happy by this news!

Yay Cloud saves! Any Messaging and voice chat news?

I bet SNES titles will be added to the service once the N64 Classic (or Gameboy Classic...whichever one Nintendo goes for first) is released.

More money in my pockets!

I'm happy. My family currently owns 3 systems and my brother and nephew each have a system as well. For us, the $35 a year split 5 ways is a steal! The classic games with online support, which I'm speculating will include leaderboards, is AWESOME! The voice chat in these games also points to the possibility of voice chat in all games going forward. Compared to the other two online services, I think it's fairly priced.....and none of the others have a family price!

Now Nintendo needs to sell games in family packages!!!!!

£32 for me and my 2 brothers, damn that’s a steal.

And if my mate finally gets that Switch he’s been considering it’s like £8 per person.

For me, this reads: $20/year to continue playing Mario Kart online... I'll have to think about it... those NES games don't add any value to me, I don't play any other games online at the moment... cloud saves is great, but should be free.

I don't drink over priced coffee.
I don't care for candies ( aka chocolate )
Losing my 100 + hrs games won't affect me.
PS I can use hard drive or USB stick to backup and save game and I don't even use them.
I don't care for classic retro game.
Don't play multiplayers ( my kid only play Splatoon once in a blue moon with strangers or some of my friends ) she can go without it.
$20 is not expensive to me.
And no amount of insult that ( "you" are poor ) or ( if "you" can't afford $20 for yearly sub = $1.67 monthly, I better off save it ) will get me to jump off the bridge with the rest.

I'll just wait and see what else Nintendo can offer to convince me to drop that $20 yearly.

Also... Will you get discounts on eshop games for taking out Switch online???

@gortsi maybe it is 4 games. but oh man, you totally outed me. definitely don't own an xbox one at all.

Something else people aren't even considering in here.... sure, it's $20 a year right now.

Let's see what Nintendo prices it at going forward as more "features" trickle out at a Nintendo like pace.

@holygeez03 this is actually the use case of a lot of switch owners. They only really use the online to play a game or three and that's it.

Those NES games won't have any value to the lot of you 2 or 3 months from now, stop kidding yourselves.

@Yorumi PC costs CAN balance out over long periods (or can not, your luck is not my luck, certainly.) OTOH, will that 2011 video card run MH:W as well as even a base PS4 or X1S? It sounds great on paper, but that still excludes the rest of the machine. The video card (yours is on the really oddly low side of cost) but lets be fair. Building a suitable gaming PC comes with the up-front cost of at least 2 console gens. Maybe over the span of a few gens it saves money or doesn't depending on usage and to an extent on luck. It's still pretty unfair to directly compare pricing on the two. Like or dislike paying for online, it's just not an apples to apples comparison. The results may be similar but the path is extremely different.

@gatorboi352 I mean it's not a maybe, it is 4 games. Maybe you have an XBOX but you don't pay for Live then? If not I get it, 60 bucks is steep compared to 20.

@sword_9mm
Some people like to legally own their games, or at least be given the option. It shouldn’t be necessary to have to resort to ROMs if customers are willing to pay for officially emulated games. I’m just saying there is a disconnect in their marketing if they don’t recognize this with Switch.

@ValhallaOutcast Who knows? I haven’t had a Nintendo console or handheld fail yet.

Wonder if Nintendo is going to try and remove the online play in Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon for Wii U when the paid online service comes out for the Switch, to try and force players to move over to the Switch versions for online play?

I own both Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, so when the paid online service comes out for the Switch, I would just go back to playing the Free online version for Wii U instead of having to pay $20 or $35 a year on the Switch for a few online matches of Mario Kart 8.

Who's up for some online multiplayer Legend of Zelda?!

Oh wait...

Lol, Nintendo needs to offer better games for their online feature to really sell it to people because, at this point, it's an afterthought, especially when unofficial emulators have been doing this for years.

Also, I'm going to need to know whether I can keep the games I get. This all-digital age is not without its glaring flaws.

@Rudy_Manchego Your profile pic is hilarious!

@Bondi_Surfer

ROFL!

@Yorumi

Congrats on that, you’re still one dirt cheap dude or gal. I’ll gladly pay $1.67 per month for this service and so will the vast majority of gamers.

Make sure you invest that $20 saved per year wisely!!! LOL!!’

@mowerdude

I sold MK8 on eBay for nearly $40 2 months after the Switch came out. You should’ve done that instead. I own a Wii U too but why stick to online games on that system when they are clearly going to be shut down?

Is $1.67 a month too expensive for you?

It costs me £36 a year to play my XBONE online.
It costs me £46 a year to play my PS4 online.
It's going to cost me £18 to play my NS online.
So, Nintendo will be 50% cheaper than other console makers.
Not interested in 'free' games from any of them - Nintendo is the cheapest for online gaming.
Should still be free to play online on any console though.

All that's missing is TMNT2: The Arcade, TMNT3: The Manhattan Project, and Turtles in Time and we're set.

I can go for

Twelve months: $19.99 / £17.99 / €19.99

but will see when it launches.

@sremick On my other systems, manual backups are an option. Is there a reason to think this would be different?

@kirbygirl Yes, because on other systems you can also back up to USB/SD while on the Switch you won't be able to. We can't go by what other consoles do to give us confidence as to what Nintendo will do.

@sremick What's that have to do with the ability to manage cloud saves?

@Yorumi True. I was long against the PSN/XBL prices, however, with PSN I've actually saved more than the sub cost on the members sales this year now that I started buying some digital....plus building a nice collection of games on the sub. IF you're going to use the free games (for many years I didn't/couldn't so it would have been a waste) it can pay off to a degree. If you're just playing Battlefield all the time, it's a waste. If you like to play every game you can get your mitts on.....it can actually pay. I found a few jems I'd never have paid real money for. If you're not saving from the sales though, it doesn't work out well.

At least this year (we'll see if it changes) I notice that Steam sales aren't really better than PSN/XBL sales. Publishers have been setting the prices on all platforms I think.

So TL;DR software purchases do shift the equation again. Making it hard to compare. That 5 year plan assumes no required or unexpected upgrades/repairs on the PC. Over 10 years if you assume 1.5 PCs (which is really underthinking it) and 2 Playstations (two gens of slim models) with subs, the 2 PCs would be 1050 (at your 700 figure) and the playstation lifetime would be 1100. About par. But the PSN sub included over 250 games in that time frame.

Not apples to apples. The economics add up differently based on what you do. For the gamer that just wants to play competitive Battlefield or tons of indies, nothing will beat the PC on economics. For someone that buys the whole Ubisoft and Squeenix catalog annually.....even if deferred for discounts by a year or two....I'm not sure those economics work as well.

SO far not worth it. Sorry but wont join, i can only pay for 1 subscription (for my time available) and it's gonna be PS4

@kirbygirl You asked, "On my other systems, manual backups are an option. Is there a reason to think this would be different?"

And my point was, "We can't go by what other consoles do to give us confidence as to what Nintendo will do." and gave an example as proof.

@sremick That's not really evidence that they won't work similarly in terms of cloud storage. Plus, IIRC, you could manually backup save data to SD for some games on the 3DS, and you could backup save data to USB on the Wii U. At this point, I just don't see any reason to jump to a negative conclusion that manual backups won't be an option, other than a vague "Nintendo sometimes does things differently" argument.

@kirbygirl You're assuming that Nintendo's solution will work a certain way because that's how others do it. I'm guessing it won't because there's far more precedent in Nintendo's past behavior for them to NOT do things the way that others do it OR the way that we'd want. USB/SD backup (or lack thereof) was just one example. There are no shortage of others (Voice chat? Organizing games on the home screen? Bluetooth headsets? The list goes on and on.)

So not only is your stance of of others do it a certain way "evidence" either, but the ACTUAL evidence out there (precedent) points to the likelihood of you being wrong.

@sremick I just don't know why you'd jump to any conclusions about it at this point. You don't know and neither do I. But I've never encountered any system, Nintendo or otherwise, with a backup save option in which manually managing that data was not an option.

@manu0 Okay,I made a mistake.I based that price off a faulty memory.

Honestly, it's a bit lame. I don't care about NES games, and my Switch isn't used for multiplayer unless people are in the same room.

That said, I'm signing up just for the cloud save feature. It's a shame we can't have a way to physically back them up so I could avoid the service altogether.

Hopefully the discounts are decent enough.

@Linker2A03 Thanks!

if you guys were true hardcore gamers you would want to pay twice as much for the service. just like me, because im hardcore.

@Yoshi87 It might help if we all try to make that a strong point to Nintendo. I'm sure they can see where this is an issue. I know Nintendo is observing their consumers. My thoughts are that they have this is special server software made for emulation and are claiming they can't do the same on the console, but there are a lot of hackers out that who have already managed to do so with the power of the Switch. There should be discounts for these remakes we already payed for once as well (since the main reason is really just a code change for the platform). For me, it's a panic area right now.

@UnknownReader
Yeah I was called stingy for choosing not to pay a subscription. LOL.

@Yoshi87 Exaclty, I think if we talk about this issue enough Nintendo may implement a fix. They're likely using a server emulator with claims the Switch cannot emulate Wii U and etc; however, there are many hackers already achieving such things on much weaker hardware. Their solution needs to be built right into the Switch software; not remote play from a computer.

@Jasspur That's a really interesting point. I notice that Nintendo say that "it will also be possible to play these (classic) games offline". I really hope this means we can download them properly on the Switch and not just have them hosted through a server emulator like you suggest.

Arcade Archives and Sega are really on the ball with bringing classic games to the Switch, so I hope Nintendo gets this right.

@Agent721 No $1.67 isn't to expensive, but why should I pay that when I can just play the free version on Wii U instead. Plus I don't really play that much online either so it just seems like a waste of money even though it is only $1.67 a month.

The online multiplayer and voice chat for the classic games sounds great and all but some of these really don't need it. Zelda?! I just hope they pick and choose which titles have it in future or add it into games at a later date instead of spending the next 5 years trying to implement it on the entire back catalogue of games they had on VC. Just stop drip feeding them to us. Give us access as quick as possible then add the extra features down the line.

@607jf wow you won't pay £18 for this yet you'll pay much more money on upgrading your pc? I see the sense in that. 😏

Pretty shoddy to be quite honest, even at this low price. PS+ and XBLG offer more, and more importantly, the features are just more substantial. When I log at a friends Xbox one with my controller, my associated XBL profile gets log in, my latest (e.g.) Cuphead savegame inkl. my settings gets downloaded instantly, and I can proceed to play Cuphead in co-op at my friends place, where I had left off at home, without any effort on my part whatsoever. Obviously, there is also a steady stream of discounts in the digital store and a bunch of free games per munch, incl. games from the previous gen, which are all backwards compatible on Xbox One.

All Nintendo apparently has to offer here, is the most basic of basic packages, plus a bunch of ~30 year old games enhanced with online features. Cloudsaves should always have been there, and in my humble opinion, free to boot, as having back-ups and easy ways to transfer saves, seems to esp. important on a portable device.

I didn't expect much of thus, but seeing as we are not getting anything besides Nintendo laying the groundwork for a someday-maybe solid online offering, this is kinda meh. Adding to that the fact, that we won't see any VC any time soon (insanity Oo), this turns into a proper disappoint, even more so once you consider that this was basically delayed a year for ... well, for what exactly? I dunno, maybe they needed time to figure out how to do cloud-saving? Just kidding ... but yeah, I have no idea, what took them so long to get this super basic package on the way.

Glad to see that it's a lot more positive, here. People on /r/NintendoSwitch are up in arms with pitchforks and torches because they didn't hear everything they wanted. They feel the save backups should be free (understandable), but because they think that this is literally EVERY detail, they think that Nintendo will be doing nothing more than this.

It's obviously going to do more. Half the FAQ on their site is still unanswered.

£17.99 for a whole year?! christ, i pay £12.99 a MONTH for PSNow.

More than happy to pay.

This might sound stupid, but you’ll need this to play games like Splatoon and Smash online right?
If that’s the case, I’m definitely going to use this service. I don’t care about NES games though and cloud saves are nice, but I really don’t need it.
I already have PSN + and it’s pretty good, but it offers other, more interesting games.

@Joeynator3000

How cheap are you!? It's less than you'd spend on a trip to Nandos.

I’m confused wouldn’t nes games be considered virtual console? How do we know they won’t add GameCube and others to that list?

I want a GameCube and Nintendo 64 Mini if not a virtual console, please.

This new service seems decent but they need to offer more games and perks...

I know- I’m spoiled but not having access to old GameCube classics is an insult to its enduring legacy.

My feelings are as follows:
1) Price.
I feel the price, in relation to the benefits listed so far, is more than fair. A big question is game availability
2) Cloud Saves
I think it should be free with limitations. That being said having cloud saves is a needed feature and my hope is the cost adds features that make it seamless, bulletproof and system agnostic.
3) Games
I think here we have a huge opportunity to go big or really blow it. Nintendo needs to step up the quality and quantity of the available games and also go deep into the kind of original publishers.
4) Offers/Discounts
I am not going to lie. The Nintendo club, as it stands, is weak and a pale imitation of what is once was. I understand the digital push based on profitability but the "rewards" for non game items is terrible. In addition the reward system is more aligned with a frequent shopper discount card at a local retailer. In other words there is some incentive but not much.

One more thing I need to add and that is I feel Nintendo is really losing sight of the functionality of the Switch. Some of the features that the Wii and Wii U had would be perfect on the Switch and would not detract from the hybrid role it plays. They need better notifications using the dock LED, more menu options for customization and faster push on unique accessories. I realize that last one is something they are pursuing now but the options out there from third party vendors is not that great.

To summarize; the Switch is a great console and I love it just like I have with nearly every other console/system they have put out but it worries me that they appear to making some of the same mistakes they made with the Wii U by holding back too much.

Ok. Family pack is dead cheap. Potentially less than 5 euros a year if you can scrounge up the 'family members'. For that price they could do far less and still be a fair deal.