Topic: How would you improve the NSO Online service?

Other than lowering the price. I want to give the NSO passes more worthwhile content.

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• Guaranteed one new retro game minimum per week from either the standard pass or expansion pass supported consoles.

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EDIT: Updated for 2023

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STANDARD PASS

• Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear and TurboGrafx-16 consoles supported
• Some game dlc temporarily available to use for no additional cost
• Some eshop games temporarily available to use for no additional cost

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EXPANSION PASS

• Sega 32X, Sega CD and TurboGrafx CD consoles supported
• All NeoGeo games already on the Switch eShop available to play - individual releases would be removed from the home page and now found on an NSO style app. You would still be able to buy individual NeoGeo games to play without having an expansion pass
• exclusive SNES games such as Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy II (IV) and III (VI)
• More DLC available to use throughout subscription for no additional cost
• More eshop games available to use throughout subscription for no additional cost
• Demos for some games that currently do not have demos
• Longer demos for some games that currently do have demos
• Exclusive content for some games, not available as separate dlc
• Early access for some eshop games
• Increased sales for some eshop games

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DEBUT GAMES

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SEGA 32X

• Knuckles’ Chaotix
• Space Harrier
• Tempo
• Virtua Fighter
• Virtua Racing Deluxe

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SEGA CD

• Final Fight CD
• Silpheed
• Sonic CD
• Starblade
• The Ninja Warriors

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TURBOGRAFX-16

• Alien Crush
• Bomberman ‘93
• Bomberman ‘94
• Bonk’s Adventure
• Bonk’s Revenge
• Bonk 3
• Devil’s Crush
• Neutopia
• Neutopia II
• New Adventure Island

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TURBO CD

• Castlevania: Chi No Rondo
• Gate Of Thunder
• Super Air Zonk
• Lords Of Thunder
• Ys Book I & II

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THEMED MONTHS

Each month would have games from a particular franchise, console, genre or developer/publisher.

So for example

• Mario Month
• Sonic Month
• Mega Man Month
• Donkey Kong Month
• Street Fighter Month
• Bomberman Month
• Mystical Ninja Month
• Sega Month
• Game Boy Month
• RPG Month

Allow people to buy the games digitally. Maybe they could create a virtual storefront of some kind. Maybe call it a virtual console.

One game a week sounds like a pretty busy release schedule. For me, it's the lack of timetable, but I assume that is on purpose.

Additional and longer demos sound like a great idea!

How's Arms doing nowadays? They could make that part of the subscription?

Yes lower the already low price and add hundreds of other games for different consoles that require licensing fees makes sense. But seriously, the price is fairly reasonable especially with all the DLC they're jamming into NSO+. If you have a family plan and get every one to pay their share it's $8 a year vs paying $10 a pop per N64 game. The thing I would say is sure I'd love to see other consoles but literally have a road map for the releases and have more than one freaking game a month.

All that, but I'd add both arms and flip force for free.
and sadly I don't think Chrono Trigger will be added to NSO since it seems square's making a HD 2D remake.

REmixes for N64 games: The NES ones are cool so do it for N64

Lower the price: If Nintendo wants to compete with Gamepass or any other services lower the price.

I just want the option to buy the games I want, whether that's a la carte or via physical compilations.

I have little to no interest in NSO otherwise. The occasional 7 day trials are enough for me.

Honestly, I'm already getting the base service + Expansion for $10/yr. Hard to feel like I deserve even more for that price.

But, if it were to achieve perfection, I would just say add GB/GBC and GBA (which is already rumored) and add the ability to message friends on the system (or even message them through the online app- frankly I'd prefer that since typing on a phone is MUCH easier than via the on-screen Switch keyboard). The phone app isn't the problem- it's the lack of functionality within the phone app that's the problem.

So ya, basically just add friend messaging via the phone app. I feel like that's a reasonable request. I don't need voice chat because I can use Discord. But messaging friends to tell them my Discord number and send them an invite link, that's crucial.

Perhaps add in a offline library where you could purchase the retro games to play when you subscription runs out.

@Rambler Back in 2006, there used to be three or four Virtual Console games a week on Wii. And right now we have a guaranteed Arcade Archives release every week. It’s possible. I would even take a quantity over quality approach, because we would still get the same ratio of quality games we are currently getting only with more games people may or may not enjoy. Besides we just got three Genesis games and one N64 game recently, and I don’t think of that as being a busy release schedule.

@Bass_X0
Ah, didn't know that about the Wii VC - I never investigated it enough to notice

For AA that is just Hamster releasing games though, isn't it?

"Besides we just got three Genesis games and one N64 game recently, and I don’t think of that as being a busy release schedule."
It certainly isn't - what I was thinking of was the weekly deployment of a game to the NSO app, ensuring that it works for everyone, the differences with the Japanese version (yes, the majority of this would be automated, but there are still areas for problems)
Releasing four games on, say, the first of the month, each month would reduce that burden.
Releasing games to buy via the eShop would remove pretty much all problems that I can think of!

Quantity over quality would be the way forward for me as well - you get to play games that might just be a very rough diamond, instead of passing them over.

Regular NSO: Actually get real servers for your online games.
Expansion Pack: Spend more to get more people to work on emulating the games properly on Switch on day 1 and also to get more/more notable games. Give people discounts on NES/SNES/N64 3rd party games that are on Switch but not on NSO (unless you can somehow pay to get those games on NSO anyway).

Obviously add more systems to both as well.

Honestly I think they've been making the right moves over the last few months anyways so I don't have much to add. Just keep doing the kind of stuff they've been doing, more of that. I mean going down the list @Bass_X0 posted at the top, most of that's happening anyways or could be done in some other way

More systems on NSO? Yes, but I think we all know that's coming. Definitely the one thing they need to continue doing. More game trials and DLC? We can debate what tier but this is already happening. There are pretty frequent game trials and so far since the Expansion launched we've got one DLC for free every 3 months. But yes more of that. More eShop games? Again, we've been getting stuff like Tetris 99 but of course yes more of that. Sales and discounts? The voucher system exists so it is a thing already but again, yes, more of that

I think of those things listed the only thing Nintendo doesn't already do in one tier or another is lock some SNES titles behind the expansion. Which I'm not sure how that'd make it better, just release games like that outright yeah? Same with locking stuff out to be exclusive content in games to people with the sub. Which I'm not a huge fan of

Honestly...... I'd like more physical items on their store for NSO subscribers. Currently it's just controllers. I'd be kinda into exclusive My Nintendo Rewards. Like hey, you have a NSO+ Expansion sub here's this exclusive Amiibo you can get from our store or this Nintendo themed concert on Vinyl or whatever

To keep it simple, just make online multiplayer free as it was with Wii U, 3DS, Wii, and DS. Multiplayer is part of the game you already paid for, why should you have to pay to play it online with others? One of the reasons why I love online gaming on PC, online multiplayer is free.

Then I would rename NSO to Nintendo Classics Online, for $30/year, it would be a classic gaming service akin to Netflix, but for classic gaming. This way the fee goes into making the classic service get better games. I wouldn't limit it to service, but also make the classics purchasable. I like streaming services for movies, but I still will buy a movie on DVD if I like it. I don't see why it can't apply to games too.

Controls:

• Enable custom button mapping for all official controllers (standard or NSO) when playing NES+SNES+N64+GEN. Inexcusable that this is not currently available.
• Allow additional players on one console to play together against others online in N64 NSO Online (2 players on one console playing online against 1-2 players on another console. Again, ridiculous that this is not even a standard feature. Probably a dozen times where friends and I wanted to play 4 player online Mario Kart 64 battle or Mario Tennis doubles but couldn't because of the restrictions.
• Allow more than 1 N64 NSO controller to be used simultaneously when playing N64. Again, just an obnoxious restriction, especially since this restriction somehow affects offline play too.

Games:

• N64 DD games. Even if untranslated, this would really help set it apart from previous VC. F Zero X Expansion Kit has 2 brand new Nintendo-made cups, a track editor, ship editor, new songs, plus the ability to create cups from your custom tracks! The superior version of F-Zero X.
• Random matchmaking for multiplayer retro console games. Whether the feature is enabled individually in each game or more broadly in the NSO app, either would do honestly. Enthusiasts with astronomically less resources and capital than Nintendo have figured out how to add in matchmaking ages ago in the 2000s (netplay), and more recently, Slippi.

General:

• More transparency from Nintendo on releases/some type of roadmap.
• Stronger servers/netcode.
• Messaging friends in app. I'd be completely fine if it was restricted to friends only, just some type of messaging.
• This is more a trivial fun thing and not a priority, but it'd be cool to have a few new icons tied to completing NSO retro games (those that have staff credits and/or hard modes). For example, beating SMW gives you official key art icons of like Wiggler or Chargin Chuck; completing Panel De Pon's story mode on the highest difficulty unlocking rare key art of Lip.

Add GameCube and Wii games, give away older titles( relative to the switches life) such as botw, Mario odyssey, and others, like Sony and Microsoft do. And make another tier for 5-10 dollars for people who only buy the service to play online. Add all the dlc’s to make sure all customers benefit from them, not just the people who own select games. Finally stop drip feeding 20 year old games like they are new releases. Just release all of them at once. Possibly adding another tier at like 70$ that included select indie games as a bonus, like game pass.

@Wargoose I was approaching this from the perspective of how to entice more people to pay for the service and enjoy it, rather than pushing people away from paying for the service.

hey,

I know next to nothing when it comes to online business plans, but I AM aware that Nintendo did a lackluster job on enlightening its audience.

@Bass_X0 Microsoft allows you to do both with Gamepass, and it doesn't look like they're struggling with uptake.

they could do more with the leaderboards
they should have all the world leaderboards in a central area…. you go online and straight away theres a screen showing all your standings across all your games, showing how you stack up against everyone in the world. maybe they could put the latest tournament winners and profiles of a few leading people up there as well.
…make it more of a gaming community…. a bit like in ‘Ready Player One’ where everyone can see the leaderboard and see when a new name hits the top

@Wargoose
Maybe I am wrong but isn’t game pass an overall negative for Microsoft money wise. Can guarantee a price increase is coming soon.