Topic: How would you improve the NSO Online service?

@skywake
$100 a month for the cheapest service in the my area and it’s unreliable so I don’t even bother. I have a data plan I use on my phone but out in this rural area I have to stand at one spot very still to even send this. The Switch simply can’t grab on to my weak signal. I do go to where WiFi is in town over the weekends. However when I did try a sub for three months it would always want to check in when I’m at home even though I was connected earlier in the day. With losing the ability to play the games I wanted on nso every other week due to the check in required I may have had a month and a half I could actually play. Then let’s not get started with other life commitments like work and family which also cut into the time I could get to play them. So VC works out so much better for me and others. The main part of switch online is playing online. I don’t use that so just like I’m not anywhere near the ocean I’m not going to buy a sailing yacht switch online holds no value. Nintendo is going to make money even more so by adding an option to buy the games. Money from both subs and non subs with some crossover to boot.

@GameOtaku
To be brutally honest you are an extreme edge case. Also it doesn't need to phone in the next day it's just that it checks if the app is playable when you open it if you haven't opened it in a while. Not sure what that timeframe is, probably a month or something

But in any case, if you have a phone you have WiFi. Your problem is definitely resolvable. I don't think your scenario is Nintendo's issue or a reason to rage about their service

Edit: it's also kinda funny that you're here complaining to me, an Australian, about $100US/mo being expensive for internet......

@skywake
It checks every week to see if you have a subscription. Though I don’t know why Nintendo has it set that way. Last time my sub would’ve ended in the middle of the week so I thought since it already checked on Saturday it would let me play the nso games through till the next check in rolled around. It didn’t. It wanted to check again on the day it ended. A cell phone data plan in a rural area is crap just typing this I only have one bar and I have to save frequently and try repeatedly just to post like this.

Besides why tie an online sub to offline games? From what I’ve been told about the competitions offerings, mainly game pass, you can purchase the games on the service individually and not subscribe.

Seems reasonable to me. You can buy a subscription for a period as small as a week so it makes sense for the automated phone home to run on a weekly basis.

In terms of you trying to cheat the expiry? I'm not surprised you couldn't and frankly I'm happy that you can't cheat what being able to cheat it would say. As a developer I can tell you know if I was writing the check-in I would have it check as frequently as possible. Then save 7 days from now OR the date of expiry, whichever comes first. A date that would clear whenever you change the clock. If you ever try to play something that requires NSO and that date isn't after now? Force check again, refuse if you can't

But yeah, to my broader point, I don't think Nintendo should be blamed for or necessarily even cater to weak infrastructure. Especially when we're literally talking about downloadable content. If you want offline SNES/NES games buy one of those classic mini consoles

@skywake
Or now this could be a shocker they could let us buy individual games like we could before. Many on various threads have said they’d drop their subs but then they’d lose the games they had been enjoying. Being able to play the games you want without a sub would be a great compromise and Nintendo would be making money either way. We have an account system in place so redownloading vc or nso titles going forward should be easy.

We the consumers are to blame for how scummy these subs have become. We should’ve dug our heels in when they wouldn’t allow purchases to cross over. The best service for a while until recently was psn. Online was free with perks for plus members and the ability to redownload games you previously bought on past hardware at no extra cost.

I've been fairly neutral about this but expecting everyone to be beholden to Nintendo's online service always working for them, no matter who they are or where they live, if they want to play games old enough to be in college, that they'd still be willing to pay for on their own, is just bad across the board. At best, I think they're pointlessly leaving money on the table. At worst, I think its kind of a **** move.

Especially since Sega has already very much been like "why not both?" with Switch. I can say for myself, even as someone not nearly as obsessed with the concept of ownership for everything I like as some people seem to be, I still bought a few Gameboy games on 3DS a while ago. Despite assuming they will inevitably be on NSO, because I wanted to own them for reasons. And Nintendo made a few bucks off of that, that they wouldn't have had, if I could not download them.

@GameOtaku
They could do both but they don't. And there are definitely benefits to one model over the other, I say this as someone who has a vast collection of BluRays and CDs. But that doesn't change the fact that the subscription is cheaper than the VC was for anyone who has even a vague interest in it

And I think the same rule applies here as it does for music and movies. If you want to collect offline buy physical not iTunes. But realise we live in a Netflix/Spotify world now, and we live in that world because that world has it's own benefits/value

If internet service is crap in your area and it's an issue? Lobby your government, vote for someone else, move, look into solutions. Complaining on a fan forum about services that require it? Probably not getting you anywhere

@skywake
Cheaper doesn’t always relate to better. The value even as a online service is still poor overall. Sony and Microsoft just do it better. With the exception of online play your not locked out of anything by not subscribing. Their services are fair to the consumers. I just believe they’d have a much better service by having classic games on nso available to purchase for non subscribers. That way they are getting money they otherwise aren’t getting by having it exclusive to subs.

This thread is for discussing what would make the service better. You can’t deny how great it would be to have only the games you want at anytime you want regardless if you subscribe or not or even if you can’t get internet service. Had consumers dug their heels in in the first place we could’ve had a constantly growing vc service over 3 gens and crossbuy and free online play.

To me it does say a lack of confidence in their own service if they focused the announcement of the Expansion Pack with the N64 games, the one thing you can't buy on their own on Switch. The same way that regular NSO as an actual online service felt like something lacking confidence when they focused on it being the only way to play Nintendo's own NES/SNES games.

Because in both cases, it says to me that Nintendo is afraid NSO would underperform if they brought back VC, exactly as it was. (this would not be true of the regular service but I think would be a very valid concern for Expansion Pack) Either that or they didn't even consider that there would be enough of a market for people to buy these games instead.

Also like any related concept like this, hint hint nudge nudge at other ways to play these games that much cheaper than any of this, Nintendo should do the best job to get people to pay them to play their games instead of giving them reasons to actively want to not do that that are ultimately avoidable. Seems like the smartest business move to me, but if more people find other ways to play their own games because Nintendo didn't think everything all the way through, that's on them.

speaking of which, i would be very sad if the N64 classic Mischief Makers was never put on NSO, they should do that, hey Nintendo talk with Enix and/or Treasure, so I don't have to find the game online, kthx : 3

@GameOtaku
For the vast, vast majority of people their Switch has the ability to connect to the internet and phone home regularly. And for all of those people the requirement to phone home and confirm a valid subscription is not a significant hurdle. So for all of those people? Yes. It's purely a question of cost. Nothing more

And yes, this thread is how NSO could be better. Which is why I don't think the availability of cheap and stable internet in rural America is really part of this discussion. You know, given it's an online subscription. You might as well be on here saying Netflix is a poor value for people who have no internet. I mean, no ****, thanks captain obvious!

Throw in a free pack of beer, job done!

To make a bit more of a constructive post in here given I think I've been responsible in a fairly significant way in this derailing. I am not at all opposed to Nintendo selling things that I am not interested in so I would be fine with them selling classic games digitally piecemeal. But I don't think the VC was a golden age some people are painting it in hindsight

However something like that may be the best way to deliver Wii and Gamecube games on the eShop whether it's Switch or later. Because while as much as I'd like to see GC/Wii released like they're doing N64/SNES/NES/MD now there's a huge gap in terms of game size and the perceived value. I think Nintendo could get away with charging ~$25AU for GC/Wii titles, EASILY. They're not going to hand them out in a $60AU/year subscription. Trial + discounts for NSO at most. So bring on the VC model for GC/Wii, please

But beyond that I do think there's room to add stuff to NSO. Similar stuff to what I said in the first page of this thread. GB/GBA I think should happen and probably will happen. And I also think there should be more discounts/rewards/apps whether that be through NSO or My Nintendo. There should be more NSO games and I think it would be good to have a section in the eShop for NSO discounts that go over and above the regular sales

I also think there should be more My Nintendo Rewards as well as perks for subscribers. Back in the Club Nintendo days we had stuff similar to what exists on My Nintendo now mostly. But there was also stuff like game soundtracks and Club Nintendo exclusive games like the Game & Watch Collection. NSO gives us the ability to buy.... controllers. Which is nice, don't get me wrong. One of the things I most wanted back in Club Nintendo was the Club Nintendo "exclusive" SNES themed Classic Controller. But why not have NSO exclusive Amiibo? NSO exclusive merch?

I mean picture this. Exclusive to NSO subs, here's a multi-coloured Vinyl of music from the Metroid Prime Trilogy for $60AU on the My Nintendo Store. Then on the eShop if you are a NSO+ sub here's NES Remix 3 free to play or $20AU without NSO. And BTW, this week Kirby and the Forgotten Land is 50% off for NSO subs. Also Kirby's Epic Yarn is now on the eShop: $10AU this week for NSO subs, $20AU regular price. That's how you'd add value to NSO

@jump I'm not even gonna lie, I'd be all over that if the 6 pack had like 6 different labels with different Nintendo franchises on them.

@skywake I would love it if VC came back for Wii/GC, but Nintendo would need to do the work to port stuff. Maybe also add in a discount for expansion pass members? Even something like 20% off would work for me.

I swear sometimes they read my mind....

@skywake
The VC (on3ds)was a game changer for me. Being able to purchase classic games that I missed out on and just the ability the play the classics I knew by heart portably was a big deal. I could do similarly with my psp and vita but Nintendo had the classics. With my 3ds I could go to WiFi in town and for $20 I could get anywhere from 2-3 games on vc possibly more if on discount. I was hoping going forward, especially after the account system began, it would take Sonys approach to cross buy and I could begin to build my dream classic game collection without breaking the bank on expensive carts like Whomp Em or Castlevania Legends to name a few I was looking forward to. With NSO rentals I’d be limited in so many ways from not curating the collection to suit my tastes, being restricted to when I can play and having to pay a premium to get access to everything and not even use but one portion of the paid service. That’s the part that really irks me is even if I caved and bought the $50 ex pass I’d really only gain from the classic games and nothing else. Even then it’d lose it due to the check in restrictions. I don’t own any of the games the free dlc offers, I’m a mostly purely physical gamer so the vouchers don’t add value. The value is simply not there and the benefits are poor at best.

@GameOtaku
Cross buy should've been a thing but Nintendo made it clear it wouldn't be with VC given it wasn't between Wii, Wii U and 3DS. Yet another reason why the VC was not something I miss. Hopefully going forward Switch purchases carry and content on NSO doesn't reset with new platform launches

@skywake
I may be mistaken but I thought you could redownload your games for a small fee on WiiU from Wii VC titles. If so then we had some form of it.

@GameOtaku
If you had transferred your Wii VC games so they were physically on the Wii U you could pay a fee to "upgrade" them to the Wii U eShop. But it's not really Cross Buy when both consoles are quite litterally the same console. It was more like.... unlocking a slight convenience than Cross Buy

I certainly did take advantage of/was taken advantage of by that "offer" when it was there. But my belief at the time was that the Wii U purchase could carry to new platforms. It didn't. And the lack of 3DS/Wii U Cross Buy for VC made it clear it was never going to

I would make the expansion pass more like PSN or Xbox Live

2 full games to download each month they remain playable with a subscription
Extra discounts on the Eshop

I feel like Nintendo listens to me sometimes. Either that or what I say makes sense. This right here, this is the sort of thing Nintendo needs to do to improve NSO, specifically the higher discount rate. More deals and discounts:

https://www.nintendo.com.au/news-and-articles/two-exclusive-l...