Topic: How would you improve the NSO Online service?

Oh that increase in gold coins is right on time for my BF haul.

i just wish it was free you by a game and then need this for online mode

@makara12nd No, I was wanting us to discuss what would make it worth paying the cost of the subscription - not to just say it should be free and/or the games should be available to buy separately.

I think an interesting addition to NSO would be periods where, if you have the Expansion Pack (since I think it'd be too nice to have it with base NSO), you can get a €10-20 game for free during a 1-day period. Could this be abused? Probably. But when Sony and Microsoft already have seen a huge amount of success in similar ventures, I'd imagine Nintendo would be interested in doing the same themselves (and just like PS/Xbox's offerings, the Nintendo version would be the same....but worse ). It'd give me a reason to try out something Kirby's Dream Buffet for instance (which always felt like it would've been better as an NSO pack-in similar to Tetris and Pac-Man but I digress).

@Fizza So something like Xbox games with GOLD? So Nintendo would call it Nintendo Selects, each month you get a small handful of games to have for free only if you have NSO+EX and you get to keep them past that month.

Only an idea but I tried to think like how Nintendo would do it.

Wouldn't that be kinda heavy for a streaming service?
I'm much more expectant of them doing remasters of the bigger titles and selling them digitally.

TurboGrafx/PC-Engine, though... Now that Wii U and 3DS stores are closing, there won't be any TurboGrafx games on sale on Nintendo's platform, will there?
SEGA's already in the service, so why not PC-Engine?

But yeah, additional retro platforms would be more likely than the GC.

I'd argue GameCube and by extension Wii is as easy to emulate now as N64 was on the Wii. Infact I'd go further and say the storage and bandwidth constraints are also fairly similar.

Think about it. The Wii had 512MB of storage and at least here launched when sub 1Mbps internet was still fairly common. GameCube games are 20-30x bigger than N64 games but the Switch has 60x the storage with options to expand and 50Mbps+ internet is pretty common now. So for storage and bandwidth? GC is easier on Switch than N64 was on Wii

And for power? I mean the Wii launched 10 years after the N64, the Switch launched 15 years after the GC. Also Nintendo has already released GC and Wii games on Switch running on emulators, including some AI upscaling and higher resolution rendering. Make of that what you will

So yeah, I don't think GC on Switch is anywhere near as crazy as people seem to perceive it to be. It's just that the fact we perceive it to be crazy is why they feel they can charge full retail for it. And, frankly, they're probably right because GC/Wii titles do hold up very well

@skywake I think it's less technical and more ignoring the system's existence. Considering 3DS, Wii U and Switch all that came were:

• Wind Waker HD (remastered in the long gap between Skyward Sword and BotW)
• Twilight Princess HD (remastered in the long gap between Skyward Sword and BotW)
• Luigi's Mansion (ported to 3DS very near the end of the system's lifespan in the lead up to Switch getting Luigi's Mansion 3)
• Super Mario Sunshine (brought to Switch as part of a limited time release for SMB 35th anniversary celebrations)

OK, my misunderstanding was in thinking NSO legacy games were streamed rather than downloaded unto the console.
Yeah, emulating GC games is definitely a thing on the Switch, as seen with No More Heroes and Sunshine in All-Stars 3D.

But let's say GC is added as a library with, what, a dozen titles initially? E.g. Star Fox Adventures, Wind Waker, F-Zero GX, Super Mario Sunshine, Wario World, Metroid Prime (?), Luigi's Mansion, Paper Mario: TTYD, Pikmin, etc. That's easily 15+ GB consumed by the mere existence of the library. The concern then is about the internal storage of the system, should someone be rocking with the smallest/cheapest possible SD card.
I'm rocking a 1TB SD card already and I'm eyeballing a 2TB the moment one's on sale on this continent, so there's that.
It'd either come with an extra level of payment for the subscription or the library will remain very limited. The former option banks on people taking the GC library already affording the expanded storage, while the latter would make the library more accessible. inb4 "It'll be both."

@Grumblevolcano
I don't think Nintendo is ignoring the Gamecube, there's IP on there they could spin and probably will at some point. It's more just a question of maintaining the perceived value I think. They could put GC games on the Switch as part of NSO+ or some other dealeo. They could just straight up port the games and put them on the eShop as VC-like titles. Or.... they could sell Metroid Prime HD for $60US

But also note that when I talk about GC being technically something they can do? That includes Wii. And I think it's fair to say Nintendo has not ignored the Wii

@Tounushi
I think you're limiting the options here arbitrarily. There's nothing that says Nintendo would have to put out GC/Wii titles as a single title you download that contains all the games. You're right to say that given the size of the games that'd be a bit dumb in the same way it would've been to do that with N64 games on the Wii or Wii games on the Wii U. But there are other options

Also it's worth noting that you don't have to store the entire ISO, infact it would be dumb to do it that way. When Nintendo sold Wii games on the Wii U eShop they didn't have you download the full disc. It was a compressed image. The list of games you mentioned? All of them, collectively, compressed isos, it's not 15GB.... it's more like 6GB. Not quite as impractical as you might think

For me i would love it where you could do with games what you can do with DLC and be able to buy it on its own, Basically what you could do with the virtual console and not have to worry about access being dependant on a service. (alongside adding the usual optional screen filters and button remapping you get with a lot of retro compilations) for me while im really not a fan of the paid online for P2P games i would say it bugs me less than having the older games exclusively tied to a subscription service with no way to buy them. (yes i miss the Virtual console)

really while i dont really play much in the way of xbox i feel like how they handle things has been the best this gen overall and i hope a potential switch 2 will be fully BC with current.

@Mgalens So something like those CAPCOM Arcade Collections?

I love your idea btw.

@Kermit1
Oh yeah those capcom collections.
That would be perfect.

Basically having the games all in one place but being able to purchase new games seems ideal, along with giving full access to anyone with the NSO expansion.

@Mgalens and you could buy bundles of games too.

imagine the Classics Bundle

Contents:

Super Mario Bros.
Legend Of Zelda
Punch Out
Excitebike
Metroid

all for the low price of $15