Topic: The Nintendo Switch Online Subscription Service Thread

Now there you are certainly correct. As a non-collector, it was awesome when Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger game to Wii VC and I was able to sell both of my SNES cartridges for about $50 each and then buy them on the Wii for $8.

I got the physical Sega Mega Drive Classics (50+ games collection) on Switch for 29,99 because NSO+Expansion is so bad. I will keep these games forever. With NSO I need to pay each and every year and still lose all of it eventually.

The Animal Crossing DLC?
Well, for me it's physical > download > cloud/stream/subscription.
So yeah, definately prefer the download. I wanna play this whenever I want. I hate to feel forced to play this now to get the most out of it within a one year time limit just because I paid for it.

As for N64, I grew up with it. It was my first day 1 console and I have a massive physical collection including GoldenEye and Conker's Bad Fur Day.
And I bought Sin and Punishment (JP) and Ogre Battle 64 (US) on Wii VC ten years ago.
I think there won't be enough for me on N64 NSO to make the price feel right.
Yes, I kind of want to play F-ZERO X online and I kind of want to try Dr. Mario 64 for the first time (it was US only). But that's it. I have all these games already, Banjo-Kazooie, Kirby 64, even WinBack.

And how do people defend the family plan?
I don't see any benefits from it. Even before the NSO Expansion it was just ripping off the dumb.

@SKTTR I feel kind of the same way. I have that Genesis collection as well as some Genesis games on PC via Steam. I really don't see any kind of value out of it because of that. The N64 stuff, I literally have half of those games on my Wii U right now, and considering buying Sin and Punishment there to play it (I had no idea it existed on Wii U until the other day), and save some money. Even Star Fox 64, I have it on Wii, Wii U, 3DS, and I own the original cartridge.

If I want a DLC for a game I like, I would just buy it. Why would I want to simply "rent" it.

I was ok with the idea of a subscription service where you pay one price and play all the classic games you want. If online multiplayer didn't force people to pay, I think it would be better received. That idea got soured by adding an additional price for N64 and Genesis (especially since the latter has a collection).

Right now, I only really pay for the basic Switch online just to play friends who aren't big on PC gaming. Maybe it's time to convince them to come over to the PC side, hmm.

@SKTTR Can you explain what you mean by the Family Plan ripping off the dumb?

@gcunit I would also like to know how

Why pay more when everyone can play online through the main account?
Is it only useful if you have multiple Switch consoles at home?
I come from a not so distant past where 1 console and 1 online was enough for everyone in the family.
And it was free. And it had messaging, video and voice chat (Wii U).

@SKTTR Everyone CAN, but my son has his own account with his own Mario Maker 2 and Minecraft setup and needs to have online on his account, too. That's why we got the family account. That doesn't make us dumb.

I still don't see a benefit. Why couldn't he just use your account for his Mario Maker, Minecraft and online stuff. It's your son. In my eyes the family subscription is wasting money.

@SKTTR Because I have my own stuff and he has his own stuff (and my wife and daughter, for that matter). He doesn't want to do it on my profile. And if $15 a year (barely $1 a month) makes my kid happy, that's the greatest steal ever.

@SKTTR I don't know how much you pay for your individual subscription, but I'm confident my share of a family plan subscription with 5 other people (currently, potentially 7 with full uptake) is less. We each pay £5 per year. I've made up the shortfall when the numbers are down, but I've still paid less this way than if I had just gone for an individual sub.

Interesting point of view.
Nice if this works out well for you.
Do you buy multiple of the same game as well so everyone can have their own?

Neat. A bit of work but each to their own. Personally, I don't feel it's a safe environment if someone else is managing the online stuff I paid for.

On my plan I have myself, my sister, my niece and my niece's partner. We all live in different houses, we all have our own Switch.

I also share other accounts amongst family so NSO is no different. I pay for NSO and Disney+, I don't pay for Netflix, Spotify or Kayo (sports)

I'm already paying the full $35 a year for most of the members of my family plan. All things considered what's $35 a year, right? For me, sure that's fine. But blowing it up to $80, I mean c'mon man! I wouldn't mind if at least some of the members would chip in but if you look at the individual plan....uggh. Not being a cheapskate but if that's the price I would like to see more than what is being offered. Sure it's not easy nor cheap to "re-develop/emulate" these retro games or even get their licenses but I can't really rely on nostalgia this time to justify the price.

If only they would somehow assure us that it's NOT ONLY the Animal Crossing DLC and there are more free DLC to come via this new pack then I might rethink it. But right now I'd rather not play N64 or Genesis games on Switch.

@Zyph if you have other adults in your group, simply propose to them that to upgrade, you’d need them to contribute the extra money. You keep paying the base service as usual, and let them choose if they want to upgrade.

@Eel 2 of them are working adults and the 5 are my brother's kids. Yeah, that's what I'm doing right now. Since the 2 are kinda leeching off of me on the subscription for 3 years now I guess the time to collect is due 🤣 That includes making my brother pay up for his kids' sub 😂

@Xyphon22 I hear you. I'm massively excited for N64 NSO as I haven't played most of these games since the 90s and many of them that are coming I've never played at all (Paper Mario, Kirby 64, Sin and Punishment, Dr Mario 64, Pokemon Snap) I don't intend to play these games for years on end as I'll be playing newer games, but for now I'm gonna get so much out of this service that I won't even buy any other Switch games for the rest of the year. For me it's great and I'm especially excited to play Yoshi's Story on the move! Think it will be great in handheld just like Yoshi's Island GBA.

Also the existing Mega Drive Collection on Switch is pretty bad thanks to button input lag, dead online and a horrible menu system that makes it so tedious just to change your games. Personally will play the Mega Drive a lot more through NSO and again have never played games like Musha, Ecco The Dolphin and Gunstar Heroes.

Add in the NES/SNES games, online play on regular Switch games, plus the Animal Crossing DLC and I really don't think it's bad value for money for the price of a cup of coffee a month. There are legitimate criticisms like lack of proper voice chat and integrated invite system etc, plus I get why some gamers who want to keep the games forever preferred the virtual console system, but really don't think it's bad value for money whatsoever. As I said, it's about the same price as a cup of coffee a month, come on now...

If the argument is "but you can emulate them for free" That's a bit like saying "Why should I have to pay for my groceries when I can just steal them for free?"

I’m going to repost what I posted here a couple of weeks ago, as I didn’t get many responses back.

Another question, that I have thought since that post is:
1. If I end up getting the Individual Member for the NSO Expansion Pack, will other users on the same Switch have access to the New Horizons HHP DLC, or would I need to buy the Family Membership for all of them to access it? 🤔

@GameOtaku Actually, I find the NSO to be cheap. I used to often pay over $50 a year every year for Virtual Console games on Wii and Wii U back in the day. I only stopped when they stopped releasing VC games.

It depends on how much of what's being offered is of value to you. For some it'll seem a good deal, for others, it'll seem overpriced.

Personally, I think it's too high. I'm not sure I'd pay the individual membership if it was my only option. Probably just stick with base membership for online and cloud saves and NES/SNES.

Thankfully, they gave us an out with the family plan, which is an outrageously good deal. I joined @Eel who was running a family plan group, and within days we'd recruited enough ppl to max out at 8. So my cut is $10 per yr (technically $12 since he's in Mexico and the conversion rate from USD is slightly unfavorable) but ya. I couldn't be happier. I'm paying half the price I was paying before, and getting twice the value in return.

Hopefully they won’t take too long to enable the plan upgrade option. I’d love to be able to download the N64 app before leaving the hotel in the morning.