"The Virtual Console successor is Nintendo Switch Online" Says Reggie

I just want to be able to buy the games outright. Do they not want me to buy the same games three consoles in a row?

I don't know who's crazier.

This answer is still too ambiguous. Based on what was discussed I am not very excited about the online service.

Rubbish. Nobody wants to rent games, it's not the nineties any more.

@olrodlegacy I didn’t even rent games in the 90s. Bought new, always. This news about NSO is rubbish indeed.

Makes sense. But I'm more worried about the quality of their online infrastructure than ifferings

@olrodlegacy Unless you want to buy the same game over and over every console generation rather than pay 20 bucks a year (presumably a lifetime subscription) then sure. Though yeah I prefer to just buy them outright and just transfer them over every gen.

Emulation it is then

I hate it.

If they had their heads screwed on right, this could become similar to Xbox Game Pass. Unfortunately Nintendo being Nintendo we'll be stuck with the same 20 NES games for a couple of years before a few more appear out of nowhere.

They should have included a mix of NES, SNES and N64 titles for their Online Subscription launch. I'm pretty tired of those NES classics myself. I was around back then and played them, and have bought a lot of them on the Wii VC as well.

This news doesn't change anything though. Companies (Including Nintendo) will continue to launch standalone titles on the eShop if they want. Especially given the success of retro Capcom games and SNK games have seen, it's no wonder other companies would want to follow suit. Sega has their own collection on the way as well. In addition to Nintendo wanting to push the Switch online service, they likely couldn't get licensing for all the games the previous had on the VC either. It sucks to hear it confirmed I suppose, but this is exactly what everyone expected anyway.

I'm ready for that! I was already planning to use the NSO for online multiplayer games, having the chance to play some old classics from an ever expansive library is a welcome addition. I only wish that the NSO will be stable enough for modern games, too.

I highly doubt this online service will ever get such a large library of games as the Virtual Console.
I just wanted to play SNES and N64 games on my Switch, not like 10 NES games alongside the paid online. Most of those games look pretty boring anyway.
I... guess I gotta go back to the Wii U if I want to play classic games, not gonna wait for three years until this service releases the games I want

I thought the subscription model was they'd have a game on the Online Service for a certain length of time and you had the option to buy it at a discount

$20 isn't bad but I hope you can play offline

Doesn't bother me. It's essentially the same model for our music (Spotify) and TV shows (Netflix), why not our video games too?

Won't be perfect out of the gate, but neither were the aforementioned services. As long as they continue to expand the catalog and justify the asking price, I have zero problems with this.

And while we are comparing to other platforms. Show me a movie that you've purchased outright and seamlessly transfered to multiple platforms. I mean, how many times have we all bought Star Wars? When Disney starts its streaming service that'll likely be the end of it.

If those weren't NES games but a more varied offering console-wise I'd be happy. But you can't attract anyone with the same NES games we always get.

I'd prefer a choice. One for those who want a subscription service, and one for those who want to buy the games. Oh, and for those who want to buy them, have the games tied to their account, so they can play them on any system.

I also wish they'd launch the service with more than NES games, such as NES, SNES, N64, GB, GBA, and if they can do it, DS, GameCube and Wii. And if also possible, other consoles/arcade as well.

I do love the idea of online multiplayer though, I always enjoy a good co-op game.

Guess we'll have to see what develops over time but once you've had a huge library available on Wii and Wii U it's really hard to suddenly have barely any choice. Oh well.

Nintendo SHOULD explain the Paid Online Service during E3 Nintendo Direct last time, so we can judge how effective their offer about Paid Online Service.

What is it, $20 a year? Not bad, not bad at all!

Hope we get Snes Mario Kart with online support. 8 players, no rubber banding .... thats the dream.

If they launched a VC on Switch but my large collection of Wii & Wii U VC games did not come over without having to buy them again I would be far more annoyed than the way they are doing things now. If the other ten games were NES games they would have just announced them with the others. I sense something a bit more modern will make up the other 10. They will probably just be SNES games but if they want to really draw people in to subscribe a Mario 64, Ocarina of Time or dare I say a Gamecube game could really bring in those big numbers.

Gonna need more than NES and Neo-Geo titles to satisfy me. Hopefully we will get support for N64, GameCube and GBA titles sooner, rather than later. AKA before someone gets a full homebrew OS going on the Switch with emulator support.

Will never subscribe to this sham of a service.

Incoming "Virtual console games have been realeased on 20 other consoles but not on this specific one so i'm entitled to get them for free"

@Reignmaker Music still gives you the option to buy outright and no one is going to watch the same TV shows every day, but depending on the game, you can easily play the same game every day.

People enjoy the protection of actually owning (or owning the license) something. I need more details before I can stay negative about this.

Please just let me buy the game.

Sorry I prefer the option to BUY each game I want. Not sure why Nintendo doesn't want this either since they are getting more of my money. On my 2DSxl I spent about $40CDN on like 4 or 5 VC games ($15 on earthbound alone). I didn't mind spending that since I know as long as I have my 2ds I have those games. Guess I'll just use my 2ds for NES/SNES games and an emulator on my computer for N64. Really tired of companies trying to push this "games as a service bs"

I'm fine with the idea. HOWEVER there should always exist an option to buy - and frankly I don't care much for the NES era.

GBA, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii - we need representatives of all these NOW - we need to not potentially wait many years for our own personal favourite system to turn up.

For me that is GBA - I want those Metroid Fusion pixels on the large and prefect screen of the switch. And Nintendo, don't you dare put a crappy anti-alias filter over those perfect pixels. Please. Pleasssssseeee don't do that.

I knew Nintendo will continue to re-release classic old games but not under the title "Virtual Console."

Virtual Console: Urban Champion n' Chill Edition

I don’t mind this approach as long as they keep it fresh. If it’s the same 20 games for months on end before new ones get added I will be disappointed. I’d be satisfied with monthly updates that added 5-10 new games from a variety of consoles (NES, SNES, GBA)

I don’t mind trying something different, it was kind of annoying buying the same game over and over on each new console.

I'm definitely in the camp that would prefer to buy the games, however the NSO approach doesn't completely gut me. I just want a larger collection of systems than NES games (A good portion of which have not aged the best and are getting tiring at this point), at least throw in the far better aged SNES. Now of course I understand that the service will be expanded, but at this rate it may be 3 or more years into the Switch's lifespan before we see anything exciting like GBA or Gamecube games on the service.

So disappointed, the VC would have been amazing on the Switch.

Oh boy I can't wait to be drip-fed ancient games at a snail's pace for the 4th time! But it's ok this time because its a rental service which makes it better somehow!

I can’t wait for Sega Ages to get rolling!!

So, 2 things:

1. Does this mean SNES games as free titles?

2. Can you please port some GameCube games, charge £10 a pop and take my money?

Virtual Console: It sounds like a great idea on paper, but then a year or so later...

So Nintendo Switch Online is in fact the perfect successor.

I wonder if they'll introduced a tiered subscription IF they decide to bring N64, GameCube, GBA, DS, etc games to the service? For example it might be £20 a year for the basic service including NES and SNES games, but £30 a year for extra systems.

@ReaderRagfish Don’t forget the Switch. You can already buy the arcade port.

If that's the plan it should launch including a few games from each console not just NES.... what about GC, what about N64, what about GB/GBA! I don't have high hopes.

Don’t want a successor to virtual console. Just give us virtual console. Don’t break what is not broken Reggie!

Still seems to early to judge . . . .

Weird Nintendo is being weird again. Why not give both options.

@tazbones Sorry but this is a completely garbage move as you will completely lose access to the games that you've obtained through the Nintendo Switch's paid online once your subscription to the Nintendo Switch's paid online expires you clown!

@ReaderRagfish Agreed!

I just want Castlevania 64.

Software as a service is becoming a blight upon us. Netflix unfortunately opened a pandora's box where everyone thinks that their small slice of content is somehow worth $5-20 a month from us. It is very hard for someone my age to reconcile this new reality when I was raised in the freedom on the PC revolution.

@atlas3686 How about having a purchase option for these games on the Nintendo Switch instead of completely locking them behind a subscription service?!

@olrodlegacy I loved renting VHS back in the day!

@Alto And I persoanlly just don't want these games to be completely locked behind a subscription service!

Just put a VC on switch with all N64 and GameCube games and make em cheap so we can play em forever!!!

I’m perfectly fine with this. If they keep expanding the games and platforms available, it’ll end being a thousand times better than any VC.
I mean, I’ve never bought any VC game but having them all available anytime could make me play games I wouldn’t bother with otherwise.
From my point of view is perfect however you look at it.

@maruse It is actually awful because locking games completely behind a subscription service is never a good thing!

I'm loving this Nintendo Switch Online! Its just like the other consoles, free games to add to your library, better servers for better and larger scale multiplayer. but I can't see them not releasing them to be bought as well, it would only be a drag on the progress they are making considering I can buy the games that have been released on the other platforms for free with or without the online service. However they may pull a "get it first on Nintendo Switch Online!"... 6 months later it hits the e-shop -_-

@olrodlegacy
Buying stuff digitally is almost the same thing. Once servers go down you can't redownload anything. Also gamefly.

@ReaderRagfish Except that the biggest problem with this is that you can't play these older games on your Nintendo Switch once your subscription to the Nintendo Switch's paid online service expires you clown!

I hate the idea that once this service shuts down in the future, all the games are all gone. Forever. Everyone loses them. This is the worst thing to happen to Nintendo‘s legacy content.

@whanvee But if you protect the media on which you have downloaded the games, you can keep them as long as you want. This way, everything is ripped out from under you no matter what.

@GamingDude800 I'd like to thank you for finding my comment funny; furthermore, I wouldn't buy these games even if they were available today but I might give them a try now that they'll be coming with a service I'll definitely use.

They should've just ported the Wii VC to Switch. They did it with Wii U. Then everything thing is already there. Would have been easy to let people keep previous purchases too.

@olrodlegacy
But perma-rentals is EXACTLY what software publishers want us to do. They can make us continually pay for the same content that we can never own.

These 10 NES games have been repackaged so many times...
Original release
Super Mario all stars
Game boy classics
Nintendo eReader
Wii collection
Animal crossing
Wii VC
WiiU VC
3ds VC

Zelda had a collection on the GameCube, but that was the only collection they had.

@8-Bit_Superman Except stuff like the Nintendo Switch's retro games being completely locked behind a subcripition service is a completely terrible idea because once your subscription to the service completely ends and/or once the subscription service completely end then you are completely out of luck!

@samuelvictor Wasn't that kinda the case of the very first iteration of the Virtual console on Wii? Unless I recall wrong, it did kind of start somewhat low-key at first as well, to be honest.

@thesilverbrick
SD cards have a limited number of writes/rewrites

add N64 and NGC Online, than i'll start trying your "Virtual Console" replacement. otherwise plenty other options to play these classic games.

I’d love to own games instead. If it’s only NES games and no word or GBA then no one is going to own the online service. Add more games when it comes out.

I don't have internet at home.
I can't be arsed to pay for the service when I'll barely use it.
Locking out the VC to a pageant and online only is crap.
Even if I had internet, I'm in south west PA. Internet speed here is atrocious. Can't even play mk7/8/8D, solution 1/2 or anything else. I tried.

@siouxrunner15 Sorry but it is a completely garbage idea!

@GamingDude800 From your point of view perhaps. For me it’s perfectly fine since those games are just a nice extra to the service.

I wouldn’t mind buying games over again. I never really buy a VC game. Got like 4 on my 3DS and that’s all I own. Prefer to buy games as not everyone needs to play online, I don’t anyways

The future of retro gaming is on Wii U then

@8-Bit_Superman Again with the whole "It is only $20 dollars a month!" junk because in reality it is still a completely dumb idea no matter what monthly fee price they completely slap on it!

@maruse Except you'll completely lose access these games on the Nintendo Switch once your subscription the Nintendo Switch's paid online service completely expires and/or once the Nintendo Switch's paid online service completely ends!

@GamingDude800 It's not a dumb idea, simply because you don't like it. However, I agree fully that it is not a great service, simply because it costs $20. The reason you list for it being a terrible idea, are the exact reasons why it is a great idea for Nintendo, from a business perspective. Of course they want you to maintain a subscription, just like the other major platforms. Having access to a growing library of games and online game play is perhaps one of the easiest, and most logical ways to do that. Again, I'm not saying this is the best possible scenario for consumers, and I too will miss the Virtual Console, but I think most people have known for quite sometime that the Virtual Console would not be returning in its previous form. I just hope that the library expands rapidly and we quickly get games from other systems - NES only just isn't going to cut it.

@GamingDude800

It’s not 20 dollars a month tho?

I'm hoping they handle licensing and distribution the way subscription software (e.g. Microsoft Office) is done, where you actually download the games to your system and can play them (even offline) as long as you have an active subscription. $20 a year is a STEAL considering the launch titles alone would cost $100 to buy on VC. Unfortunately though, Nintendo's website suggests it'll only be NES games for the foreseeable future.

I dont play online so NSO just isn't worth it for me, even at $20/year. Too bad as there are old games I would have purchased for it, otherwise I highly dislike subscription based services, and despise how many gaming companies are trying to go this way "Games as a service"

@GamingDude800 Yes, but that’s the same with PlayStation Plus, isn’t it? Or Netflix or any other streaming service.
And to stretch it a bit, even with a “traditional” VC where you could buy the games, you’ll lose access to them sooner or later because the servers will stop providing those downloads sooner or later.
You could say that you can backup those downloads to a SD card but, let’s be honest, that’s just a temporary not definitive solution. So, in the end, even if you buy the games, you don’t really own the games, you’re just given the illusion of ownership not real ownership.
It sucks, but it is what it is.

Alright, I've calmed down from my tantrum about not getting the Virtual Console on the Switch. I see reason to be slightly optimistic about Nintendo's plans to bring classic games to the Switch, but... The rate at which new games were added to the Wii's VC library was ok in the first year or two. About 2 to 4 games a week. By the end of the Wii's life cycle, it was more like 1 or 2 games a month and those weren't even that good. The track record of the VC on the Wii U was even worse. If Reggie (NOA's PR disaster that he is) is talking about a "whole slate of games", I tend to not believe him for a second! We'll see. I don't play online so the only reason for me to get a Nintendo Online subscription would be for the classic games. I'll bite and try it out for a year. If the offering of classic games is underwhelming, I'll go ahead and make a Retropie system.

@roadrunner343 Yeah but that doesn't personally matter to me since all of those games for the Nintendo Switch will still be completely locked behind that lame Nintendo Switch paid online service unfortunately!

@Gold_Ranger I don’t see what that has to do with anything, and even so, it’s far less limiting than having everything removed from service that doesn’t exist anymore.

I've got something for this comment section.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkZC7sqImaM

@Spectra Only problem is owning them on the Wii, WiiU, and 3DS didn't help, as we still have to own them yet another time. Both are just different rental models. Only way to really own them is Classic Minis, original carts, or those rare times they do a collection cart.

@Reignmaker Well actually you can buy a dvd version of your Star Wars movie and then play it on your upgrade to blu-ray player, and then if you upgrade again to 4k player you can still play that same dvd, granted most people like to upgrade, but you can still carry over that same title .

@Zyph Yeah instead of deciding whether I want to repurchase a specific title for a second or third time. I now get to pay for a handful of titles of which I may only want one or two of year after year. Logic.

@GamingDude800 And that's fine if those things don't appeal to you. I'm not trying to change you opinion on the service itself. I'm lukewarm on it, honestly. My point is that saying this like "It's a terrible idea" don't really make sense without context. Maybe it's terrible for you, but the idea itself makes perfect sense (We'll see how it's executed) and it's one of the benefits the other platforms use to keep users from allowing their subscription to lapse.

Again, as it stands right now, I'm lukewarm on the idea. I was the same way when I moved to digital music and digital video as well. Perhaps with time, a Nintendo's subscription service will be as indispensable as Netflix, who knows. It's certainly not there right now, but again, that's the direction they're heading.

It boggles my mind, no not Nintendo’s decision but the responses here. For years I have read and heard countless people talk of their desire for a subscription based service for Virtual Console games and now that one is announced, everyone cries foul!?!

I too prefer to buy games outright but this sounds like the best business decision. Just because 50-100 people are not gonna be able to buy a game for the 3rd or 4th time is gonna be less of a concern for Nintendo as to what brand of tile sealant they want in the office bathrooms.

Not that I expect the original VC was that profitable to begin with.

"Do you hear it? That crazed hooting and hollering? Yes, we're coming up on the Nintendo Life comment section right at feeding time! Looks like Nintendo has just dropped a juicy piece that's set 'em--please, ma'am, keep your children away from the cages!"

so when can I play GBA games?

Start with 4 1st party GameCube games, and 4 3rd party GameCube games at the launch of the online services. Then work in games from different systems each week.

Starting with NES games, 30odd year old games now is not interesting tbh. And I BET it'll take them a year or two to get to even N64 games.

As long as this means we get the emulation software China is getting, and they release good games every few months, I'm fine with the news.

If it's just Balloon Fight for 8 months and then maybe Dr. Mario for the next 8 months, then this will suck.

I have a bunch of VC games on my 3DS. I have more on my Wii. I have a mostly abandoned WiiU (don’t we all?) and I have all the NES ones in Animal Crossing on GameCube, too.

I’ve bought these games enough times.

Maybe you should just stick to playing VC games on your Wii U and 3DS?

@electrolite77 : If only!

@Bass_X0 exactly.

The new online feature sounds interesting, and I’d love to see what else they might do, but .. honestly.. spice it up a bit, and give us some variation instead of the same old collection over and over.

News like this only reinforces my decision to buy original hardware and everdrives for cartridge based systems, or modded consoles for disc based systems. This more than meets my retro gaming needs, and I don’t ever need to rely on companies to release their back catalogue ever again.

This news is such a shame, because over the Wii and Wii U I spent hundreds of pounds on their retro games. This is money they’ll never see from me again, as I don’t do subscriptions for games or online. Whether the new model more than makes up for it I don’t know. I am very old skool with my gaming admittedly. Why they can’t just provide both options for their VC and make everyone happy is beyond me.

This is what I expected and it is just great.
Normally I am definitly the kind of guy that always buys physical wherever possible or I want to at least own a copy of the game digitally.
But in this specific case? These are games I mostly already own and the few I don't own, I would in most cases not even try them, since I hesitate buying something so old that I am not familiar with.

For these kind of games this is just the perfect way of doing it.

A sub for VC games is almost certainly cheaper than individual purchases.

There's a lot of wahhhhhh in this thread.

@Yorumi In your haste to post something snarky, you have completely missed the point.

@electrolite77

1. PS-Plus and Xlive are not rental services. People buy it mostly to play online. Not because they got RIME in February.

2. Access, Now and game pass are far from a success in any shape way or form. They exist because they subsidized by big hardware/3rd party with deep pockets and other business. Like selling games.

3. Only "true" independent online game rental service was ONLive. And it "disappeared into oblivion"

@GravyThief I can only assume we're an extreme minority, and you even more so. Like you, I prefer original hardware and I can play just about anything I want dating back to the NES. I also have a Vectrex, but otherwise NES was my cutoff - and I've modded most of my disc based consoles as well. However, I'll still be subscribing to this service, mainly for online play, but the added benefits of some retro games (with online play) also appeals to me, as well as the convenience of having the games on Switch. I assume Nintendo is banking on the vast majority of people still hopping on board, even the dummies like me who have purchased this games 5 times...

"Nobody wants to rent games, it's not the '90s"

I completely agree. Who wants to pay a small subscription fee to access a library of games. Outrageous.

I'm so angry, I'm going to listen to Spotify and watch Netflix to calm myself down.

Looks like I'm sticking to emulation. For portable gaming of your classic titles, I'll just buy a Nvidia Shield Portable. Thanks Nintendo! I would've happily bought them on the Switch, but since y'all wanna be stupid, emulating is what I'll be doing.

Let's just see how this one rolls out, not gonna judge it this early. Maybe Nintendo will offer classic games for free for how long you stay subbed. And maybe you will get to keep them as well. They might also let you transfer your wii u vc titles for switch too.

When they start adding SNES games I'm in. Before that nah. Nes doesn't cut it. That said most of the SNES games I love are by other publishers, so maybe it's n64/gc

@roadrunner343 I must say I am tempted by online Super Mario Kart and Super Bomberman! Why they can’t just offer the games on both the subscription service and to buy on the VC I don’t know. Seems a wasted opportunity. We are in the minority with our original hardware approach for sure, so I’d never expect them to build their business model around pleasing us. Maybe VC purchases were so low it wasn’t profitable for them anymore. I’d be surprised if that was the case but you never know.

I don't understand why people are hating on this. Once the servers go offline no one will be able to redownload any virtual console for their Wii Us and 3DS'... Also, with this they can keep on porting classic games libraries to next consoles without having to charge us each time. It sounded bad at the Wii U's early days when we discovered we had to pay to transfer VC from Wii to Wii U, but, guess what, it does cost them some money to port the virtual console software from one console to the other...
Also, people saying that this is locking the games in subscription and that is evil, remember we will need the subscription for other stuff like going online (not that this is a good thing) and the library in itself will increase over time, possibly faster than VC to make sure it is worth it. Also I have to say that as a PS Plus user I would never dream of cancelling my PS Plus because of how huge my games with plus library is, it simply is worth it, and nintendo's is way cheaper so it is even easier for them to give us content to make it worth it.

@GravyThief If I had to guess (No data backing up my guess) VC was still profitable. My bet is that they simply think they will make more with subscriptions, especially once they establish their library and ramp up the annual fee. Also, there is almost no chance they can get all the licensing back for VC, since most companies started re-releasing their own games (Capcom, Sega, SNK, etc...) with more to likely follow suit.

Anyone who’s complaining about paying £1.66 per MONTH for a la carté NES games (other systems likely), cloud saves and online play is, quite frankly, a tool.

@Yorumi Yup, agreed. I will inevitably spend much more on this service than VC. With VC, I only bought my absolute favorites (Again, and again...) but even after buying certain titles multiple times across Wii, Wii U, and 3DS, I doubt I spent over $100, especially since I got many of them as My Nintendo rewards. I'm also reasonably confident the price of the service will increase, so it will likely end up being more than $100 over the next 5 years. And of course, if my son or wife end up getting their own Switch, I'll have to get the family plan, so even more money to Nintendo. All things considered, a smart move by Nintendo.

@Emperor-Palpsy I'm not complaining, but I understand those who are. At what price point are people allowed to complain, if not $20? Cloud saves shouldn't cost a penny nor be locked behind an online service in the first place. Saying that online play "requires" infrastructure/support costs from Nintendo is also disingenuous - this can and has been offered for free on PC and older consoles for decades, the developer simply takes it into account when budgeting for their title. That leaves us with 20 NES games at the moment for $20 a year. Doesn't seem overly impressive to me. Yes, that number will grow and expand, but we're not giving our opinions on what the service could be, we're talking about what it is. In it's current state, it's not very impressive. For me, it's still worth $20, but just barely. It shouldn't be too hard to understand that to others, it is not a very impressive offering - especially those that have little interest in online play or are tight on cash.

So we have to wait months for SNES, then N64, and hope for Gamecube. I 'm going to get the service but I am not optimistic, especially, since I have all those games on multiple platforms.

@DeathUriel Honestly, do you not realize how dumb of an idea it is to have games that are both completely and permanently locked behind a subscription service?!

Just curious but does anyone know if these games will require an always online connection?

@GamingDude800 Your opinion. I have over 100 games on PS Plus. With about 5 of them with their current prices it is already worth more than what it costed me to have PS Plus all these years. If you want to pay 10 dolars each for an old game already ported and easily emulated by any machine in the planet, ok, good for you. I have no problem paying only 25 a year to have way more games and services. Also, the fact that we will have to pay to keep having access to such titles will give reasons for nintendo to keep updating the list with more games than we had on virtual console. Games as a service is good for everyone, stop being butthurt and pretending your desire for a release that will let you spend a lot on little is "smart"...

Long as we can download and play the games offline, fine.

@DeathUriel Look, it is completely fine if you want to pay for it but you need to realize that both completely and permanently locking stuff behind subscription services isn't good for longevity reasons at all!

@GamingDude800 Well. All people care here is overrated longevity. The fact is, eventually every server will go down. Then the only way of keep having total and full access to virtual consoles, nintendo online services and any other non-physical stuff will end up being console hacking, and with that there are no actual limits. Virtual console still needs internet to be downloaded, so it has no actual longevity for anyone looking to play around in a Switch after many years it is dead.
One way or another. How many times do you play your virtual consoles? I bought a lot of them and most of them I only played to completion once. I couldn't care less if I lost most of them afterwards, which won't happen with the subscription before the switch in itself is an old useless piece of hardware. When they do kill the switch I won't care, I will have the brand new whatever thing that we got after it. Like nobody cared when they shut down Demon's Souls servers, or Wii servers, and even the original Xbox servers. Their times were due anyway.

What you could buy and keep before is now only available as a "games as a service" subscription service.

Aren't you glad???!!??

So the part which confuses me is, will the "legacy content" be bundled for free with the sub or will we have to pay for it?

Because it sounds like the latter, which essentially means we would be paying a monthly sub just to access the VC and pay additional costs for the games in VC.

Meaning the only benefit to this monthly sub is cloud saving, because we can play multiplayer for free.

This sounds very grim indeed...

Damn it, the Switch was finally an opportunity to own a ton of old Nintendo games and have the freedom to play them on a TV or portably. I don't want to subscribe and have online features added, I just want the original games to buy!

I don’t like where Nintendo is going with this... But I guess I’ll subscribe anyway for that sweet Splatoon 2 online play. I wish Nintendo had just kept everything the way it was with the Wii U instead of shutting down Miiverse, removing the music of the whole OS, making you have to pay for online play and now this.
(By the way, I’ve never seen a typo in a NL article title before. This site’s quality isn’t what it used to be.)

COME ON REGGIE GIVE US VIRTUAL CONSOLE 3!

Not very wise to kill Virtual Console branding after having developed it for over 10 years. However, if Nintendo actually supplies the same amount of games for this service as they have in the past, but makes them all free under the online subscription, I have no issue. I just don't trust that Nintendo will actually do this, especially since it seems like each game that should be pretty easy to port is being turned into a netcode project.

I don't want the slow trickle of games anymore. They should all be available right from the beginning.

90% of you will pay for the online service anyway, so why are you complaining?

Oh my gawd! Virtual console is dead! Quit beating a dead horse! Why are we all whining like this is a fresh blow? We will still subscribe to Online service so we can play Splatoon, Fortnite, Hide balloons in Mario Odyssey, and whatever else everyone does online.

I'm not much interested in the VC as NSO as it stands, to be honest. Not unless they put GC games on there.

What I'd really like to know is why there has been such a long delay.

Prove it, NIntendo. The ball is in your court.

Nintendo Switch online. You'll be telling me next that there is a Fire Emblem game for the Switch that we will be released one day. Someone once said that a Dragon Quest game would emerge for the Switch.

No one liked VC anyhow. Just complaints of not enough of the games from the past and all too high cost, and in the past the lack of being able to transfer purchases from one system to another.

I don't expect anything to be different except that some games will be free through the nintendo online service itself as a bonus which is nice for those who care about retro titles. But I just don't think it matters. Either way, it has to be ported or emulated and that takes effort, and it is effort Nintendo has never really bothered much with.

I'd prefer remasters anyhow. The Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask remakes on 3DS were miles ahead of what the originals were and I had a blast with those games. I'd prefer quality remasters of good games over a slew of games as they appeared years ago.

I dont mind renting crap games i wont play as part of the online service, but there are games i want to own, not rent. They will probably have crap emulation and rubbish aspects and screen filters anyway.

/Sigh nintendo cannot get this right.

This totally sucks! I hate renting anything. I either own something, or don't bother.

So basically the VC on Switch is those NES ports with leaderboards and online versus...? Wii had Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 since Virtual Console's first day.

Online subscription for $20 a year, or paying $5 to $10 for each game? I'll take the $20 year online subscription please. It's the better deal, as long as Nintendo updates the catalogue. Need to find out full details of the service first.

I'd rather have vc. I have a 3ds and its my only means of access to VC but lots of games are locked behind wiiu and new 3ds vc for example I can't play or buy double dragon 3 on 3ds vc but it's on wiiu or Castlevania 4 on new 3ds vc. So according to some very quick math that's around $400 I'd have to spend on 2 systems just to get access to games. Then on top of that they don't have all games available I bought all the castlevania games on 3ds vc in hopes of playing the last 3 Gameboy vanias so I bought the crappy Castlevanias adventure (it ranks lower than Milons in my opinion) all to show interest in legends and it never showed up. Wiiu got nothing but tg16 vc last year which in Japan tge 3ds had tg16 games on it but not here?! WTH? Licensing can't be that difficult to have games across multiple generations of platforms! Tge psp to vita and PS3 did with no problems so why not here!?

Seriously? This isn't gonna work. Like, at all.
At the least, the existing catalogue should be made totally available.

Congratulations to all you guys at Nintendo. I've loved Switch since the first time you showed it, I've always wanted to love it, I've always wanted it to be my favourite console ever, but you managed to make me HATE it instead. I want to love it, I want to love Ninbterndo, but right now I hate Nintendo with all my heart.

Surprised seeing so many people against this since like the biggest complaint against VC is we had to rebuy the games(and that was a legit complaint).

I like this new service and it will encourage me to play NES games that I probably wouldn't pay $5 for. I just hope SNES and n64 games aren't too far behind.

Well, I'm glad that I have all my old Virtual Console games still saved and backed up, as Nintendo alienates its audience by switching exlusively to a stupid streaming service where you never own or even have the games licensed to you for unlimited use.

Even worse, I bet this is why we now have an annoying subscription service for online play. Hey Nintendo, a flat one-time fee when possible is always better than a continuous subscription fee. Always!

@KryptoKrunch Only the idiots or rich suckers bothered or complained about rebuying the games. Most of us just bought one version and got extreme discounts to upgrade to the Wii U versions. Paying $5 each for the NES games you want to own is a lot better than a continuous subscription fee for access to a random collection, at least half of which won't interest you, that you'll never own.

@Reignmaker Those services mostly suck, as well. There are reasons why many people (including myself) will never stop buying CD's/MP3's or DVD's/Blu-Rays. While you also need a monthly subscription for cable/satelite, they at least provide you with immediate broadcasts (or slightly delayed at your leisure with a DVR) and a lot more TV choices save for the occasional Netflix exclusive series.

Then companies like Disney and Warner Bros. decide they want to release their own independent streaming services, so we as customers then get nickeled and dimed with even more monthly subscriptions if we want to be able to have legal access to everything on TV. Sorry, but this is where I'm just going to illegally download episodes of shows like the 3rd season of "Young Justice" rather than pay heed to these ridiculous practices, just like I'll always smuggle cheap candy into the movie theater until they decide to charge reasonable prices for their own candy.

Also, even if I had a Blu-Ray player, I'd certainly have no reason to ever rebuy the Blu-Ray versions of movies that I already own on DVD.

Unfortunate but expected. In the name of convenience we forgo ownership and effectively will be at the full mercy of corporations. Granted Nintendo has been decent to pretty good but as a company their MO will inevitably come into conflict on way or another.

@BulbasaurusRex I agree in that I really don't like subscription services in general. Although my opinion on that varies from media to media. With TV shows and movies, I'm actually quite content getting streaming services, but with music and now video games I really am not.

I just think we should have the option for both. Other mediums manage this just fine, and in those cases a streaming subscription can be seen as supplemental to purchasing the particular products you are most fond of.

However, having only subscription is not good, and I can't help but feel like this is just another slimy way Nintendo is trying to get people to pay for their shoddy online services.

@Jop I never complained about the prices. I'm glad to pay them to own the games I choose. Also, yes, you do own them, because they still work even after the servers have gone down. You just need to make sure to back up the data, and you'll never have to worry about losing access to them as long as you keep your Wii or Wii U around. I'm not one of those elitists who stops playing games on my old systems just because I get a new one.

@Harmonie Yes, a choice would've been best. Even if they're no longer going to offer a Virtual Console service, they should still let us choose between this new subscription service and being able to play online for free (like usual) without access to the retro titles. For bonus points, it really shouldn't be that hard to simply allow us free access only to the games available that we've previously purchased on Wii U (or with the same extreme discount to upgrade the Wii version) as detected by our Nintendo accounts.

@Jop there's nothing cheap in being forced to pay a subscription every single month, expecially for those people not interested in online services. I never complained about the price of Virtual console games and I've always been more than happy to pay for it but yeah, now I really feel that Nintendo is not respecting me anymore. If they don't want to sell me their games anymore, I won't feel guilty in owning those games that I already paid more than once on my computer instead of my Switch. It is them who chose to not sell them anymore, and if I cannot buy something I'm not going to give away my money just to be fooled with a service that I never wanted.

I don't pay for the rental services on Xbox or Playstation. I won't be paying for a rental service on Switch.

@Jop That's like saying "Well, all discs and cartridges are rentals anyway, because as soon as you lose your disc/cart,it's gone".

The difference between digital and rent, is that as soon as I stop paying that monthly/year sub or my internet craps out, the rental service takes my games away from me. Right now on Wii/U, PS3/4 and Xbox 360/One, I could stop paying for the online features, turn off my internet and still have access to my digital library.

@Jop Of course not. In that case, my Wii U became my Wii as well. I can still play all of my Wii, WiiWare, and Wii VC games on my Wii U despite no longer being able to purchase any more digital titles.

@Harmonie Yeah, with the "free" PS4/XB1 games with PS+/XBLG, you still get the choice. You can have the subscription rental or you can properly buy a digital copy but it seems with Nintendo Switch Online you either buy the subscription and get the rental or you do without the games completely on Switch.

Needs much much mode than few tired NES games.

@samuelvictor Thanks for the correction! Your memory is better than mine.
Nonetheless the announcement makes me think this won't be limited to just the NES in time. Though the confirmation they're adding stuff like online multiplayer play to classic games make me think it -may- take longer to add new titles than previous offerings.

@Spectra My thoughts exactly. I really can't grasp what's with Nintendo. This only reflects how much Nintendo only cares for itself.

@NintendoFan4Lyf I get your point, but there are many people that would still rather buy the games. I don’t always have a reliable WiFi access point. So that service isn’t really that intriguing to me. I have xbox live and ps+ and I never download the free games (except the free 360 games because they can be played offline) I would rather have the ability to play offline.

@samuelvictor Maybe, we'll see.

Even if the rollout is slower one need to recall another detail though: Unlike previous iterations you'd be getting access to ALL the titles on the services, a-la Netflix. And like Netflix it might go the every-growing stable of titles routes, rather than the "pick it or leave it" monthly changing selection of 1-3 titles of Playstation Plus.

So the strength of the Online Services might not be on the short, but long term. If it come with an added option to individually purchases titles afterward or alongside, it may well become even more perfect too(since purchasing the titles would give an option to continue playing them even past the days of the Online services or ending your subscription).

That's ignorant, because I want to play GBA, GC, Wii (especially) & possiblity N64, but nooo. Even if it was an additional monthly fee, I'd rather pay that because I hate NES games & wouldn't pay a dime for them. I played them all I wanted to in the late 80's & a year or two into 90's maybe. I want a remaster of skyward sword since I can't play it on VC like the WiiU has (& Switch is supposed to be more powerful & capable).

"Play 30-year old games you might already own a dozen times, including on the Mini we just released 2 years ago, except now they're sorta-kinda online!"

As limited as the Virtual Console was it still appealed more to me than this. They want me to pay $20 a year for this and Splatoon? I'll pass.