Video: Five Features Included With The Nintendo Switch Online Membership

So essentially I’m paying $20 a year for cloud saves and a bunch of NES games that I already own several times over. I was hoping for more. Hopefully those “special offers” are going to be something amazing. I’m not holding my breath, though.

It's underwhelming. It totally is. It also only costs 20 bucks for an entire year and we have the promise of more games in the future. The NES controllers turned out to be real, like in the leak, so odds are we will be getting SNES controllers and games too.

I think it is reasonable and I will be buying in. Further, I suspect most people will be doing the same. I don't think anyone is thrilled, but millions of people spend a lot more than 20 bucks on micro-transactions and DLC. It's not that big of a deal.

@Heavyarms55

Also remember the rumored n64 controller Patent from last year. Quite possibly related to this service and getting some controllers for it.

SOLD !
I will prepare $ 20 for my E-shop fund to subcribe.

$20 a year for games, saves, being able to play online. Hell yeah I'm down! I totally support Nintendo.

@Mcoleya I know a lot of people didn't like that controller, but man, I'd be super pumped to play some N64 games on an N64 controller via the Switch!

Calling it now (just because they've never allowed backup saves in any past game in the series) Animal Crossing Switch won't allow cloud saves!

Not yet. Needs SNES games at least before I am in.

@thesilverbrick and to play online. Do not forget that part...

I guess I’ll keep my 20$ for now.... unless these offer turns out to be really good discount on games...

Hardly the ground breaking stuff that I was hoping Nintendo were keeping close to their chest. Add SNES games and we will talk..

Nope... Already paying for PS+ - need a better reason to add an extra $20 on top of that.

Nice to see Nintendo trying to get with the times. Better late than never.

Happy to have cloud saves.

I can call my friends and put them on speaker phone without using a special app, but whatever.

I don’t understand why Nintendo acts like they can’t easily have an emulator for every NES and SNES game they hold the rights to on Switch.
If you want to cut down piracy, you should just provide people a better way to play all of these old games.

@setezerocinco I haven’t forgotten that part. Only problem is, I can do that now for free. I’m simply saying they’re beginning to charge me $20 a year* now for something that has always been free and giving me no justification for it.

*Sorry, I had originally and mistakenly typed “month” here.

I want to see Bowser's Let's Play of Ghosts n' Goblins

I’m not impressed, but I decided I’ll get the service anyway because Splatoon 2 is like crack.

Like the others on here, I can’t help but feel disappointed even though the subscription is only $20 a year. I just feel like Nintendo is underachieving when it comes to this service rather than overachieving. If anything, they should go big rather than simply providing the very basics, if that.

I am optimistic, however, that the service will get better over time: more features, more games (not just NES and SNES games), and maybe even finding a way for us to have cloud saves eventually with games that are not supported currently. We'll see!

Not impressed, especially by how they are handling the NES games.
They're starting with 20 games, and only plan to add three games each month...
Nintendo has the opportunity to have the ultimate Netflix-like Retro gaming service, and they decide to slowly trickle out new releases? It's also not much to those who own an NES classic, which has over half of this and more.

Mainly getting it for the cloud saves and special offers. £18 is pretty cheap for a year but thats about the only major positive. I can only hope that as time passes it becomes more worthwhile with addititional games (preferably SNES).

Still unsure of how the family bundle works is it multi switches or one with different user's.

@thesilverbrick The 'Special Offers' for members are not likely to be discounts on games like many assumed. Those NES controllers are labelled under 'Special Offers for members' along with exclusive Splatoon 2 gear with more offers being added regularly.

So....I guess I'll just be playing offline like I mostly do anyways? What exactly is worth $20 here? Well this was a huge waste of time expecting good to come out of it, though not surprising since they punish people who buy physical games and what with My Nintendo being crap and all...

All this holding cards to their chests for nothing? Wth... >_>

Ah well...extra $20 staying in my pocket I s'pose.

@thesilverbrick,

Don't forget the online play,and yes it has been free from Nintendo in the past but everybody else charges...you have to do this to improve the servers as the service grows.

$1.66 a month does not sound too bad for the service and the NES titles are a nice bonus,if Nintendo had released them on a virtual console service and charged individually for them everybody would be moaning they were paying to download the same games again.

I am pretty sure more consoles will be added to the service..but it's a pretty good start imo.

@thesilverbrick it's $20 a year not $20 a month. Please edit your post.

I can’t get over people complaining about the whole “$20 a year” thing. If you can afford a Switch and games then surely you can scrape together $20 for a year’s membership. Granted there are only a few games now, but that’s not to say that Nintendo won’t be releasing more in the future. If you do pay the money and really don’t like the service that much and don’t use it then it’s no big deal, $20 won’t get you a lot these days.

I will always love these videos showcasing Bowser as best dad.

I'm disappointed that D3 will be behind an online paywall. While admittedly it's not a lot of money (subjective) , It's a less consumer friendly push from the last of the console manufacturers.

I can’t believe they are still offering NES games where they should be at the level of GameCube games by now. NES games were so Wii...

I don't see much to complain about outside of paying to play online itself...but folk should have done that in 2006 when MS started doing it.

Truthfully, I feel people are acting incredibly unreasonable. $20 dollars a year for all that? Even if it’s not groundbreaking, that’s the cheapest year-long membership of anything ever, and still a big value for money. I think unless you’re especially hard on money, you should stop complaining so much about this.

I honestly can’t see what people are upset about. The price is cheap, having a constant flow of new NES games to play seems worth it alone to me.

There’s 20 games at launch, plus three more each month. So by the end of the year there should be 50-odd games on there. For £20. That’s incredible.

Spacing them out gives new titles a chance in the spotlight each month too. For anyone even vaguely interested in gaming history and understanding the origins of the medium this is fantastic.

Not a fan of subscription but I got too many games I play online to pass by. It’s a 20$ with free games which I won’t play but playing online one whole year justifies the price I guess

I don't care at all about old NES games and cloud saves are a nice addition, but a way to backup (offline for example) should be free for everyone. I also don't play that much online. But what I really don't get, is why people are upset that there isn't something more. Nintendo has always been transparent about the service, and all articles and comment saying "we know almost nothing about it". Why? We already knew almost anything, why did people expected a surprise of some sorts? I'm not sure I made my point, but this is pretty interesting from a psychological point of view thata there is an expectation beyond facts.

I have zero interest in playing NES games on my 3ds let alone my switch. I was an ambassador and have never played the NES games. Yes its cheap for online but please give me something else worthwhile. Even if it were SNES games it would be something and I've played them to death as well but NES again!

@Parafin @wasilewski It's not that I can't pay $20 a year. In fact I'd pay more if they offered something of value to me, but I just don't see anything here. This just feels like a lazy cash grab by Nintendo and I don't want to support that. If around half of existing Switch owners pay up, they get an extra $200 million dollars for doing practically nothing. so yeah, I'm complaining about $20 a year.

the worst part is, they could so easily have included SNES, GBA and N64 games and made cloud saves work for every game. It would cost them next to nothing, and a lot more people could get excited about this, but they're too stingy.

@Ricube Some people are upset there isn't something more and had hoped for more information because they still find it hard to believe Nintendo would offer such a mediocre service. (Mind you, we should have had an idea of what to expect based on mynintendo. Remember all those people saying it would get better over time?)

Are we supposed to get excited about paying for something that was always free (or rather, is included in the price of the games)?

What information were we hoping to find out? Well, will they be providing dedicated servers for online or is it just the same old p2p that costs them nothing. Which games will not support cloud saves? Will they be adding games from other systems to the NES titles they've announced?

But hey, it's only $20 so stop complaining and just pay up.

@Ralphio yep, it's a rental service. if you stop paying, or once the service is cut off, your games and cloud saves are gone.

and they still haven't said anything about those "special offers". I'm guessing they will be along the lines of mynintendo "rewards": 30% off wii u and 3ds games.

@Ralphio Can't remember, but did they confirm games become useless after your membership runs out, ala PS Plus? Just curious.

Online service is silly. Online is a given, cloud saving isn't a selling point anymore, NES games...that is good! Every other communication offers free party communication without hassle. This is an announcement...don't hold off on the hidden extras!! You're trying to entice us

Not bothered about nes games and not much value to me other than playing online but luigis mansion 3 is coming.

Guys, helpe me please. Do I need the family membership to play online with diferent users in ONE console? Or does the cheaper 20$ suffice?

Still not sold, I'll go back to playing online for free. And actually keeping the free games I get.

Regardless of how cheap it is, holding our saved games for ransom will never fly with me.

I play exclusively single player games, so gonna skip it.

Cya
Raziel-chan

@Mcoleya nah. N64 classic

I don't get the NES games..if I wanted NES games I would buy a NES classic. I personally don't care for them, but even SNES games are meh. I have a SNES classic.... Free games are cool, bit if I want retro games give.me an emulator box. We need an N64.classic!

I'd gladly pay $20 if I knew online would be the quality of Steam (which is free....).

As of now I will wait.

Terrible. Just terrible.

Charging us for what has been free on Nintendo hardware for the last 13 years plus mostly inconsequential extras.

I have absolutely no incentive to sign up any time soon.

I would have been keen to build an NES library if given the option to purchase the software outright. Alas...

I think it's great! First time ever to p;lau online SNES games multiplayer! Awesome!
Aaaaand its only £20 for the whole year!
I bet you will get that back when they release the special offers! lol
Sometimes I'm sad there are even so many negative people in gaming ...

Never bought any vc games so lucked out in that regard. However the voice chat should not be done with your phone.

The rest are what was expected and while I think that certain games won't have cloudsaves is a terrible idea I will buy a subscription for 20 buck

@thesilverbrick Pretty much yes. I'll be paying regardless as I play Switch games online, it doesn't have a lot going for it though. The only thing it does have is the price compared go the other consoles, but then you get some pretty amazing games with those subs.

@tedko They already have 2 of the Special Offers up on their website. It's the NES controllers and exclusive Splatoon 2 gear with more to be added regularly. It looks like stuff like this is going to be the 'members only deals' and not discounts. Although I'm sure Switch games will be added to MyNintendo they won't be limited to only subscribers.

What a load of bull.

They didn't even state which games will have voice chat.
So are we saying splatoon and tennis will be the only voice chat first party games?

I won't mind supporting it from launch, considering a 1 year subscription is nearly half the price of 1 year PS Plus. Having access to those NES games and potential discounts will be neat. People might be moaning, but we should be grateful Nintendo managed to support free online multiplayer way longer than Sony and Microsoft.

Saying that, if they ever start raising the price, they'll need to add more incentives if that time comes. Otherwise, people will start dropping support for it.

I’m holding off for now as there isn’t enough there and of sufficient quality for me to pull the trigger. Giving up only a selection of 30 year plus NES roms ive owned a million times over is not luring me in but the biggest no no for me is the voice chat thing. It’s unexceptable for me to be paying for an online service but I basically have to phone whomever I’m playing with just to be able to communicate. It’s 2018. It’s so ridiculous and should be standard.

Also I’ve just seen that Nintendo have gated off the purchase of the NES controllers to online subscribers. Is that meant to be seen as a bonus? The ability to pay over the odds for some NES pads. Oooooooo sign me up

Don’t get me wrong, I respect the issues y’all have with the package. I just feel that it’s called Nintendo Switch Online for a reason: the main focus was always, and still is, the online play. I think people may have been expecting too much beyond the online play and they were always going to be disappointed. I do understand where people are coming from though, if it’s not up your street I totally get it.

Unless I get real discounts on actual Switch games I’ll just ignore the service. Not interested in stupid NES, SNES & N64 games.. Gives us regualr discounts on Switch games like Sony and I might get this membership.

@Heavyarms55 "The NES controllers turned out to be real, like in the leak, so odds are we will be getting SNES controllers and games too."

WHy does it mean that? All it means is there are NES controllers for NES games.

@Heavyarms55 if they can get enough people to sign up its a decent amount of money that PC owners have never had to pay... console makers are laughing a.ll the way to the bank.

@Mr_Pepperami and they'll be on ebay faster than Navi can say LISTEN

@RunGMhx same here i don't think its worth it for whats on offer so far

I am happy to pay for the NES games alone.

Sorry but im a big nintendo fanboy since i was 5 years old (33 now), but i just cant support this anymore with a smile. They already kinda screwed us with the wiiu wich was a switch prototype.
Now we finally have the switch and my damn console is a ff-in Indie machine, i cant even go into the e-shop without scrolling through waaaay too many BS indie games before you find something remotely good. Making me pay 40 (everybody upset about the 20 but think of us with family's) for this and still not being able to normally scroll the eshop is just crazy.

Ow and if ya want joypad options just go to 8bitdo, wayyyy cheaper and they really work well with the system.

As my main man mario would say.
"Mamma mia You break-a my Heart"

@mgnoodle The leak showed NES & SNES controller icons, now just a week later NES controllers have been announced. I think it's safe to say the leak was legit and SNES games are on the way.

I'll pay because I play a lot online, but yeah, the cost benefit with their online is awful. when they showed the phone app looking all the same in the direct it was a sad sight to behold tbh. not to mention shoddy cloud saves. why didn't they prepare any announcements regarding rewards in the last nights direct? "we'll announce them soon." soon? soon is now nintendo!

I got a feeling there will be a huge drop in online players for MarioKart and Splatoon starting next week. How many people will sign up? Nintendo may have to rely on bots in the future.

It's outrageous having cloudsave behind a paywall. No wonder N didn't include the ability to save to card or flash drive. Give people the option don't force payment to save your progress. Ransomeware !!!

$20 is cheap for most people and its cheap for a reason, all your really getting for your $20 is online play and unlocking your ability to recover your save game files on the console you paid for for the game you paid for. You also get a shockingly bad app so you can chat ( but not message that im aware of ) on a separate usually expensive device.

Free Nes games....they are Nes games. 20-30 years old and I can play them on basically anything with a screen for free. And most of you have bought these many times before. The free games are a sideshow.

I remember Reggie saying the online service was being held back and refined so that it would be 'World Class'......his and my idea of world class seem to differ....alot

The witch cackle I let out when they said they would reveal the special offers another time... MAAAN this was the timeI to reveal all your cards and convince people. What a mess.

I just want to know where the “Service” part of “Online Service” comes in. What would I be paying for? I saw no mention of dedicated servers there, voice chat is still via a mobile app, cloud saves don’t work on every game (even major first party titles that need it most)...so please, give me one reason why I should not just call this a paywall. What is the service here? I don’t know how anyone but fanboys can defend this. I am not content giving a company money -yes, even just $20- and getting nothing back in return.

@OorWullie ah I see. That makes sense then ☺️

@Grogan indeed. It’s frustrating being a Nintendo fan. Although I agree cloud saves should be paid for as servers aren’t free. However. It’s a joke that the most important games like Splatoon won’t be saved to the cloud

If you get to keep the NES games even if your subscription ends then its worth it just for those. Not so much for me as I already own most of them on Wii/Wii U/3DS, but I guess its not much different to paying the Wii/Wii U transfer charges.

I'm not happy about voice chat still being tied to a phone app. It's a neat idea if you have a group of people with phones as you don't need a bunch of wireless headsets; but it's not so good if people don't have a phone. If they could make both headsets and phones work together then it would be great, but as it is its useless.

I’ll pay because I want to play online, the rest are just extras.

People seem to like comparing all the extras that PS+ offer with Nintendo’s service, while purposely ignoring the huge difference in price.

I’d be concerned if we were paying the same but getting less, as it is now, the price is perfectly reasonable.

The argument that it was free before doesn’t make much sense either. Yes, it was free but now it’s not (and everybody knew about it since day one). Take it or not.

If someone wants to complain, I say it’s way too late. You should have done it when MS started doing it.

Nintendo just wanted an extra $20 per year from everyone for not much effort. They won't allow us to locally backup saves as that would make their online backup less appealing. The mobile app looks the same as the current one with a rubbish solution for voice chat. The servers will likely be the same. The 3 NES games a month are very stingy and many people under a certain age will not care for them. We will see how good the offers and discounts are, but if its anything like MyNintendo then it won't be worth a damn.

If I'm right in thinking, there is no dedicated servers. So what the hell am I paying for?
Rubbish voice chat
Not every game is cloud saved
Some retro games I care not for or already played to death
Some discounts

There's still no restrictions on the Family Membership mentioned, so we're going ahead with the plan to use it with a network of friends.
That means that the online service will cost $4.40 per year to me!

@OorWullie Wait, $60 for two NES controllers is a special offer?!

EDIT: I had a look at the website. NES controllers and (not) exclusive Splatoon 2 gear... I'm unimpressed. The fact the controllers are exclusive means I'll never be able to get them less than RRP, so it's the opposite of a special offer.

Its really cheap! So yeah i love it. Playing unlimited ness VC games i like it even more. So yeah a year membership from me.
and cloud saves finally! So yeay its only normal to ask for a fee, with that much content. Xblive, and PS already have it, ao yeah for a stable online play its necessary. Nintendo has to pay their bills also for those cloud saves, online storage etc etc.

Even without all those extras, if it was only for the online services / cloud save etc. I was already sold. Ness games are a bonus.
even without it, its cheap.

Oh good grief. I see "exclusive gear" for Splatoon 2 is one of the special offers. Except, every Splatoon 2 player is going to need to be a subscriber, so it's "exclusive" to literally every player!

No! It’s cheap enough but Nintendo at times just baffles me.

All I want to know is... We have one Switch at home which me and the kids play on. Will the single membership be enough for all of us to play online or do I need a family membership?

All I want to know is... We have one Switch at home which me and the kids play on. Will the single membership be enough for all of us to play online or do I need a family membership?

All I want to know is... We have one Switch at home which me and the kids play on. Will the single membership be enough for all of us to play online or do I need a family membership?

All I want to know is... We have one Switch at home which me and the kids play on. Will the single membership be enough for all of us to play online or do I need a family membership?

All I want to know is... We have one Switch at home which me and the kids play on. Will the single membership be enough for all of us to play online or do I need a family membership?

All I want to know is... We have one Switch at home which me and the kids play on. Will the single membership be enough for all of us to play online or do I need a family membership?

All I want to know is... We have one Switch at home which me and the kids play on. Will the single membership be enough for all of us to play online or do I need a family membership?

All I want to know is... We have one Switch at home which me and the kids play on. Will the single membership be enough for all of us to play online or do I need a family membership?

@dethmart If you have one account on your Switch you can use a single membership. If you have more than one account a family plan is cheaper.

Single member ship is only for ONE account.

@RaphaBoss Looks like you’ll need a family account for multiple users. Just remember to add all users to the family account. This will also work for people with multiple switches and/or in different countries.

It was to be expected but there are still very few details about the service and it launches next week. I wasn't expecting the direct to have a detailed blow of all the T&Cs but it just rehashed the broad headlines we already knew about. I've just been on the Nintendo UK website and there is nothing obvious to click on or no menu that takes you to a page with further details, I had to manually search for it.

I do think for £18 a year it is good value and the new NES titles look good. It's just disappointing to see this close to launch and we there are still areas of confusion.

Definitely not getting it, I don't play online, the new games I own like 3 times over, the cloud saves is awful and I find it wrong that if you want Splatoon stuff or those NES controllers you NEED to buy online ... I may try a month but it's just a waste of money I feel

The Direct was useful as, before this, I was very much on the fence about whether to pay for the online subscription service. The Direct helped convince me that this is a complete waste of time, so I won’t be subscribing. I hope others do the same as we need to vote with our wallets and let Nintendo know that this is not good enough.

I don’t want 40-year-old NES games – we have had those before. I want GameCube games – I don’t care if it is a multi-layered service with a premium cost, but I do want a proper legacy game service like they offer on Xbox One and PS4.

@Mintendo this is so stupid, that's 35 bucks unless you are the only user.

@RaphaBoss If you are in a family with 2 people with a Switch or an account on a Switch, the family plan is already cheaper than 2 individual accounts.

35 €/$ vs 2x 20 €/$ (= 40 €/$)

@sanderev I will just limit my play to one account( rip my 200 hours in splatoon 2). I'm upset I need to pay to play smash online, a P2P game! I don't care about the NES systems. This is such a letdown.

@ICISAZEL PCs have the benefit of running on an existing infrastructure. Their online system is already built through the existing operating systems, internet services and programs. Game consoles have to build all that from scratch. It's not as simple as just plugging a device into the wall.

@mgnoodle In the leak of the 6.0.0 OS we saw icons for NES controllers and SNES controllers. The NES controllers turned out to be real, so it seems likely the SNES ones will be too. They wouldn't go out of their way to make the SNES controllers for the Switch without an intent to release SNES games on the Switch.

@Roarsome I agree with you that, if you take the package in isolation, it represents fairly good value for money. I think the issue that many of us have is that it is such a step backwards in the context of what Nintendo has previously provided.

The Wii U, for all the criticism it received, did at least have a comprehensive Virtual Console service. I understand that Nintendo is not offering the same service here, but to go from nearly accessing every previous Nintendo system to just NES games it a bit of a let down.

I also think that Nintendo is overly focused on price and is trying to reinvent the wheel so to speak by doing their own thing. I don't understand why they can't just be a little humble and learn from their competitors.

I also think they should have different price tiers. If some people just want online support and NES games for £20 a year, I'm fine with that, but at least give some of us the option to pay £40 or £60 for a more comprehensive service with SNES, N64 and Gamecube games.

I didn't think there would be any surprises with the online service, and still my heart sank when we didn't get any. Dunno what that says about me.

When I think about it, the only thing I really want is an achievement system. I'm playing through the PS4 Tomb Raider games right now to prep for the new one and I like to 100% games, so I get a little buzz every time I get an achievement to say I've killed however many dudes with headshots or whatever. Its just a good thing to have. I can't see why this shouldn't be implemented on Switch. Minus the bit about head shots. Head splats maybe?

@thesilverbrick So far the special offer is the fact that only online subs can get the nes controllers, and free splatoon gear

People expecting far too much for £20, i'd waste that much on nothing and think nothing of it.

Bring out a switch pro if that's the only way to get voice chat off of an app.

Oh man, it’s too early for popcorn. My alarm went off, and I checked all the comments in this article; 20 minutes later I’m wide awake and amused by folks.
I can’t wait to play Dr Mario.

It was a charming presentation, but I'm also not sold yet.

Why make us play NES games?! I’m over those after so many replays in past Nintendo online buys. Bring on N64 games and GameCube games at least! Nintendo is always behind!

Im so not sold on it that i cancelled my pre order of Smash. I want to hold off and see how their online community will look going forward before buying games with large focus on multiplayer gaming. To be honest i have no intention of purchasing this silly service as it is.

The problem at least from my end is, that Runescape mobile will be available soon and Nintendo's online has done nothing to convince me to stay put.

In all honesty i hope Nintendo totally back peddle on this one. Return online as a free service and give us VC... I mean Nintendo would be doing so well if they just kept down that path... The Switch is so good... But my god this Online is a total train wreck Nintendo is getting torn into even on fansites on this one.

Feels like 2014 all over again 😧... How could Nintendo drop the ball this badly... Jesus...

@electrolite77
Yes I can see that people do have complaint about the fact they are now having to pay for something that they didn't have to previously.

But from what I can see that is not what people are complaining about, there is a lot of people wanting more which would bring the inevitable price increase which may also be unacceptable to lots of people. I think Nintendo have pitched this right, if they forced all the people that already own their online focused games to pay a substantial amount then people would have far more reason to be upset, in a lot of ways that would be unfair! However they have gone bare roots with the whole thing and it done it cheep, which is a perfect starting point. And you know they will expand the service and charge more in the future, that's business.

But you are right people always have a choice on where they spend their money, but I have said this on here before, if you don't feel that you get what you want from Nintendo then there is always the other companies that may offer you that. For instance if you want to play GTA or Read Dead then don't buy Nintendo, but people still come on Nintendolife and complain that you can't, pfft..

@Heavyarms55 LEts hope your right. NES games just don't hold up. I doubt many people still play them and even fewer complete them. At least SNES games hold up better.

@dew12333 you know what.

I would rather pay more and get more service instead of paying for something that was free before.

Don't even point at those pathetic NES games.

Nintendo is going to be in for a shock when their online community dies off.

@Razer I agree with your assessment. Although it sounds terrible to say this, I really hope people vote with their wallets and don't sign up to the Online Service. I am afraid the only thing that will make Nintendo think again is if the take up of the service is less than they are projecting.

For me, the cost element is an 'in principle' issue. Of course, I could afford £20 but it irritates me that Nintendo is taking a free to use service and, with little to no effort, assuming they can make easy money. I wish they would a least put a little effort in.

If they had launched a premium service for £60 which included NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, WiiU and Gameboy Advance games (at the very least) then I think many of us would be much happier, even if the initial selection was quite small.

Also, why bother adding all the Online functionality? Honestly, if they literally just ported games like Luigi's Mansion to Switch and didn't even bother making any functional or graphical changes, I'd be happy with that. I mean, the online functionality is great and everything, but I'd rather just have the games now.

Not sure of it is enough to please but at the end is very inexpensive. If I can get good deals with it, that’s all I need. The NES selection is a plus, the rest just meh.

@NintendoFan4Lyf Yes, there is no freaking way I will ever own a ps4 or Xbox One with that ripp off. Ps3 was my last console and online was good and free( better than switch for sure). If you read my comment, you will notice that I don't care for the NES games. It's a paywall to play freaking P2P games( I just want to play smash), that's right, NO DEDICATED SERVERS! And I can't even mensage someone you just met online like you could with miiverse. For people interested in NES games it is a deal, but I will never agree with blocking online play behind a paywall. And if I want to play splatoon on my account without sharing the same save file with my brother, I will have to pay the 35 dollars family membership.

@Yoshi87 yeah i won't be buying but i also want online functions too.

A chat service.
a pre game party option. (WHY TAKE AWAY MIIVERS?!?!?!)
better online play.
Better friend adding system

Unfortunately, good games aside... This is leaving me feeling very let down and to be honest, i am really starting to hope Sony makes another portable device. I hate myself for saying that but i really hope they do.

Portable is my only option to play games.

Realistically, the NES games might get a few minutes of my time each as I've played all the ones I really want to play already on previous formats. To me, this is £20 per year for online and cloud saves. I'm paying as I want to keep playing Splatoon 2 online, and occasionally Mario Kart and Arms too.

@mgnoodle That is not an opinion many people share. If it were, the NES Classic would not have sold so well.

@JohnnyC you know what i thought i might do that too... But this backlash from even long time fans is looking like the online community on those games are gonna die off very quickly.

@NintendoFan4Lyf I do play on pc though, Steam is amazing for the prices. But you know, I can't play nintendo on it, sucks to be a fan lol.

They have not shown anything new in this direct. The only thing they showed us about the service are the nes controller.

Why NES games, not SNES?

@OorWullie I didn't realize those were the special offers. Not sure how I missed that. Still, doesn't add any incentive to me.

Other than the service being explain more concisely, I don't really feel like I learned anything new from it. As I pretty much figured already, I'm just going to have to get in it and see how it does over time. 20 bucks is not too much of a loss for me.

@electrolite77 "It’s not about whether people can pay it. It’s whether they want to"
Exactly

its so bad. And Nintendo still refuses to offer full details a week before launch? ugh no thanks

@Razer Again, I completely agree with you. Just to clarify, I'm not saying I don't want online functionality, but why can't they port the games first and add it later, given that they are constantly (and quite rightly) always updating their first party games.

"Are you sold?"
Not until I know whether or not the family option extends to people on the friend list, because accounts on the same console are a pretty useless option, especially taking Kimishima's wishes for more than one Switch in the same house into account.
Does anyone know?

@Yoshi87 Well i don't know what Nintendo's game plan is going forward I've cancelled pre orders of:

Diablo 3
Smash bros

And plans to purchase Splatoon and Civ 6 are alll on hold until 1 of 2 things happens.

1 Nintendo totally back peddles, gives us VC back, free cloud saves and keep the online as it is.

2 vastly improve it (or just hire a team to do it... Whatever it takes).

That direct was great but that small online portion has cost Nintendo over £180 from my pocket this holiday.

“Play NES games!” Meh.
“Play those NES games online with others!” Eh??

Question.....does online with others mean just your own friends, or like random people as well?

I will get it so i can keep playing online games. I will splitting the family plan with at least one other person.

@Heavyarms55 but how people
Have actually played and completed the games

I'm sold on this.

Also, to the whiners about how the Online Service is bad... Too bad, life doesn't go the way you want it to be and it doesn't revolve around whiners and complainers like you lot.

@Razer I agree it's not great. And, what a surprise, we have just learnt that if you don't renew your subscription you lose ALL of your cloud saves immediately, unlike Nintendo's competitors that store them for several months afterwards to try and entice you back. This deal is getting worse by the minute.

i'll probably get it for cloud saves though I wish N would just allow saves to be transferred to the SDcard.

N will never catch up to the big boys imo. they're playing in their own yard and can't see over the privacy fence. they don't know there's anything else out there. just their yard.

@Razer For me, Mario Kart and Arms are more local multiplayer titles. Online for those wouldn't justify the cost for me. Splatoon is essential though. Love playing that. Still boot up the first one too, and it's still quick and easy to get a game on that.

@Alantor28 you’re whining about whiners. People are allowed other opinions calling people whiners is just childish. Why not put an argument to why you think it’s so great. Why bother when you can call people whiners or the other cool phrase of ‘entitled’. Grow up

@Alantor28 you know i would normally agree as im a huge Nintendo fan myself but its fairly clear that in this particular case... The ones who shut up and bend over, take anything thats stuck into them with a smile and grin are defo in the minority on this one.

Nintendo! what r u doing; im honestly not satisfied on nintendo switch online voice chat. The console should have native voice chat, not be dependant on some app.

I'm sad to see online go. I don't use online services with any sort of consistency, but when I do I really enjoy my time. I've fond memories of playing MKWii online for hours on random weekends trying to get better, unlocking characters, or playing battle mode. While I treasure those times spent, I know there's no way I'd have been able to get the funds for "online services" from my mom after the pretty price of the game, which would mean not getting online at all.

I understand it makes sense for Nintendo to be doing this, but I can't help but be sad for those casual players who had to save up half a year for their Nintendos. Maybe if they gave 2-3 hours free a month?

(Does this mean anything online at all? Including playing with friends, but not local wireless?)

To be honest, I'm still underwhelmed by NSO. It's not an issue for me yet since I don't have a Switch (a few more months), but there isn't enough here to make me dig out $20 in the beginning. I suspect I'll cave eventually when I start worrying about my saves...which wouldn't be an issue to begin with if local backup options were a thing.

Everyone is always complaining about this online service it’s $20 a year that’s nothing. I’d pay $200 a year just for the peace of mind of cloud saves.

@JohnnyC well if you can justify it yourself then all the power to you but im personally in a tight situation with it. Nintendo have done a chicken or egg situation on me.

I know if i support Nintendo on this and pay up and others who hate this do the same, we would get a healthier online community with easy to find gaming sessions online. That's essentially what we all want.

If i and others like me don't support it, the community will suffer as a whole for it as less players means less people playing.

It really doesn't help their situation that Runescape Mobile is out end of next month.

Just be careful with your saves when you use the cloud with Nintendo Switch Online. If you save your datas and you stop to pay one time or another, your saves are gone !

I quote "
Q.

After my Nintendo Switch Online subscription expires, will my Save Data Cloud files and Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo Switch Online save data be erased?
A.

Save data stored with Save Data Cloud cannot be kept outside of the duration of your Nintendo Switch Online membership. Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo Switch Online also uses the Save Data Cloud, so the same applies. However, if you keep the Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo Switch Online save data saved locally on your Nintendo Switch console, then you can use it again if you purchase another membership.
"
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Nintendo-Switch/Nintendo-Switch-Online/FAQ-1374625.html?awc=12777_1536932855_b288a23611b55991750d9a41e2773047&affil=awin&utm_source=AWIN&utm_medium=digidip&utm_campaign=0b00568erg21&utm%20_content=Sub+Networks

@johnvboy Everyone else does charge for online play. But everybody else has dedicated servers and integrated voice chat (without a cumbersome smart phone app) and dozens of other extra features that justify a subscription cost. Nintendo is not upgrading anything about the online play experience and just deciding to charge for now. It’s one thing to charge for a premium product if it is, in fact, premium. But they are charging for the same online service they have provided for free for years.

@jswhitfield8 as they always do. It’s why I won’t have more than one switch in my house.

As NintendoFan4Lyf basically said, this is the norm for consoles. I add to that, that this practice of charging for online access, is one day going to hurt the console makers. Why pay a ridiculous amount of money for a console, that unlike a pc, can't be upgraded, only to then pay more for basic access to online; even moreso if the online play is p2p, and no servers?!

Nintendo would be so much wiser, & so much more profitable, if, and only if they could fight off their greed. They need to keep online play free. If they want to do online subscriptions, that's fine, as long as they justify the price. But, it needs to be a tiered service, with basic online play being free.

I love Nintendo, but they've always been greedy. Their entrance into Mobile space has made them even greedier.

Part of me wants a Switch. The other part of me doesn't. A $300 machine, that if I want to play p2p, not servers, online, I have to shell out an extra $20 per-year. ... Right. Give me a break. My internet is barely capable of connecting for a laggy game of Smash. Why would I want to pay $20 for something I can't even enjoy?

I hope everyone who subscribes to this, wholeheartedly enjoys themselves. I may change my mind, but I honestly don't think I will. If Nintendo kept online play free, that'd be fine, but they know this is unfortunately a norm of the other consoles, so they think they can get away with this.

Again, I love Nintendo. I want a NS, part of me, but most games I want for it, I can get elsewhere, like Mega Man and the X Legacy Collections I can actually have both on (physical) disc. Add to that, that my isp isn't giving me good enough service for online play, basic online p2p play cost money, and a Switch is expensive, especially for what it is, ... really I'm probably going to skip the Switch. Nintendo's greed has made this a train wreck.

If Nintendo changes their tune, so will I. I'm a Nintendo fan, but this isn't worth it.

I do hope, however, that anyone excited for this, totally enjoys it! Don't let my lack of enthusiasm ruin yours!

Edit: For perspective, not everyone just casually goes through a $20 like it's easily throwaway.

My only concern is the family account thing. Is that an "all of my accounts on this switch go online" version or is it a "all my family members have switches so one bill for 4 accounts on 4 switches" thing?

If former then off on $80/month switch bill. If latter then that is a badass deal

@electrolite77 imagine if it actually was £18 a month 😂😂😂

Just let me back up my own saves using whatever service I like. Google Drive, etc. I shouldn't have to pay any additional money over and above the $90 each game costs to do something as simple as keep a backup of my save game somewhere. Don't need an online subscription for my own saves.Why did it take them this long to get the online service up and running?

How many times are they going to keep pushing out the same tired NES games? Move up a generation or two, geez. Super Mario Bros. 3 came out when I was 8 years old. Thirty years ago! When Nintendo released it as Super Mario Advance 4 for GBA, and added the new levels with e-Cards, that was awesome. I would be in for that, and a bunch of other GBA games in a heartbeat.

@Mando44646 plot twist: the details were fully covered, that's it, it is just that bad.

I will begrudgingly pay for ONE Month at first, then when I can afford it, go for the full $20 a year thing.

@Razer No arguments there, the most effective form of protest is to vote with your wallet. In reality though, I think the majority of people who play Switch online will continue to do so and pay for it, just as has happened with Microsoft and Sony when they switched from free online to premium. Those moves were controversial at the time, but ultimately accepted. Again, I agree that had players voted with their wallets, as they did with the Xbox One, Battlefront II or other similar scenarios, real change would have happened.

@Ralphio My point exactly everyone keeps trying to justify the 20$ a year when as were only getting rehash retro games people could simply play on the mini nes and snes consoles and cloud saves not supporting important games like dark souls, splatoon, ect you can thank all the hackers and cheaters for that and quite possible Nintendo as well for not having a better solution to dealing with them permanently. so ya...

I would be genuinely interested to see what Nintendo's online games cost them to run. I know that they will need some server space for cloud saves and there is also match-making, but how much will that actually cost? Running the online NES games will also cost them, though how much will depend on popularity.

Our account info has to be stored somewhere too, so that must have a cost. If I'm paying towards that, then that is easier to take than paying for online that I won't use and NES games that I won't play and cloud saves that do not include my entire game library.

If they are using the NES service as a tester to see whether streaming can be made to work properly in the West, then I can see some use in that.

At the moment, though, the only thing Switch Online offers me is the ability to back up at least some of my games to the cloud. The value just isn't really there, despite it being cheap. And it's all-in or all-out, no picking which services to get.

All I'm asking for is that if you want to offer me an online service is that you at least offer the basics. Those being the account, friend, and chat systems. Since NO doesn't offer those basics, the service isn't worth the price.

Lacking these basics means that online play becomes a chore. We saw this when the PS3 first launched. In order to start charging for the service, Sony had to up the quality and features of the service. Nintendo need to do the same, or risk killing the online community of the Switch.

@thesilverbrick,

We are not entitled for it to be free forever.

@electrolite77,

No we were all entitled for it to always be free...some people will complain no matter what Nintendo do.

$1.66 per month.....if anybody is struggling to pay for that then they should not buy a Switch in the first place.

@johnvboy Nobody said anything about being entitled. Nintendo absolutely has the right to charge whatever they want for their products and services. But when something that has been free since 2004 is suddenly being monetized without improvement, users are going to complain. And rightly so.

@JohnnyC i dunno maybe, but judging by Twitter and the dislikes on the ad for the online, id venture to guess its not going to be as smooth as all that.

@johnvboy i don't see the benefit of paying for it though... Even if it cost £10 a year. It wasn't worth paying for before because it was free.
A bare bones free service.

Now its a bare bones service with a cost.

Thats a no from my pocket... To further emphasis my stance... I'll break the numbers down further.

I refuse to pay 5.5 pence a day to get nothing.

@Alantor28 life don't revolve around you lot as well so I wouldn't be talking high and mighty either.

@Razer Time will tell. Online communities can sometimes be empty noise by entitled weirdos that don't represent the silent majority (e.g. Heath Ledger being a terrible choice for Joker, Gal Gadot being too skinny for Wonder Woman, Wind Waker being a kids cartoon etc) and sometimes they can make a real difference to a finished product because they're reflective of the majority, e.g. the improvements seen to the Xbox One since launch or the changed ending of Mass Effect 3. Right now though, nobody honestly knows how it's going to pan out, so all we can do is cast our own individual votes (with our wallets) and see what Nintendo does in response. As previously mentioned, I'll go for it, as it's less than half the price of my plus subscription and I spend as much time online with my Switch as I do with my PS4. Everyone needs to weigh it up individually though, and I can fully appreciate why it may not be something everyone goes for. I've let my Plus subscription lapse a few times when there's not been any online games I've got on the go (I'm not a Fifa or Call of Duty person, so I'm not constantly playing online), and I see that being the same with this service too.

@JohnnyC all the more power to you. I hope im in the minority and most adopt it.

I'm afraid i won't be doing the same.

I'll probably still buy Smash though for single player but if I'm really honest, this might sound bad but so far I've decided to not buy any more games for the Switch because Runescape mobile tells me not too.

Sorry Nintendo. This won't be a perm thing but i see it lasting about 18 months to 2 years 😂... I want to think that it might not happen but I've got very little reason not to play Runescape mobile as it would offer 100× more fun than Nintendo games with no online.

@thesilverbrick Again my point exactly I love Nintendo a lot heck I'm one of the known cross console gamers in the world but even I struggle with money and I'm currently living at a vocational training school hoping to get myself a decent job, a room or apartment, and some wifi to support my online gaming but with all these companies charging us gamers with something we in a way are paying for with our investment cash is pure garbage there should be another way for them to intice people to purchase their products.

@johnvboy It's not that I couldn't afford that price. It's that that payment doesn't get me anything I want from the Switch. More so, it doesn't put much needed features on the Switch (namely the account, friend, and chat systems I talked about just before your post).

Nintendo charging for online play was a chance to invest on the online infrastructure of the systems. Bring the console up to date and in line with the other 3 platforms. Doing so would have helped players of other platforms transition back on to a Nintendo platform, and it would have offered the Nintendo only players to fully come in to the next gen of gaming. Ignoring these features keeps Nintendo and Nintendo players stuck in a convoluted and archaic model of online play.

This sort of move could put players off of the system for 3rd party titles, and put 3rd party devs off of the system, since the smaller Switch user base now has to pay for online it means that even fewer will actually play online, so any online titles will suffer. If Fortnite ends up in this service it could kill the community almost instantly, which would in turn kill support for the title, and then that snowballs until Epic doesn't support the Switch, and then other Devs don't.

All from something as silly as locking online play behind a poor value, out of date service.

The online app needs to die. What if you only have a switch wtf Nintendo.

@johnvboy when are you going to understand it's not about the money, it's about the principle. I am tired of this stupid argument "it cost so little if you can't afford it get a job or etc". It my MONEY, no matter how much it is I am not going to throw it away. Understand already and stop with this crap.

With more knowledge on the matter, Nintendo Online doesn't seem as bad as I originally considered to be. Sure it isn't like fantastic, but it's passable at least.

No, my sole issue lies with what Nintendo considers nostalgic to us. I am absolutely exhausted with the overdid to death emphasis on remembering the good ole days of the NES. Even on the other end of the spectrum, games that were released far too recently are getting HD bumps and Switch Deluxe ports or whatever. Ok, now I'm wandering into selfish and ranting territory, but the core of my nostalgia resides with GameCube and early era Wii games. I'm concerned that delivering these titles whether it be through some online service, a virtual console shop, or what have you is either in the distaaaaaaaaaant future or won't be a thing at all. Ugh, sorry for the negativity. It's been a day.

TBH 20$ is a reasonable price and I think at some point I jump in anyway. I skipped PS Plus because 60$ is too high and I’m in no way interested in what sony offers. Add titles other than NES (SNES or 64 or even DS) and Give us a regular monthly plan for releasing them, and I’m in.

@Alantor28 Truth, if the whiners could afford a switch then they can afford $20. the moaning is disgraceful.

@vitelus,

So you feel you are entitled to something for free,because it has always been free.

Why not step outside the box and be happy it was free for so long and see that as a bonus.

@Richnj,

Don't subscribe then...simple.

@thesilverbrick,

Then they are wrong to complain,just take it as a bonus it was free for so long...Nintendo not charging can't go on forever.

@johnvboy you still don't get it...i would pay 100 a year if the equivalent value was present, but it ain't. And yeah it was free and they were profitable but they still decided to be like the rest and charge us. I get that, it's their prodcut they can do anything they want with it, but bring some god damn value.

@CatMaryo are you slow ? can't you read my above comment.I am really getting annoyed here. >>>>@johnvboy when are you going to understand it's not about the money, it's about the principle. I am tired of this stupid argument "it cost so little if you can't afford it get a job or etc". It my MONEY, no matter how much it is I am not going to throw it away. Understand already and stop with this crap.

@CatMaryo I might be able to afford a Ferrari, doesn't mean I am going to buy gold rims for it if someone tells me to. Get it ?

@johnvboy And why couldn’t it be offered for free forever? Nintendo is one of the most solvent companies on the planet and their profit margins are massive. Providing free online gaming since 2004 hasn’t hurt them. Suddenly charging for it without improving it isn’t going to make or break them. All it’s going to do is cut the player base for games like Splatoon, ARMS and Mario Kart way down when people don’t pay for the service. If they actually upgraded to dedicated servers and added proper interaction between players, I could see the value in it, but as it stands, now there is a new arbitrary fee for no good reason.

@johnvboy Such a small reply makes it appear like you only read the first line of a three paragraph post, or are willfully keeping yourself ignorant of why people are upset about this.

Don't worry, I won't subscribe, and given the dislike ratio on the reveal video it would appear that the majority of Switch players won't subscribe either. And when the backlash improves the service and Nintendo's approach to online (just like backlash has helped both the xbox and playstation in various forms) you'll be most welcome.

@thesilverbrick,

You could say the same for both Sony and Microsoft,even more so in Microsoft's case,and yet they have charged for their online service the longest.

And why does everybody seem to assume that when Nintendo start charging for the service people will not go online as much,there is no evidence to support this,just the vocal internet minority again talking for everybody.

@Richnj ,

My reply was short because my answer was simple,if you do not like the service or see any value in it don't buy into it.

Of course we do not have any experience of the new system because it is not up and running as yet,we also do not know what Nintendo may add in the future..but we seem to be very quick to state the service is poor value.

@vitelus,

Trust me I get your point...but I do not agree with it,is that so hard for you to understand?,I feel we do not have a right to expect something for nothing for ever,even though it has been offered for free up to now,and no matter how lacking we feel the service is.

It's Nintendo's decision to levy a charge if they see fit,it's also up to them to entice people to the service by offering additional value,if not people can always decide to boycott the service.

@johnvboy You keep dodging the point that Sony and Microsoft offer premium services, with dedicated servers, monthly free games (that aren’t 30 years old) and integrated user interaction, neither of which Nintendo has. I said that already.

Why do you take such issue that people have complaints about this? As much as I love Nintendo, they are absolutely far from perfect. They make mistakes just like everyone else and sitting by and accepting those mistakes is just foolish. They are now charging the consumer for something they have successfully offered for free for years without improving it. Sony and Microsoft improved their online platforms before they charged for them, thus adding value.

Nintendo is not a charity. I don’t want to give them money and get nothing for it. I’m now shelling out money for something that has always been free with no justification for such a charge.

Without consumer backlash and complaints, companies never change and grow. The only reason why Microsoft removed all that awful DRM from the Xbox One is because consumers complained. The same thing happened when EA ruined Star Wars Battlefront with all that extra monetization. Or even when Coca Cola tried out the disaster that was “New Coke” in the 80s. Technically speaking, Microsoft, EA and Coca-Cola all had the right to do whatever they wanted to do with their products, and by your logic, nobody had a right to speak up and complain. If everybody had your attitude, nobody would have spoken up and we would’ve been stuck with those awful things. Complaining about negative changes is not a form of entitlement. It’s called consumer feedback.

I’m not sure why you can’t just let people have their opinions (especially when their opinions are in line with the majority). I have no idea why you jump down people’s throats and defend a decision by Nintendo that has been widely panned just about everywhere. I don’t know if it’s some sort of cultish loyalty to a corporation, or if you feel a strange sense of superiority, but either way, you’re not winning anyone over to your side. You’re just making yourself look foolish with every post. I think I speak for many people here when I say that you’re wasting your time.

@thesilverbrick,

I just replied to your comments with my own opinion,if you feel that's jumping down your throat then that's your problem not mine.

You also seem to be oblivious to the contradiction when you state that I can't let people just have their own opinions,when you yourself don't seem to want me to voice mine.

And when you say you speak for many people on here,you are speaking for a very small minority of people,it would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

You can have all of the opinions you wan't,but just like me you have to accept when your point of view will not be shared by everyone,and I am well aware I am wasting my time trying to convince the negative people on here that thing are not always as bad as they initially think.

@johnvboy You need to check your facts. Go back and see where our interactions started. Did I first message you? Or did you first reply to me? This whole discussion began because you started it. Don’t try to pin it on me.

Take a look at this thread and see how many people disagree with you. The vast majority of people here are upset or at least marginally disappointed about the paid service. You seem to be one of the very few who are enthusiastic or defensive of a move by Nintendo that is bad for the consumer. You are the one in the minority. Don’t try to spin that any other way.

And you still haven’t addressed the very valid points I made about consumer feedback. The fact that you’ve resorted to personal attacks instead of discussing the issue at hand shows me you have no ground to stand on.

@thesilverbrick,

I do not need to defend Nintendo on their decision to charge for their online service,people will either buy into it or not.

I just feel people on internet forums are very quick to judge things,sometimes with very little information,now I will agree that Nintendo have not been very forthcoming with their information in this regard,but it's still far too early to judge the service as yet.

Now about the whole minority thing,I do not want to burst your bubble here,but us here on internet forums discussing are hobby are in the minority,as are the various YouTube channels discussing the service and it's shortfalls,most videos get around 315k views and that's one of the bigger ones,it really is only a small vocal minority when you look at it.

Let's wait for the system to launch and see how many of the Switch's 20 million or so owners join up,then we can see if it's a disaster or not.

I am also sorry if you take my playful manner are personal attacks,they are never intended that way.

@johnvboy Of course people either buy or they won’t. But for crying out loud, people are disappointed for very real reasons.

I’m simply saying that Nintendo had a chance to show the value of their online service. And when they formally debuted it for the first time in the Direct, they underwhelmed the majority of people here. You do realize this is a Nintendo fan site, right? The people who visit this site and comment represent Nintendo’s most devoted fan base and if the comments are any indication, even Nintendo’s most loyal consumers are on the whole disappointed with what’s being offered.

I’m glad for you that you’re excited to give Nintendo a charitable contribution every year. All I ask is you let the people who aren’t happy with that have their opinion or at least express their disappointment in peace.

@thesilverbrick,

You can voice your opinion and it's your right not to like the service,just as it also your right not to subscribe to the service if you feel it's not enough value.

You seem to take my counter argument they $1.66 a month is not bad for the service as if I am saying your point does not count,when of course it does,it's an opinion just like mine,there is no right or wrong here only personal opinions.

you seem to get very angry over a harmless debate imho.

@johnvboy We do though. The online service is already up and running and it's stable(ish) but falls far short of the services offered by the other 3 platforms, and Nintendo just released a video detailing their plans for the service, namely adding in cloud support and a NES subscription and that's it. Zero mention of fixing the account, friend, or chat systems. That is all they've offered and that is all you can judge the service on, and it's bad value. You can't defend or value the current service based on what they "might" add in, especially if Nintendo haven't acknowledged that the system is lacking in these areas.

I think people already understand that if they don't like it they shouldn't buy it. It's pointless to go round telling people that. You need to understand that people voicing their opinions online, especially displeasure in the direction of a product is what helps companies know what they did wrong. It helped MS drop the always online BS, it helped Sony redirect with the PS4 after the PS3 (with account, friend, chat, extra features, pricing, hardware design etc) and that ended up with the PS4 dominating this gen.

Dismissive and complacent attitudes is what helped things like online passes, microtransactions etc gain traction and ruin so many games last and current gen.

@Richnj,

It's not dismissive fella,I just do not agree with you...accept it and move on.

As I have said it's all just personal opinions at the end of the day,and my opinion is that for $1.66 per month the service is more than enough value,voice chat is of little interest to me so I won't miss it.

If you feel otherwise then that's up to you,and I am not stopping you or anyone on here from complaining,but I do have the right to respond to your comments just like you have the right to respond to mine.

I think the debate around the cost of the online service is quite interesting. Personally, I would argue that £20 a year is an excessive cost for what we are getting, which can be summed up as:

Cloud saves – No wait, only for certain games and none for those you have to put lots of hours into such as Splatoon 2 and Pokemon. People defend this by saying that you’ve can’t have cloud saves for those games because cheaters will exploit them. That’s a bit saying some people will commit crimes, so there is no point in having a police force – a rather silly logic if you ask me.

Online games – It really isn’t worth £20 to get a few NES games, which, let’s remember are over 40 years old. I’m most disappointed with this. If it was, say, purely Gamecube games or N64 or SNES games, I could get fired up – but, in proportion to the cost, a lot of really old NES games are absolutely not worth it.

Online performance – I’ve heard a lot of people saying that the online service better work well for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. I can guarantee it won’t. What Nintendo should do is learn from their competitors and implement a good online service. Instead they have wasted everyone’s time by trying to reinvent the wheel – which won’t bode well going forward and suspect the server hosting will be poor.

The problem is that Nintendo is a stubbornly individualistic company – which either works brilliantly or very poorly. With the design of the Switch this approach worked really well, but with the online service the complete reverse is true.

@johnvboy $1.66 a month may not sound like much, but it creates a barrier of entry for online games. There are several comments above from people saying they’re not buying the service. Those are from loyal Nintendo fans who care enough to visit this site and comment on articles like this one. If some devoted fans aren’t going to pay, then you can bet there are many more casual Switch players who won’t pay, either, which means less of a user base for games like ARMS and Splatoon, further decreasing the value of online gaming for the people who will pay to play. And it may average out to $1.66 a month, but you can’t pay that way. You pay $20 up front, which for a lot of people is a decent chunk of money that they don’t want to part with impulsively.

And what gave you the idea that I’m angry? Please don’t attribute strong emotion to my comments, because it simply isn’t there.

@thesilverbrick

I think it's always the core audience that will complain the most where the casuals will just buy into it.

Angry was the wrong choice of words,so I am sorry.

@RC_Russ98,

Click bate comment fella,but I am on board with it straight away,which shows how effective a comment it was in the first place.

People come on here with their massive comments,and you sir with only two words have made a very relevant contribution to the debate.

@RC_Russ98,

No rules here fella,you can use as many or a few words as you want.

@johnvboy Except things like "accept it and move on" and "don't subscribe then" are utterly pointless responses to the posts being made. People are bringing in decent and understandable concerns about the service and rather than addressing them in a constructive manner you are giving the responses highlighted above. It's the very definition of a dismissive attitude.

Which makes it all the more hilarious you are trying to chastis someone about not bringing in a worthwhile contribution to the discussion.

I think everyone is over thinking this... Nintendo won't lose anything whether you subscribe or not. It hasn't cost them anything to put up a paywall and they haven't added anything to an already existing free system.

"If you subscribe? GREAT! You get a whole load of extra stuff like Cloud Saves and a growing library of classic games. You can also continue to use that online service thats just updated servers for the DS days" - this is just extra money for them... Doesn't matter if you sign up or not, it costs them nothing more than it did before to run this service.

"If you don't sign up? That is totally omay too because our games have a heavy focus on single player experience, as long as you keep buying our products as before, we lose nothing" - this keeps the status quo in place... People will still purchase Nintendo first party games on the merit of their single player experience alone. Nintendo knows this so their content here.

Win win situation... Well played Nintendo... Well played....

To be honest the only losers here are us whether we sign up or not... Nintendo loses nothing for the reasons stated above. But if we sign up we'll be paying Nintendo money they haven't earned and if we don't sign up we wont get the classic games, cloud saves or online multiplayer.

Nintendo risks nothing and loses nothing. All the risk is on us.

@Razer yeah, you're probably right. There's no risk for Nintendo. The only risk for them is possible damage to their brand image, which is very hard to calculate and put a price on.

But yeah, people who like their games will still buy them even if they aren't happy about the online service. So it's free money for Nintendo.

I hope there will be enough people refusing to buy into it so Nintendo scraps it or offers something better, but I suspect that a lot of people will just pay up, even if they do so begrudgingly.

@Razer now that I think about it, I can't believe it took them this long to roll out the paid online. Seriously, how did it take them a year and a half to set up such a barebones service that's barely more than what was already there.

@tedko Sooner or later you will be forced to adopt the subscription anyway and their brand won't suffer any long term damage because any negativity they get now will be washed as you're slowly backed into a corner.

Think about it like this, soon the classic games offering will be un-ignorable, especially if it'll include N64 and GC games.

Then you got your own data, the more you play and clock in time the less the cost of backing up your data looks.

It's a very clever thing they did here, they hid their bare bones online multiplayer behind a paywall and backed it up with a netflix like gaming service that people won't be able to avoid and cloud saves too.

All this without a cost to them.

Its very ingenious.

Even while i hate to say it, i see Nintendo getting a stupidly high subscriber numbers as time goes on and getting it becomes unavoidable. It won't be high to begin with.

But with how they modeled it, baring no cost to their over-heads, they have plenty of time to watch the numbers slowly raise as they trickle in the classic games and people frett over their save data.

This isn't even mentioning any desire one would have to actually play online... If you factor that in as well, you really see where im coming from.

Again I'll say it... Well played Nintendo... Well played indeed.

@Razer Yeah. I think the lack of any alternative for save backups is what bothers me the most. To not be able to keep save backups except by continuing to pay just feels horribly anti-consumer.

@tedko yep it really is but other companies have gotten away with much worse.

Also don't underestimate those classic game offering...

What you gonna do when there +100 NES, SNES and other classic games on the Switch for 20 a year? It wont take long to reach that number, especially if they up the monthly trickle.

It'll be un-ignorable, you would get that on principle alone, the value would be too ridiculous to avoid.

Edit: i actually really hate it as it isn't what i wanted at all but damn i admire Nintendo for coming up with such a clever scheme... Stuff like this is why they been around for 130+ years.

@Razer $20 a year for a wide range of retro games from different systems I would consider more than reasonable. If they wanted to get fans excited about the service, it's what they should have offered right off the bat. But knowing Nintendo, if they do add games from other systems they'll jack up the price considerably or introduce tiered pricing with access to other systems costing a lot more.

@Richnj @Richnj,

It's a counter opinion fella,if you do not agree with it fair enough,but I am sick of the reply's from complainers stating that if I don't agree with them I am being dismissive,or for some reason my point of view is less valid.

This to my eyes is a very simple debate you either like the online service and think it's decent value,or you won't,now the two different sides to this will not agree,but they both will have their own point of view which has to be respected.

@Richnj,

"Which makes it all the more hilarious you are trying to chastis someone about not bringing in a worthwhile contribution to the discussion."

My comment was light hearted,I have been saying all along the debate is far more simple than we seem to be making it.

I do think we need to step back a bit here,online forums are a very very niche amount of people,if you take all the main video game forums I doubt you would get anymore than 700,000 people or so,and that's not accounting for people that are members of multiple sites or have multiple accounts on the same site.

So Nintendo are never going to base their financial decisions on such a small amount of peoples views,because they can't be seen to be representative of the whole video game market,they will launch the online service and judge it based on how many people subscribe,if the online service struggles to get a decent amount of regular subscribers they will change it.

I very much doubt they will be looking on here or any other minority internet forum thread for their business decisions,because it's a very narrow cross section of their existing and potential customer base.

@johnvboy I'm not saying you are being dismissive because you disagree. You are being dismissive because you aren't actually debating the issues brought up. You are just regurgitating your opinion again and again.

I mentioned;

1) The account system. You are still tied to one system. Gamers do jump between multiple systems, for many different reasons. On the other three, doing so would give you instant access to your titles and saves.

You have not addressed this.

2) The friend system. Online is a big thing. Single player are still big but that doesn't mean we can just ignore a huge community of gamers. In the online space, being able to make and add friends is a huge deal. Joining with friends and family, and making new friends is a major pin in what helped the communities on the other 3 grow. It's a major feature for millions of gamers. And Nintendo makes it so much more hassle than it should be.

You didn't address this.

3) The chat system. Again, if you're making new friends, playing with old ones, or even just trying to complete an objective in a MP game, communication is key. It's been on every xbox ever, the PS3 and PS4, the Wii and Wii U, and the PC has had it for decades. So why is it that Nintendo have decided that needs to force players to jump through some extra hoops just to talk?

You kinda addressed this one. With the self centered "Well I don't use it" and therefore you don't care about anyway that would like that feature then?. Like "screw you guys, I'm alright jack". Way to side with the company instead of your fellow gamers. I don't like plenty of types of games. Does that mean they shouldn't exist? No. Again, you are dismissing the feelings of others because it doesn't affect you.

4) The value compared to other consoles. It's not just online play and some free games you get with the subs on other platforms. So Nintendo offering online and some free games at half the price doesn't equate to good value. The PS4 and Xbox One offer all of the above, with community feeds, clubs/communities, acievements/trophies, free games that are new and not released 20 times over 20 years.

Edit: and I'm not naive enough to think Nintendo are coming to this site, to my comments, to help decide business choices. What I do know is that when a company makes a mistake and face both vocal and financial backlash for a design choice they look to the community to see what they did wrong. Just like I highlighted and gave multiple examples of, which you ignored (dismissed). They will look at the big websites, the big channels. We have ones like Whatculture and Yong yea amoung several others echoing the same sentiments I have. Then their comments and the comments here will echo the same. And it will give Nintendo a picture of what we wanted vs what we are getting.

@Richnj I 100% agree with you on all your points about the missing features. Its all true and their doing a terrible job at improving the multiplayer online features.

But i would be willing to bet money that you'll eventually buy into the service because you'll be backed into a cormer to do so. We all will... Just look at the strategy.

What will you do when theres 100+ NES and SNES or even N64 or GC games available to online subscribers for only £20 a year? You'd actually avoid that because terrible online? Thats insanity. The value would be ridiculous.

What will you do when you've clocked in over 3000 hours on various different games on your console? That £20 will look so small. Your not exactly going to let that data die away...

Then you couple your needs for save data and your want for VC games with multiplayer online however limited...

You'll pay for it... We all will. Best come to terms with that now to be honest.

And trust me i hate it too.

@Razer I already pay for PSN and XBL. Then I have Steam too. So as far as online options go, I have a lot of choice already. I only started paying for PSN+ because of the quality of titles you get for free and the large library of games that have online on the system. Switch however, has very few online titles and only offers me NES games, most of which I already have elsewhere. So unless my gaming friends decide that Monster Hunter or Smash is an absolute must, I won't be paying for the Service. Though I will still purchase single player titles like Luigi's Mansion 3.

And IF I do, I'll split the payment between me and 7 of my gaming friends and only pay like £4 a year. That's a more reasonably pricing.

@Richnj it doesn't matter how much it costs... Eventually you'll pay, not now but you will pay... Through gritted teeth... Kicking and screaming. But you'll pay, either with your friends or without... You'll pay... And so will i, i won't be happy about it but I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll eventually have no choice.

And because this costs Nintendo no money at all to do, as they never added anything to the online, they have all the time they need to back us into a corner.

You say NES games games now and only 20 of them... By March next year it will be tripple that and by September next year it would probably include SNES games too...

Like i said before, what you gonna do? Not sign up? Lol yeah sure. Any sane gamer would be retarded to not pay £20 a year for even 60+ classic NES and SNES games... Even if the games were 50 pence each... You'd still be paying less money.

Will you actually try to tell me you wouldn't purchase NES and SNES games for less than 50 pence each? No chance I'll believe you.

This isn't even to mention your saved data...

Nah dude we lose and Nintendo won.

@Razer But I don't play Mario Kart or Splatoon, and I don't pay for game passes, so why would I pay?.

The service has nothing I'd use, so why would I pay?. That's like saying because I listen to music I will pay for spotify. But when the paid service of Spotify offers me nothing I don't already have access to elsewhere or for free?

And trying to sell me on NES and maybe SNES games (which are currently unconfirmed) when the vast majority of them I don't want, and the ones I do want I already own, isn't exactly the best way to sell a service. I don't pay for xbox pass for the same reason. I already own the games I care about, bragging about there being hundreds of games I don't want doesn't convince me to pay for the service.

And my save data is only at risk if I buy on Nintendo.... from now on 3rd party games like Dead Cells and Dark souls get bought on other systems. And if enough people do this then it's Nintendo and Nintendo players who lose, as 3rd party support slowly dies because players have stopped buying 3rd party on the system, and the Switch once again becomes a 1st party only console. A fate that they were on track to avoiding until now.

@Richnj you need to forget about online multiplayer because Nintendo doesn't care if you play online or not... You'll sign up on the merit of everything else.

so if Nintendo start to release N64 games and GC games as part of a Netflix like subscription service, you wont sign up? Thats BS and you know it.

What you gonna do when you clock in 1000+ hours on various games that you enjoy playing? Not back up the data for 5.5 pence a day?

They already said they will be releasing VC with this online sub so its fairly obvious that its only a matter of time before SNES and N64 games start to show up... They said VC was being done via this sub service and VC included SNES and N64 games. That actually sounds like confirmation to me.

Do you expect me to believe you wont sign up for 5.5 pence a day for a netflix like service with lots of classic games and cloud saves... I wont believe you... Lol

@Richnj look i dont like it as much as you do... And its easy to be short sighted when you're angry and let down. But eventually you wont be able to ignore the growing library of games for such a small price. Don't kid yourself you know we're getting VC via sub now and you know what VC included.

And you wont be able to ignore cloud saves...

Like i said im not happy about it but whether its 6 months... 1 year or 2 years.... You will cave in... This strategy is a long term one....

You'll see.

@Razer It's not a matter of time though. It's a matter of circumstance. We spent the entire lifetime of the Wii U waiting for GC support and it never came. So I mean, even if we go by what VC had in the past then it will only include up to the N64, and again, I have all those games playable right now. Believing that Nintendo will most definitely include GC support in the subscription is kidding yourself. If Nintendo do not see the merits of including the titles in to the subscription then it will never get added. And again, they said that GC support on Wii U was impossible because it didn't have analogue triggers. The Switch triggers aren't analogue either, so based on past experiences that's that theory well and truly busted. Maybe subs are too low and they abandon the service, or subs are so high that it appears that consumers are happy with just NES games and Nintendo decide to not waste money including anything else on the service. Who knows? No one, because the circumstances could always change, and without a solid confirmation it's best to assume it will never happen.

Again, it's IF I clock that much time. Had the service included the basics I would have paid for it and used my Switch far more than I'm currently planning on. Because basics are not there, I'm just not going to use my Switch as much as I was going to. I've lost all my NES to GC save data before. I just started again on the Wii and Wii U. And if I was to pay for this service I'd be abandoning all my current data to start all these NES and maybe up to N64 games again anyway, so is it really that big of a deal breaker?. To lose data and start again, so that you don't lose data and start again?. That's some weird logic.

@Richnj to be honest i dont believe they will... I think GC games with get HD remastering instead... But your still know your gonna sign up once the classic games numbers start hitting the 100 mark... You can have those games on every device you own... But you and i both know your gonna want them on the Switch and portable.

Look your mad... Me too. They haven't done what i expected...i honestly don't expect you to go and change your mind now. But like everyone else.... Regardless of if you own the classic games 100 times over... The amount of them and the save data will force you to pay the 5.5 pence a day.

Like i said im not happy either but I'm not gonna be able to avoid even 100 NES games for that price.... I hate NES games but i am a gamer and thats 20p a game once the numbers reach 100... The offer is un-ignorable....

Throw in cloud saves and it becomes a no brainer.

@Richnj,

"Edit: and I'm not naive enough to think Nintendo are coming to this site, to my comments, to help decide business choices. What I do know is that when a company makes a mistake and face both vocal and financial backlash for a design choice they look to the community to see what they did wrong. Just like I highlighted and gave multiple examples of, which you ignored (dismissed). They will look at the big websites, the big channels. We have ones like Whatculture and Yong yea amoung several others echoing the same sentiments I have. Then their comments and the comments here will echo the same. And it will give Nintendo a picture of what we wanted vs what we are getting."

Exactly,we will need to wait and see if there is a backlash from the majority of Switch owners,at the moment you are pushing your concerns onto the wider market...which is up to now just a guess.

But I still state that these sites you mention are still very niche,and people are always far quicker to voice negative views that positive ones.

@Richnj also if online gaming is the be all and end all for you, what on earth are you doing on Nintendo?

@Richnj when did Nintendo actually give you the illusion that they really support online multiplayer gaming?

I mean real support... Not the cruddy peer to peer connection for online they've had since the DS days...

Did you actually think they would stop focusung on single player experience? Lol

That Mario Kart would turn into Forza and Splatoon turn into COD?

@Razer I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.

Like I said, it doesn't matter how many games go on the subscription. It's not about how many extras they offer. It's about the right extras. You can offer me 10,000 spoons but if what I want is a knife, I'm not going to just subscribe to your spoons because you have lots to offer. Especially when I have a dozen spoons at home.

And they gave the impression they supported online gaming when they made 3 online gaming consoles and several online gaming titles, like Mario Kart, Splatoon, and ARMS. Oh, and an online mp subscription and online app to support online chat when in handheld mode.

@Razer,

This sensible comment has no right being on this thread.

@Richnj you say that now... And like me you are mad... I know it, i bloody well am and disappointed too...

I'm mad because while i say "When did Nintendo give you the illusion..."... I certainly did expect some bigger online multiplayer support before that disappointment we got.

But after dwelling and dwelling on it... I came to the realization that Nintendo will win it...

They don't care if i dont sign up on release (and i won't)... But eventually i will... I'll honestly have no choice... Either that or never support them again and i won't do that... I enjoy their games too much to avoid them.

We all will sign up. Like i said just wait and see... Slimey gits trapped us all.

@Richnj ,

I knew I shouldn't have invested all my money in that spoon subscription service.

@Razer I never said online gaming was the be all end all. But this is an online gaming subscription, so I expect it have features that enrich the online gaming experience. It doesn't. And if you are buying it reasons other than the ok nine component you really need to look at your dependence on Nintendo software

@johnvboy I'm sayin'

@Richnj,

It's a good service fella and you have not subscribed to spoons,until you have subscribed to my spoons.

@johnvboy I'm a steak man myself. How well do they cut steak?

@Richnj thats the whole point tho.... Isn't it strange how various online features we use to have are now gone?

I think the reason why Nintendo hid their Online MP behind this paid subscription has very little to do with actually improved online gaming.

They hid the Multiplayer online behind 2 features that they know 1 everyone needs and within 6 months to a year the other feature will be too good to ignore.

They don't actually care if you dont play online multiplayer though, Nintendo execs lose sleep knowing kids could be playing Mario Kart with sexual predators... God forbid they talk to each other...

Nope Nintendo would be perfectly happy if you never played online with strangers and continue to buy their products.

They will also while NOT improving their online the way we want, will back you into a corner to adopt the subscription anyway.

Its ingenious... Very aggressive but ingenious.

Your only way out is to not buy anything Nintendo again.

@Richnj,

I am not going to lie to you fella,you will have to put your steak into a blender.

@johnvboy "steak in a blender" 😂😂😂😂

@Razer if that's my only option then I guess I'm no longer a Nintendo player.

@Razer,

That's the name of my spoon subscription service.

@Richnj ,

That's a miss steak fella.

@johnvboy It's only Ninty steaks that will be missed. It's not the only restaurant though so it's not like I'm going veggie or anything.

@Richnj it really actually is... Yeah that is totally understandable too... I don't blame you. This is a very anti consumer thing to do.

Because if you choose to continue playing Nintendo games... You WILL end up signing up... Their gonna end up with a near 100% subscription rate. Not on release but within a year to 18 months.

VC will grow too big to ignore and miss out on playing portable and so will your save data... £20 will shrink in size very fast and you'll sign up. Hate it or not... It will happen.

Yep only way out is to actually eBay your Switch today and forget Nintendo altogether.

If paying 5.5 pence a day effects your principles that much... I understand... And to be honest im very on the fence myself, a part of me hopes Sony comes back into portable gaming and we have a proper alternative for online multiplayer... But with Sony's track record going up against Nintendo in portable gaming... I dont fancy their chances.

I'll end up signing up... I don't even think I'll be able to hold out long either... I can already feel them pushing me into the corner with my save data.

Once VC has 2 or 3 games i would like to play, signing up will become an inevitability.

@Richnj and heres a funny one for you... Imagine this scenario:

On the subject of selling your Switch, lets say a random Switch owner who didn't purchase the sub in 4 or 5 months goes to sell their Switch for whatever reason, how many people do you know that will sell a digital device before backing up their data thats on it?

You're gonna be Stairing down the barrel of deleting your own save data, potentially 1000s of hours of gaming (Mario, Zelda and Skyrim alone would clock you in at 500+ hours and that's just 3 games), or paying 1.70 pence a month to back it up...

I can even see people who'd go on to sell their Switch's, purchase online sub just to back up their data on a device they won't own anymore.

@Razer There's a huge flaw in that scenario.

Either they are selling their Switch because they are swapping to a different Switch. In which case they could use the free trial, or just a monthly pass to transfer the content and then cancel. No need to keep it longer term.

or they are selling it because they no longer want the console. In which case they no longer want the games or the save data. What would be the point in keeping your old data for games you don't own on a console you don't own, and even worse, paying a yearly subscription to keep data for games you don't own, on a console you don't own.

That would be like getting a new phone contract and paying for the old one on the off chance you wanted it for some reason.

That sounds like something an idiot would do, and not at all something that would be common among the general gaming community.

@Richnj no but when you get a new phone dont you port your numbers across? Its the same here... True you only need it for the 1 month or free trial... That is very true.

But in terms of selling it for good... I personally prefer to keep my data, maybe your different, but i don't throw away my old consoles just because i can play them all elsewhere.... I wouldn't throw away my old data that i spent time on just because i don't play the games.

I don't actually know many people that would just willy nilly throw away their old game data because they dont intend to play...

I haven't played Pokemon Pearl in years but if i lose my 350+ hours on that game id lose my shit.

You actually telling me there's no games ever that you poured stupid time into and didn't hold onto that data?

@Razer I prefer to keep my data and consoles too. I've only ever sold one console and I wouldn't do it again without having a new version of that console to replace it.

However, do you really think the type of person that sells their console is the type of person to keep their data? Or would it actually stand to reason that there are people like you and me, who keep everything, and then there's the other type, who sell the old hardware and start fresh with newly released games?.

Edit: Just for an example, there are types of gamers that complete delete all data on games they own just to start fresh, and games like diablo 3 have modes to facilitate this.

@Richnj well you could be forced to sell your consoles or games...

Sad story time: (makes me sad) - when i moved onto my canal boat i had to make a choice... To sell all my xbox games (not the actual console tho) or give them away... I had no choice, canal boats dont have much room and i dont have a tv on it anyway... I cant have one.

Now judging by everything I've told you, do i seem like the type of person who'd sell his games and not back up data? You can bet i did.... I even downloaded them all so i can one day rebuy them all.

Circumstances in life make people do things they dont want too... I honestly dont think the type of person who plays Nintendo games are the type of people whod just throw their data away once they sell their stuff... Or if their forced too.

Btw i had to choose between keeping my GC games or XBOX 360 games... My physical library was too big before i moved onto the boat. Obviously Microsoft had much better options for back ups than my old GameCube.