Your Nintendo Switch Cloud Save Files Will Be Lost If Your Online Subscription Expires

Isn’t this common?

Huh? They can't even give you a month to restore your membership?

What?!! Your Pokemon doesn't get deleted from the Pokébank, why should you lose all your saves if your subs lapses. That's madness, well at least you'll still have the saves on your Switch.

Surely it doesn't actually delete the saves from your device?

Surely if one of the selling points of the online service is cloud saves, it makes sense that you would then lose those backups (as that's what they are, it won't delete your local save files too) when you quit your subscription? If I stop paying for a safety deposit box they don't keep my stuff safe for me anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I would really like the ability to backup data locally (like I do on Vita), but I'm not surprised by this given that cloud saves are the only announced way to backup.

Would be stupid of them to wipe the saves the second your subscription ends, people are going to forget to renew, it happens. If people sign up 2 or 3 days later and all of their online saves are gone people are going to be freaking out.

I think it's smart for them to advertise it this way if that's the way it's going to work, no long term unpaid storage, but behind the scenes they should really be waiting at the very least 2 weeks, but probably a month, before deleting anything, just in case. And to avoid any accidents like they had with the Zelda BotW 1 year anniversary time keeping. Software coding does not seem to be their strong point.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/03/switch_programming_glitch_is_forgetting_your_game_playtimes

@NintendoFan4Lyf your Switch breaking and the online subscription lapsing on the same day would indeed be a pretty bad day, and to your point, uncommon.

But you renew your local data will back itself up so there is no issue really

This is so bad, it’s hilarious.

It’s never boring with Nintendo though is it😂?

If I'm reading this right, & I REALLY hope I am, it shouldn't make any difference as I thought the save data is all saved locally by default and uploaded to the cloud as a backup. I mean, it would be stupid if it was any other way right? What it you're playing with no internet connection? Surely it defaults to saving locally?

You would think that they would keep the cloud saves after your subscription expired and give you a 90 day period before they are deleted from the server. In order to get your saves again you would have to pay the $20 to retrieve them. Now it seems that you have to keep paying the $20 out of fear they will be erased 🤔.

Missing the part of requiring to "check in" at least 52 times a year to make sure your online sub is active, smells like the Xbox One 2013 E3 all over again.

@faint Xbox at least saves ur games in the cloud regardless of ur subscription being active or not ! PS no idea

Um... thats how subscriptions work.

You stop paying you lose access.

Your local saves are still there. Pay again, and you'll have cloud saves again.

This seems kinda ridiculous to make an article about. What did you expect, to keep cloud saves forever even after expiration of membership???

Well...
I have never did Cloud save data, so it didn't really affect me much.
But i still consider it was like an Alarm for me to pay attention with my Switch, especially when i have subcribed.

If my save data lost from the Cloud data storage due to expired subcription, i can overwrite my previous deleted Cloud save data with the newest one after i subcribe again.

For all of you, make a subcription for 1 year is the best solution if you are a Forgetful peoples. Make a note when you have subcribed, so don't blame Nintendo if you lost your Cloud Save data.

Certainly a tighter knot than PS Plus's save cloud that gives you some wiggle room for resubscribing. Then again, besides a notably higher price paid, there's a higher chance to miss the renewal date since the automatics here only work once you tie in a credit card - which a lot of users including yours truly can't do because of PSN's account policies (heck, just recently I found out that I can't buy 1 month off PS Store with ready wallet funds unless there's a card tied in). Colour me curious if eShop will have something like autorenewals and stuff.

Damn, that’s crazy. Do save files automatically save to the system & cloud if you have NSO? My main reason for wanting cloud saves is in case I lose or break my Switch. This way I don’t lose all my progress. Not really worried about saving local storage space.

If it expires, does that mean we also lose out folde-OH WAIT!

I don't see what the issue is. Unless you're super unlucky and have your switch die on the day your sub expires it doesn't really matter. If they did like Sony does and retain them for 6 months? Well who cares about 6 month old game data? If I haven't done anything meaningful on a game in 6 months I've moved on from the game. If I have played the game recently a months old save isn't much good.

Cloud saves are a security blanket, a protection in the event of system failure. But they're no good if they're not recent. I have no issues with all or nothing.

@Bunkerneath
LOL
Imagine if there is NO Cloud at all in the sky.
Can we still able do Cloud saving data ?

This is crazy. It should be like every other subscription service I’ve ever had and continue working even after I stop paying. Stupid Nintendo!

When the small print is produced this Direct is loosing face.

Still I will be £18 a year better off

@JaxonH I would like to see Nintendo hold my saves for a month before deleting them. Sometimes money is tight. Or I just forget to pay. That seems like a more consumer friendly method. I don't expect the saves to be held indefinitely but a grace period would be wise.

@bimmy-lee I heart you.

I wonder if folks are genuinely upset and/or shocked about this; If they are, have they ever had to pay bills? Water, Electric, Phone, ISP, storage rental, PO Box, Safety deposit box, magazine, Insurance.... driver’s licenses.

Come on Nintendo, just let me back up my saves to a flash drive!

people should relax..sony is saying the same thing about PS+ cloud saves but the reality is that even after I didn't have a membership for several months and then renewed it, my cloud saves were still there.

@skywake long-term save preservation is topical on Vita because you may want a change of pace and swap some games with others in the limited storage space (especially some sports games or roguelikes or other stuff without linear story progression it would indeed be more awkward to take long breaks in) - and Vita's native save file management boils down to "either lose it all with the game or keep it backed up on your PC WITH the entire game". Hey, full game backups will be invaluable someday when Vita loses PS Store support, but for now, cloud saves are a much bigger convenience in general.

I needn't comment how the situation differs on Switch, of course.

I was actually wondering this exact thing. Ouch. Well I don’t know; simple solution: if you know you’re going to expire just save your ... saves... locally. Then when you CAN renew those saves will be pushed back up to the cloud, right?

EDIT: I’m really happy with the comments I’m reading on here... this article seems like it was aimed to trigger some people over nothing. It’s really not a big deal. Keep track of your expiration dates, people!

@NintendoFan4Lyf That's good, because the article perhaps could be misconstrued. In fact, it shouldn't even be an arcticle.
'WARNING! Ice cream melts in heat shocker, more at 11'

Uh.. I mean, I’m not sure if this is an issue. You subscribe again, you regain access to cloud saves. The FAQ doesn’t even explicitly say the cloud saves are deleted the moment a subscription runs out. Either way, as mentioned earlier, you subscribe again, and you regain access to your cloud saves.

@Bliquid You mean Carbonite and Lifelock continue providing your service after you stop paying?

@JaxonH Except for, it isn't how it works for all of their competitors, as outlined above. I've gone even further over the 6 months when my PS4 was stolen, and they retained all my saves.

One of the only features worth paying for is the game save backup, and asterisks just keep getting added to the feature. That is really what this article is, another asterisk.

Nintendo

Doesn't sound well thought through.
1. It is a tiny bit less of an incentive to get the service in the first place
2. It is a lot less of an incentive to resubscribe if you have once been a subscriber, and would want access to the old backups.
3. If it's about cost, it would be easy to have a extremely cheap offline storage where it could take a couple of days to get your saves back should you resubscribe.

The only possible reason for this I can see, is if the only reason people subscribe to the online services would be to to take backup and do that very seldomly. For that to be the case, the rest of the services would have to really suck.

In the end, I'm not that concerned about cloud storage of saves though. Not really online play either. So it will be all about the "virtual console" games, which looks kind of disappointing also.

Water is wet.

@Indielink
They dont have to hold your saves though. Your saves are on the system. The minute you pay again, you have cloud backups again.

Holding them accomplishes nothing, except give you a service youre not paying for. Its not like you lose anything waiting a month and subbing again. The minute you re-sub it's like they were holding them the entire time. It just backs up instantly again

@Dogorilla ..Obviously not, this is talking about Cloud saves.

It just gets better and better lol! At this point I'm only buying it so that I can actually play my games.

This article is biased as all hell and it doesn’t even make sense. Your subscription ends and so does the ability to use cloud saves. You renew your subscription and you can use cloud saving again.

In the meantime your local saves will always be there!

I thought everyone knew this. If you stop paying your nes games will go too.
It’s a subscription

@Vee_Flames Even if they did delete the cloud save data, i'm sure they'll rev up a notification beforehand. It'll probably be like PS+ "free" games where if you don't stay with it, you'll lose acess to all of those games.

̶A̶l̶s̶o̶,̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶o̶w̶e̶ ̶T̶H̶E̶S̶E̶ ̶R̶O̶O̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶o̶d̶a̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶T̶O̶A̶S̶T̶!̶

I think why did Nintendo do like that for their Subcription policy because..... i guess it will train peoples to be aware with their subcription.
I heard PS+ / Xbox Live or Gold gave you more pending time if you forgot to re-subcribe. In my opinion, slowly it will make people's laziness habit.
I mean, you pay you get something.
If you don't pay, no more facilities unless if you subcribe again.
For me, that was sounds FAIR.

The ability to play online will also be gone

@MailOrderNinja
I mean look. Ill be the first to criticize the online when warranted, but this is not one of those times.

Doesnt matter how its done elsewhere. That's elsewhere. If you stop paying for a service you cant expect services rendered to continue.

Otherwise everyone would wait 6 months between re-subbing because hey, why not, they're gonna store my saves even when Im not paying, and if something happens, THEN I'll sub again.

Like stop paying insurance and expect to still have coverage if something happens.

There's a lot of things to complain about with the online, but this is not one of them. If you don't want gaps, then stay subbed. But if you willingly choose to let the sub lapse, you can't then complain you don't have cloud backups. If thats a problem, don't let it lapse.

@krvstkvlt
Water is wet.
Sky is blue.
Cloud is white and fluffy.

Wait. Services stop working if I don’t continue to pay for them?! Is that why my power got shut off?

Well duh

@1UP_MARIO
So, started from 18 September 2018, NO More Free Online connection to play ARMS, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, etc unless if you subcribe, right ?

@JaxonH Well not really - because I personally have already been in several situations where it matters more than you say..

1. I sold my PS4 and obviously stopped paying for PS Plus.. later I decided to buy a Pro so signed up for Plus again and had all my old saves. Perfect.

2. I stopped playing my Switch for a while... because it was stolen. I didn’t want to pay for a new one straight away... Even if the cloud data existed, I would have to keep paying for the online service until I bought again.

If they are going to delete the data... the least they could do would be to allow usb / local backup of the saves.... as per virtually any device ever made... but at the moment it’s only on the system (or cloud while paying)...which is why I stopped playing Zelda for example... completely lost saves because had no option to backup locally... such a simple solution... if cloud is deleted... let me at least back it up.. come on.

I don't care for cloud save. The major problem is, now I have to pay for something, which was free years before. I hate that. Even if I like it, that voice chat now happens on Switch. I hope Nintendo won't regret this, right now, they are doing well after the unsuccessful Wii U, but who knows when that can turn

@RadicalThe_Tay
No. Just only unable to keep your Old Cloud Save data after the subcription expired.
Your Switch will not suddenly got shutted down by itself.

@SheldonRandoms Yep, although there might be an inconvenient possibility if the save data is deleted. Suppose one breaks his Switch just after his/her sub runs out. If the save data stored in the cloud is in fact deleted, then there’s no way for the person to get it back. Welp.

I’m not expecting them to hold my cloud saves forever, though. Again, if you stop paying for a service, you lose access to the service anyway.

Also, soda?

Surely the bigger question is, will there be reminders and an auto-renewal option? I would expect a subscription service to just run forever until I cancel, not turn off after a year.

EDIT: So I read the FAQs. There is an auto-renewal option.

@Anti-Matter yes

@Anti-Matter it was a joke 😝

@JaxonH I agree it should be a non-issue, but I would also argue that there is no reason for them to take a stance like this, especially when they already look so bad as is with online.

@1UP_MARIO
Well...
I guess i have to add my e-shop fund with at least $ 20 to make a Subcription on Sunday, two days later.

And of course, I love to pay 20 bucks a year for NES games and another 60 for NES controllers...... Not!
I don't want to see NES games, they are outdated, I had enough of them, really.
And why is there a NES Classic System, when you shall pay for another NES Controllers on Switch...
Face-palm Nintendo

It depends on how long you have to resubscribe (Sony gives you a very reasonable six month period) to still access your Cloud saves. If they are deleted the instant your subscription lapses (which is easy to forget and overlook), that is pretty bad.

i never thought it would be different really.

N; consumer hostile? welcome to 1985.

@MailOrderNinja
There is a reason... if youre not paying for the service you dont reap the benefits of the service. Otherwise it gets abused.

If people wanna talk local backups, yes Im with you. But this is a service for those subbed. You stop subbing you lose the benefits.

@FTL
I agree they should allow local backups...

but that's a separate conversation.

@Anti-Matter Technically, there is a 7 day trial, so if you subscribe on 18th you don't need to pay until 25th.

@chardir Apparently, the NES controllers don't work on anything else, so if you want to use those, you need to subscribe immediately. That's what I read, anyway, that they don't apply to the free trial.

Why not save on the cartridge?
I wonder why its not possible anymore

I'm not sure how this is news. Does my car remain insured after I stop paying for my policy?

Oh dear, indeed.

This whole online service deal has really put me off Nintendo, not gonna lie. Don’t know what else there is to say about it. I’ll just vote with my wallet.

@chardir
So, after 25 September 2018 i MUST pay $ 20 for Subcription (1 year) & it will be expired on 25 September 2019 ?

Service no longer provided when you stop paying for the service - yeah no drama here, naive article.

@Ngamer I'm glad we're out of that. One of my buddies lost save data on their cartridge when the battery died in it.

@HobbitGamer - Ha, thanks, right back at you. Lately, I’ve be thinking the Internet is like a bad horror movie on Netflix. Hilarious but horrible and in too deep to turn back.

@Vee_Flames Nintendo can't hold on to save data like dat after it expires, because who knows, maybe somebody will cheat with their save data and they could raise their rank without anybody noticing.

Also, don't play as Kirby to a Jigglypuff battle, U know exactly what THESE ROO means

@Jimez You don't have to check in to maintain your sub. It lasts for the period you pay for. The only restriction is that your NES games won't work if you haven't been online for over 7 days.

@dps5pt I mean, it's quite silly that they don't give you a bit of a time frame to wait. Some people simply can't renew immediately.

I think it's just dumb that they don't give you a bit of time. Not everyone can just fork over the money immediately. And if the service doesn't auto-renew itself, that's a big problem.

@Anti-Matter If you want to play online or have cloud saves you have to pay for a subscription (not necessarily for a year, but that is the best value).

Practically speaking, it shouldn't be a major issue, but they really should follow Sony's lead and keep sabres for a few extra months.

@Notshane

Why is it a big problem not having access to a backup of your save data, I don't understand

I'd have thought the risk of this impacting someone is very low - switch dies within a few days after a subscription was allowed to elapse, you;d be very unlucky

@dps5pt You just said it. Not having a backup of your save data. Some people, well it's rare, could have an accident with their Switch on the day the service expires or they simply don't have enough money to afford to renew it on the very day it expires.

I suppose, being as rare of an occurrence as these are, Nintendo simply doesn't care for these people. Just a few thousand less Switch sales to them, I suppose.

I've seen this news doing the rounds, and I'm surprised by the sense of surprise. Cloud saves are part of the paid service, so I wasn't expecting them to be available if I'm not paying. It would be nice to have a grace period (like PS+), but the chances of my Switch breaking at exactly the moment I forget to renew my subscription seems vanishingly small.

Edit: Also, "you must sacrifice those saves" is a bit disingenuous. You just sacrifice the backup of those saves until you resubscribe.

And to top it off, I find it quite dumb the NES games do not have local saves. Must mean they are only playable through cloud. That means that we don't even get an offline way of playing them, killing the whole "portable nature" the console has to offer when you think about it.

But, there is one major upside. The games look and play significantly better than the Wii U NES emulator, it seems, so I really don't have a more convenient way to play it at home unless I pay for NSO. I suppose the Wii had a solid NES emulator, so I can just fire that up again in Wii Mode.

@Notshane The text implies you can save your NES saves locally: "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."

@8itmap_k1d Oh, I'm dumb, I didn't read the "Nintendo Entertainment System" part there. I suppose they will have an offline way of play, then. Just a few more days to see.

Eh. Doesnt bother me. I'm more, mildly miffed about having to check in online every 7 days to keep playing nes games. While normally not a problem, sometimes i travel, or go camping, and dont typically use wifi or have it accessible. Have the games tied to my subscription date, or just require a monthly check in. Not a huge deal, just... dammit guys.

Because of course they had to put themselves in yet another unfavourable comparison with Xbox.
Xbox cloud data - not talking about Xbox One, but rather Xbox 360 - is merely locked away from the user if said user doesn't renew the subscription.
Deleting data is what is colloquially referred to as a Robin Move, taking the first Robin's secret identity into account.

@chardir
Got it.
I will add my e-shop fund to make a Subcription once it started.

I wondered about this yesterday. I think Nintendo would be more consumer friendly by giving a conservative window to renew your subscription in the least. That's just lame to wipe stuff. You can't renew and retrieve what was lost? Jeez.

This is common sense I don’t see why Nintendo would keep your stuff if you weren’t going to pay to have it stored, I’m sure you have a lot of notices by email that your membership will be expiring so there’s no excuse for it plus your save data is safe on your system until you renew the service.

And the fact you must "check in" to the internet every 7 days to confirm that you do indeed "own" the nes classics is just dumb. You should have offline access to those as long as youre subscription is active. 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

This article is relatively poorly worded. Considering how PS+ works the exact same way it seems this article was just made to draw up clicks. Also according to Nintendo's support page there will be in fact a period for which you cloud saves will be kept even if your subscription expires even though they don't specify how long https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/22521/p/897

Get a CFW and dumped your own save file. It's free and simple.

@Notshane

The more risk averse will be less likely to allow their subscription to expire - Nintendo have incentivized that, smart move

Hosting this data on a very resilient/redundant always on environment will have a cost. What they could do is increase slightly everyone's subscription in order to cover the cost for a period of time, for those that allow their subscription to lapse .

How about a poll, who thinks everyone should pay more to enable a cloud save buffer for non payers

This is idiotic. Why wouldn't they include a short grace period for people that had a bit of trouble renewing?

@Nincompoop
Nintendo are doing their best to make that an attractive option.

I really see no problem with this. Not for me anyways.

@Notshane only the gameboy used battery, as far as I know the 3ds cartridges don't have that problem.

That seems fair. If you could access them anytime without a subscription then unless you wanted the other features you wouldn't have to pay. Also as soon as the online is renewed the saves upload again. The only time I can see anyone would have a problem is if there was an accident with the switch while the membership has ceased.

@FTL @BladedKnight That's what I thought, but the way this article is worded kind of makes it sound like the saves would be gone from your device, or at least that's the impression I got. The article makes it out to be a bigger deal than it is imo.

Wow, what an absolute non-issue that you're choosing to report as if it's the apocalypse.

@Notshane You can't use the 'special offers' on the free trial, no. so you wouldn't be able to buy the NES controllers until you pay to subscribe. You might want to try out the NES games for 7 days before you buy the controllers though.

The comparison to Xbox and PlayStation is the cause to rightfully argue their point against how Nintendo offers their cloud save functionality.

Xbox One:
You have access to your cloud saves without paying for Xbox Live. And your data is kept safe without Microsoft deleting your save uploaded data.

PlayStation:
PSN offers cloud saves BUT you do actually have to pay to utilize this functionality. If your subscription runs out you lose access to the cloud save functionality. But your saves are NOT deleted, it will remain there for when you resubscribe to PSN.

Nintendo is more so doing what Sony offers in regards to cloud saves, but Nintendo is deleting your saves if you opt not to or cancel your subscription. There's most likely going to be a auto pay option to keep your Nintendo Online active to avoid your saves being deleted. Imo, I knew Nintendo was going to tie an anti consumer way of cloud save functionality behind a pay wall. Even worse, it's not even compatible with all games as it should.

@bimmy-lee You get to keep Netflix and any utilities when you stop paying? Lucky you.

@dps5pt It's not naive. I struggling to understand why people are being so accepting.

Because you can ONLY backup in the cloud this means that you have to continue to pay Nintendo , even if your not using the service, for anything more than storing the save. Or trust the hardware.

I know people will bang on about gameboy carts and such, but its 2018. Every photo I take is stored in about 10 locations minutes after I take it. That's what happens here in the future.

Honestly find it bizarre that people in this comments section are applauding Nintendo for finding a way to ransom what I would consider precious hours of gameplay.

@Nincompoop
Shame on you !
CFW ?
No thanks.

Sheesh. Nintendo, I love you, but this online thing is something you really gotta get a hold of. I know the big N likes to march to the beat of their own drum but this is something they really need to just copy from the other guys.

Isn’t the cloud a backup? If by chance your local saves kick the bucket as soon as you forget to renew that sounds like a rare case of bad luck.

@Anti-Matter don't eat the yellow snow.

Nice attempt Nintendo Life, as ever, to try and present a negative spin on the Online Service.

As many rational folks here have stated, this is a non-issue. You stop paying...you lose access. Makes sense. Your saves will remain on your device, just as if you never had the service in the first place.

What is hilarious about the naysayers, is that, had Nintendo never offered the online service, but announced a bundle of 20 classic NES games on the eshop for $20...everyone would be commenting "no brainer buy," "yes, thank you," and "super mario 3 portable? yes!"

Yet, for that same $20, additionally giving players cloud saves, voice chat, and online play, it has become an absolute moan fest.

Meh don't care lol

@Yorumi
That's fine if you make a choice to go with something else.

But expecting it as if it's owed? It's unreasonable.

There's alot of nonsense with this sub, and Id much rather talk about the ridiculous online checkins than complaints that Nintendo isn't backing up your saves when you stop paying them to.

If ever there was something NOT worthy of criticism, it's this. I dont care what anyone else does. They wanna hold data longer, let them. Still doesn't make it unreasonable to stop servicing the customer when the customer stops paying.

LOL at all the people saying this is normal when literally none of the other consoles do it this way.

This is fake. The FAQ in other regions confirms there is a grace period. Yeesh.

I've read and reread the quote, and I can't see how people are getting "SAVES DELETED ASAP" from it. As far as I can tell, it's just saying that you lose access until you pay again. Nothing in there says it will be deleted asap.

Heck, if you read the ACTUAL FAQ entry on the site, it doesn't do anything but say you lose access. Not this confusing probably bad translation crap.

Being unable to renew one's subscription before it ends and no grace period between renewal doesn't help when one's Switch system is lost, stolen, or broken beyond usable.

@NintendoFan4Lyf That or your subscription lapse while your switch is in a replacement process... which makes it much more likely given some will have monthly subscription...

I hope they would have email alerts when one's Switch online subscription is about to expire.

Are cloud saves really that data intensive? What downside is there for Nintendo to just hang onto your few megabytes of data? Heck, I’d offer a few terabytes of my OneDrive subscription to let them use to back up cloud saves for millions of people because it’s so freaking cheap.

You’ve already bought the Switch, you bought the games, you paid for at least one month of the service; my question is just, “Why not?”

When I stopped playing World of Warcraft and stopped paying my subscription, they didn’t go and delete all my characters (or expect me to retain the data) just because I stopped giving them money. You start paying again, you re-gain access to the stuff they kept safe for you.

I THINK IT'S HORRIBLE!!! Nintendo must give us a delay of 6 months by keeping our data. Hope you're reading my expectation Nintendo!

I don't think you'd forget, I mean when my Playstation and Xbox subs are nearly up, they always send an email to remind me with plenty of time.

And with the not having enough funds part, you'd sure have £4 to spare to give you an extra month till the next payday right?

What's amazing is how many people think this online service is a steal!
What worries me is unless it gets lots of visable negative feedback ie the online app, on the App Store getting 1star reviews etc.
Nintendo will think your happy and never improve the service or change.

Yikes! Don’t miss your renewal date then guys

Back in my day, keeping your saves depended on whether you remember where you put the piece of paper with the password you wrote down. Lost those all the time. We have it good today, I’d say

Seriously Nintendo?

I love you and all but this is just twelve times of stupidity! People forget stuff, I do all the time. Also maybe they may have to wait till next payday despite being relatively cheap compared to the competition. At least give a 30 day grace period and have warning emails in the run up and then when the deletion date is approaching.

You know, your save data still remains on your Switch (why are people forgetting this 🤔)? And if you can't afford 4 bucks, you surely need to worry about more important things than your cloud saves.

@faint not if you have xbox and u can back it up lol

@MrBlacky why cant they use the sd card or heres a radical totaly space age idea the switch carts. I know totally mad futuristic idea but they could be a first to save games on the cart.

@Anguspuss
I honestly don't really care where my files are saved, as long it's locally.

At this point I’m not going to jump to any conclusion until the 2nd or 3rd part of next year. There have been so many new revelations about what the service can and can’t do before any 1st hand experience, I don’t even believe Nintendo fully.

Even though I feel this cloud save data should be used as a BACKUP (I'm 95% sure the system will only/mainly read your local save) and not as an alternative for local save, I wouldn’t be surprised if they decide to change it to give you a little grace period.

Edit: Now that I think about it, even if they give a grace period, people will have the same issue since they'll likely look at it as milking some extra free months and wait till last minute to renew.

Now that I Really think about this isn't really news, this is just the way subscription based services normally works. Can't believe I fall for the clickbait.

Have they said that you'll need to pay manually each time, like Pokémon bank, or will there be an option to automatically renew? Losing cloud backups isn't really an issue as long as the local saves are still fine ofc, but having an auto-renew option would remove the hassle of having to back everything up all over again

It makes sense for people that like to have physical backups to dislike this.

To save locally, you have to take the time, the phyisical media and the space to gather all your importante data, put it somewhere and store it somehwere. That data becomes obsolete the moment you keep using your regular saves, true, but it becomes a lifesaver if you lose your progress and want to do a "system restore", even if it is not completely up to date.

In this case, people might not feel the need to renew inmedately their subscription (because they have little time to play those months, no new online games that they feel the need to play that season, etc), but it would sure be nice if they could do a system restore if their system goes the way of the dodo in that time and they renew their subscription after the incident. That is what people whining want...we shall see now if there is indeed a grace period and how long is it.

@MongolRaider - It was sarcasm. Best guess, anyone shocked by this has never had to pay their own bills or expenses, and possibly they’ve never done anything but play games, panic about backing up their backups, and generally take all this crap way too serious.

Lol, what is the point of this article exactly? I mean it's fine to mention this in an all-encompassing Nintendo Switch Online article as a side note, but you're blowing up a non-issue for no real reason. You still have your local saves if your membership ends, you don't lose them. As for losing cloud saves, it's no different than it is on PlayStation. Simply renew your membership and upload your local saves to the cloud again.

@Yorumi - I didn’t insult anyone criticizing Nintendo. Just calling a rube a rube if you honestly believe anyone/thing would continue providing a subscription based service to a customer who has stopped paying the subscription.

Edit - You would have been one of my first three guesses to be in here whining about this.

@Yorumi

It doesn't delete "all of your data"'. You're over-exaggerating.

When I said I didn't like the cloud and preferred to save in the system the answer I got was that save data gets saved in the system as well as in the cloud. So... there shouldn't be any problem, right?

I feel like this is just worst case scenario to cover themselves. Like a "hey, just to let you know your saves aren't guaranteed after your subscription expires" but in actuality they won't be deleted immediately after it lapses and their will be a grace period just not a defined one.

@stevenw45 This. My fiance, her brother, and I are all going to pay for the family plan, making the whole thing cheaper for us. Even if I wasn't sharing the family plan, $20 for cloud saves, eShop deals, and a buttload of NES games is a good deal imo.

@Yorumi You get to keep your local saves. They aren't going to maliciously delete those off of your system just because you didn't renew your membership. A back up save is just that. You act like you're forced to re-up on an optional service or your save data is forfeit.

Also, the thing that makes people a little dumb for crying about this is that the expectation should have been that you only get to use cloud saves if you have membership by DEFAULT. Why people thought that they get to keep using cloud saves months after their membership expires even though Nintendo never said that was the case is just silly. It's a membership. That's how these things work. You pay for a service.

@Yorumi - Don’t know. I pay for the stuff I want to keep before it expires. Please direct me to the place where it states you lose your backup save data the day the subscription ends.

Not sure if it was said or clarified in the comments, but correct me if I'm wrong: Your Switch will continue to save your save data locally, it's just that with the online subscription, it will be backed up "automatically" to the cloud. Now, unless when it "automatically" saves to the cloud it wipes your local memory, then I don't see why this would be such an issue. Can NL or someone please clarify?

To me, that can't be the case, cause even with an online subscription, if you save to the cloud, thus wiping your local save, then how would you play with your saves when you're in portable mode with NO internet connection? I think there's a misunderstanding here-- I hope Nintendo isn't THAT shortsighted...

@MeloMan

No, you have it right. You don't lose your local save data. It's really not a big deal.

That being said, if you want to argue that it's dumb that we have no way to back up save data besides paying for this membership, I can understand that. We already knew that before this article though, so I don't understand the fake outrage. Oh right, this is the internet.

This is really stupid (wiping the saves directly when the subscription ends). Come on, Nintendo! I understand that you will eventually lose the cloud saves, but right away?!

I will continue to save on my console.

It would be pretty terrible if cloud saves are deleted immediately, with no grace period whatsoever, if a subscription isn't renewed. (Though I suppose this would only be problematic if your Switch breaks on the day your subscription ends, which will probably never happen).

Thankfully, automatic payments exist, so that won't be a huge issue for me.

@Yorumi How is this incredibly stupid or incompetent? When your PS+ membership ends, you don't have access to cloud saves. You are the only one here singling Nintendo out for something that isn't new. A subscription is a service you only have access to when you're subscribed. It isn't rocket science my dude.

Also, calling them incredibly stupid and incompetent when they are purposely tying back up save data to a subscription service they know people will pay for is ass backwards. If anything, they're being smart lol. They're a business and they're going to make a good amount of money off of this.

@stevenw45 Oh I agree that we should have other ways to back up save data, but that isn't what this article is about.

TIL you only get the goods from a subscription service... while you have an active subscription?

mind. blown.

@Yorumi - All it says is that they will not continue to store your backups after you stop paying. It makes absolutely no mention of the timeframe that this will happen. They want our money, and they’ll definitely have ways to remind us that our sub is running out, like every other subscription provider does.

@Yorumi

If you can't access the cloud saves, what's the point in them being there? When you renew your membership you can just upload your saves again automatically, it's really no different. Also, Microsoft is the only one here providing free cloud saves, so they make Nintendo and PlayStation look bad by comparison.

@lmello I love you.

@Yorumi Oh, and PS+ costs 3x as much as Nintendo's membership.

@Dogorilla no it won't.

@Spudworthy - That’s a pretty expensive six months of leisure time while you very slowly make the decision to renew or not renew.

@Yorumi - I’m spending $20/yr for the NES games. I’m not even going to use the cloud backups. Some people just wanna watch the world burn my friend.

@Yorumi So PlayStation charging you $60 a year for the same feature isn't a scam? I don't know why I engaged in a debate with you in the first place, I've seen you around the site and you're negative like 95 percent of the time. Overblowing something as small as this when most of the people here have been level-headed and realize that this is an optional service that doesn't delete your local saves if you decide not to renew. It's sad.

Again, if you actually read my comments, I said that I wish there was another way to back up save data besides paying for this membership. The cloud service only being available when you're subscribed is something we knew before this article existed. Why you're acting like this is news is beyond me.

@bimmy-lee I don't think I need to tell you that I'm loving this...I feel like I don't belong in here because I'm not remotely bothered by any of this, plus it's an article designed to rattle. Anyway I'm off to the pub.

@stevenw45 I agree, I'd like another way to back up save data. Until then though, I was going to pay for this membership anyway for online multiplayer and that sweet NES collection so I just see the cloud saves as a nice bonus.

Don't worry, I've blocked Yorumi. I'm not going to keep going on about something as trivial as this, it amazes me that people expect to still have access to a subscription service even if they no longer subscribe. "Netflix should give me a free month after I unsubscribe so I can have time to get the money together for another subscription". That's basically what he's arguing, and while that'd be nice, it isn't realistic nor does it make Netflix incompetent for not giving away free service lol

I don't get what all the fuss is about.This should be pretty obvious to me.But I do think saves should be kept in the cloud for at least a few days after membership expiry.

More junk journalism. Oh dear.

@Wazeddie22 There might still be a period where they stay on the cloud, I hope we get clarification on that soon. Regardless, this really shouldn't have its own article because it isn't even news. The article should have been named "How Any Subscription For Anything Works, Ever"

They stay in the cloud l, but to get tho is you need to subscribe again to get to it again. Thats how cloud save works.

Wow, this is complete and total BS. My PSN saves are still in the cloud, despite not being a PS+ member.
Microsoft gives everyone data backup for free on Xbone; without a gold membership.
Steam games that have Steam cloud back up automatically for free.

Nintendo is the worst with online functionality. Period. >

@faint Not at all. Clearly the Nintendo-only people will find this "normal", when it's anything but.

Also, Dropbox and Google Drive don't delete your stuff if your sub runs out, you just can't access it. Deleting it is insane.

@The-Chosen-one

Unfortunately you lose the back up save data if you aren't subscribed, but you can just upload your local saves back to the cloud when you renew your subscription. It's pretty much the same thing.

@EVIL-C I'll agree that Steam and Microsoft are better about cloud saves, but you can't access your cloud saves on PlayStation unless you're subscribed. If your PlayStation or Nintendo Switch breaks, would you rather pay $20 or $60 to renew a membership to save your data until you can download it back to your new system? PlayStation has the worst cloud service out of any of them because of the price to use it. Sure your saves stay on the cloud for a few months with PlayStation, but after six months they're deleted, just like Nintendo. The difference is the price, and there might still be a grace period for cloud saves with Nintendo. They just haven't clarified yet.

It is not very important for me because I don’t care about this cloud thing. But I want to thank Nintendo Life for the fair and critical coverage of this news.

I assumed that if you have cloud saving activated, the games will just save two times: Offline to the system memory like it does now, and online into the cloud. So when the subscription runs out you lose the cloud save but you still have your saves locally, just like before.

So, isn't the cloud service just a means to get your save files back if something bad happens to them locally?

It seems the only benefit of cloud saving is that you can access and load specific save files (like character data) into any Switch console. Diablo III demoed that at Gamescom. Any player can join in on any Switch console and load in their character from the cloud. No more need to have your Switch console and save data around locally to boot up your progress. An online subscription and your safety password is all it takes to load up your data and join a game.

I guess this will also apply to Smash Bros. It will probably be used so that a player account can join any game anywhere to keep their personal stats complete and up to date.

@Axlroselm

It isn't news, this was already common knowledge.

@SKTTR

Exactly this.

@WiltonRoots - I agree, the article has a gross tone. At least it’s fueling some outrage. I’ll join you. Cheers!

Pay for Nintendo Switch Online Subscription, you have 60 seconds, fail and face erasure.

It’d be interesting to know how well this same article would have been received, if written as informative, rather than opinionated. It set the stage from the opening to confuse readers into assuming they were doomed, when in reality, it should have been written as an educational piece on ‘here’s how the cloud saves work.’

@jkirchgessner07

I agree. The only reason I even commented was because of the way it was written, as if this is some terrible, awful thing that people should be cautious about. The comparison to PlayStation Plus was particularly striking because one service is $20 a year and the other is $60 a year.

@Hams96 According to the faqs, yes.
When the time comes, it will take the necessary amount from your Nintendo eShop balance. If you don't have enough funds, then your saved payment method will be used to automatically add the remainder to your balance and purchase the membership.

You can opt out of auto renewal and it will renew based on your most recent subscription; i.e if you purchase a 12 month membership during a 3 month membership, the next automatic renewal will be for a 12 month membership.

And like always Nintendo is still 10 years behind the competition when it comes to online in freaking 2018 and fanboys still defend Nintendo from being anti consumer and not just allowed save data backup to an SD card and not even keep your save cloud for at least a week after it expires 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣

After all this cloud business disappears I hope the sun comes out

@SKTTR

The system should also help with the size matters. Now, most save data is very low on size, true, but certain games, (i.e.sport games) have very big filesizes for the save data. IIRC, NBA 2K18 received special coverage because it had a savedata size of 5 GB, bigger than many retail games, and I would guess the new NBA game is the same.

Some players will find useful to be able to store this gigantic files on the cloud if they need that Switch memory space for something else, or some gamers sooner or later might even end up running out of memory with the 32 GB switch limit for save files.

Well duh!
Changing subject, Does the mk8 deluxe DLC no show at the direct mean that it won't happen?

This is like a no deal Brexit: we’re paying more for a worse deal than we already have!

I’m thinking the cloud save features aren’t really meant to be that big of a deal... just a handy option if you’re traveling and want to be extra safe. - IMO, the real thing Nintendo is after is becoming a sort of Netflix of games. Introduce the service at a great price and see how many people keep the service just based on them having 40 or so extra games to play at anytime.

As long as your save files are still in your system, there's no reason to freak out if those backups disappear from the cloud for the 1 or 2 days that you forget to pay for your subscription. The only reason you should freak out is if your system breaks down precisely during the period where you forgot to pay, in which case well you should not have forgotten to pay.

plus let's say your subscription runs out but they DID keep your data. And then during the period you don't renew your subscription you do PLAY those games that had their save data backed up on the cloud... the cloud save won't be up-to-date anymore with the state that your local save file is in then. Making the backup go away is the best way to ensure that no discrepancies crop up between what's on the cloud and what's on your system. As long as you pay, your save files are backed up as you play them, but you don't want the cloud to accidentally restore an older revision of your save file only because you stopped paying for your subscription very briefly.

@Spudworthy I know you can't access your PlayStation saves if you're not subscribed. Save files are not deleted after 6 months. Who told you that?
I haven't subscribed to PS+ for over 2 years, and my cloud saves are all still intact.

@Spudworthy @jkirchgessner07 Same thing I come to realize after thinking about it for a while. They left out certain info that would also be informative to cherry pick the one part that would knowingly get people in a frenzy, especially for the ones who don’t like the service in the first place. I had to research both Nintendo and Sony’s online service after reading this to get a better picture. Didn’t know that Sony used to limit cloud storage to 1gb or that Nintendo also have auto renewal.

Just seems like one of those articles to get people to comment over 200 (with success)

@Medic_alert So connect to the airplane Wi-Fi. Or the airport Wi-Fi. Or the hotel Wi-Fi. Or the Starbucks Wi-Fi. Or one of literally hundreds of Internet connections that are available. For instance.

Terrible article that is either poorly thought out or written to stoke the fire.

Oh i just can't be bothered anymore... 30th of October my a switch is going back into its box until im done with Runescape Mobile...

Maan i am so hyped for that... Especially as more news coming on Nintendo's attempts at an online service.

Call me fickle... I don't care... Runescape Mobile is life.

@faint No, Xbox Live stores cloud data for free.

Absolute bullsh*t.

F*ck Nintendo's Lame-a*s service.

@NintendoFan4Lyf well that sucks, Xbox Live does it for free, no need to be subscribed to save in cloud.

In related news, people complain about being wet after getting splashed with water saying "I should be dry for at least 90 days."

Maybe Nintendo should give people a small window to renew, but your local saves will still be intact. I like how people are using ignorance such as "forgetting" to renew as an excuse. Yeah well, if you "forget" to pay your electric bill, you lose electricity. As others have said, if money suddenly becomes tight, which I can understand, maybe cloud saves for video games shouldn't be your priority.

@NintendoFan4Lyf Yes, when your PS+ subscription ends, you lose access to your cloud saves. However, losing access to them for up to 6 months and the saves getting deleted IMMEDIATELY are two very different things.

Nintendo, please, you can afford leniency periods. Don't you already, for Pokémon Bank?

Well it's not like major games Like Splatoon 2 or the Pokemon games will have cloud saves anyways... just go with as minimal effort as possible for the online service I guess. Basically give Nintendo $20 indefinitely for as long as the Switch is relevant for nothing in return.

If this wasn't implemented people would just store their data after purchasing a single month... It makes sense from a business standpoint.

Lol I call b.s. lol I called Nintendo u don't lose it day 1 lol.u just can't use it lol.same as pan and xbox btw I can't get to my cloud on Xbox without xbox live

Besides if u read it right it says you can't use it without Nintendo online nothing about data loss lol

Why isn't the renewal automatic like PlayStation? They just take it out of your bank account when your subscription is up. So if you miss a few weeks because of well life all your data from the previous year will be lost? That is lame but it is only $20.

It's like Nintendo isn't aware of how hard it's already going to be to sell people on the whole online subscription thing... how is this going to help? I have PS Plus but as far as I know you don't lose your cloud saves when your sub ends, just access to it. I'm not planning to renew my subscription for financial reasons so I'll find out for sure soon.

"About Automatic Renewal
If you purchase a Nintendo Switch Online membership, your membership will automatically renew at the price and frequency you select unless you turn off automatic renewals. You can turn off automatic renewal at any time up to 48 hours before the end of the then-current period to avoid the renewal of your subscription and billing of the subscription amount"(Nintendo.com 2018). Whatever with this confusing article just go to the Nintendo website.

Y'all get so riled up at the slightest things. I worry about how some of you deal with real stresses, if this is how much you freak out that your videogame save redundancy might be at risk if you miss a payment. Yeesh.

Oof! Literally every time more info comes out about the online service, the more horrible it sounds. I've been pretty accepting of all the bad that has come with the payed online service, but after hearing that a ton of games don't support cloud saving and that the online will be peer to peer (which means that there aren't even any servers, meaning really bad slow internet connections) I just can't defend it anymore. Nintendo is really failing hard at this.

What real difference does it make? You can't access it anyway and when you renew, it just pulls the saves from your system again.

@Medic_alert Any plane that takes you to those exotic places has Wi-Fi. If you don't have a Wi-fi-enabled plane you'll be landing in some place like Peoria.

@Dogorilla If you have a look at my other comment, I think it is actually a decent problem - especially considering it doesn’t have a standard ability to backup by usb or otherwise.... that’s the main issue.

@bimmy-lee chin chin mate...honestly I find these meltdowns hilarious. Who in their right mind freaks out over videogames???? And especially about paying $20 over a year? Wow. I wish my life was that simple.

I think saves should still be in the cloud and only block the ability to sync, not straight delete them.

"Your saves are still in your device, you're very unlikely to lose even if you take a few days to renew the sub"

So what's the point of cloud saving then? Might as well not exist if this is going to be an excuse from now on.

Isn’t that obvious? It’s how all subscription services work. You stop paying, you lose access. Wanting it to be otherwise is unrealistic.
If you stop paying the rent you’ve got to get out of your apartment, don’t you?

@Tokiwa And why exactly should they keep using server space if you’re not paying anymore? I guess keeping them a few weeks or a month would be great for those who just forgot to renew, but eternal storage waiting for someone that may never pay again? That’s expecting way too much.

I’ll use my apartment analogy again. If you stop paying, do you expect the landlord to keep that apartment empty forever waiting for you to come back?

Honestly this is exactly what I expected from Nintendo and their first try at an online service. They are novices in this area and will continue to make mistakes like this.

And for the people that are trying to defend this.... Storage space is cheap, insanely cheap and no one else behaves like this. For example, take Blizzard and World of Warcraft (or any mmo for that matter). When you stop paying your subscription they don't remove your characters and so on, even if it does take up space on their servers. It'll still be there when you resub. They even store data for games that don't have a monthly subscription like Diablo 3.
You also have Steam that saves game data for a ton of games, you don't pay a subscription for that services, or for being able to host screenshots.

Nintendo does a lot of good things, but they are also one of the more greedier game companies around.

@faint

"Doesnt matter how its done elsewhere. That's elsewhere. If you stop paying for a service you cant expect services rendered to continue.
Otherwise everyone would wait 6 months between re-subbing because hey, why not, they're gonna store my saves even when Im not paying, and if something happens, THEN I'll sub again.
Like stop paying insurance and expect to still have coverage if something happens."

It may be minor in the grand scheme of things, but I'm not sure why you are attacking members who point out the competitors provide better service. Providing a longer term is just great for the customer and may be good for business. I mean if something (though unlikely) happened to my PS4 in the 6 month window, you can guarantee I'm re-upping my sub to get my save data. And save data takes up almost no space on a server anyway.

I think it's funny you used insurance as an example. Because I've had great customer service with my insurance company. I've called and let them know I've gone to potentially buy a vehicle. They said thanks for letting us know. Call back within a couple days if you purchase and give us the vin # and we'll do the documentation. In the meantime you are covered. Did they have to do that? No, they didn't. But that's great and it builds customer loyalty. Most services don't actually cut you off immediately. If you are late on a utility bill, cell phone, or credit card bill all will still work on day 1 after you miss payment.

This article really needs an update as the info isn't accurate but all these comments must mean clicks so naw.

They had one job.

This is not a "major problem". Please stop inventing drama.

@WiltonRoots - Everything is a scam. Everything is a gimmick. Nothing for sale is pro consumer. Buy into the crap that makes you happy, and don’t worry about the rest. Which reminds me, I’d like to light some money on fire and have a bad time playing some NES games that haven’t aged well with you on Nintendo’s terrible online service some time.

This problem would had easily been solve had they allow for external transfer of saving like the GameCube, Wii, Wii U, and 3DS

...and coming tomorrow is an article about not renewing subscription will stop you from playing online multiplayer.

Oh, the horror

I mean, the probability that you will not renew your membership(assuming you can have autopay at the end of each year) and then a monster truck runs over your switch seems pretty unlikely. $20 a year is such a good deal in the first place that I wouldn't think twice about paying for it no matter what anyhow.

Would a 1 month grace period be nice? Yes, but that is not exactly unfair since your saves will still be locally stored anyhow, cloud saves are just a back up.

The only reason pokemon bank saves your pokemon for some time is that you are literally storing your pokemon there, it isn't some game save back up.

Stop paying for service = service stops! SHOCK HORROR!

Some of these comments are hilarious. Well done community it’s been a good Saturday morning read for me.

@OorWullie A complete fire stoker...on the plus side you get to see some absolute bedwetters freaking out, so it's not all bad.

I skimmed the comments and no surprises. Half of the people are having a reaction to the news and the other half are spreading blatantly false details about other services to make their daddy look better. I literally have been able to subscribe to PS Plus on and off update my cloud save and access them all the minute I resubed even on different devices. If you want to defend a horrible decision that's fine, but please don't lie about other services.

Also yeah it's definitely 20 dollars worth of service. Some crappy ten times released NES games, inferior online multi-player, having to have a phone for chat, and if you don't pay constantly you might get your cloud saves deleted. I can just feel how much they care about our opinions. They just want straight up money for very little.

I mean you all can try to spin it anyway you want, deep inside you know the reason we're just now hearing all about this service is because they knew it would be bad optics. It's the same reason they had pre-orders for online service, they know a portion of our fan base is delusionally invested in a one sided relationship with them.

Also just for kicks I'm taking it none of you guys talking about bills have actually paid them. Most companies will give you a grace period and even allow you to reschedule charges, so yet again all you've done is make the conversation stupider. Also the comparison to renting an apartment is great because they literally don't kick you out the minute you stop paying. Depending on local law, they have to start what's called an eviction and that can take some time. They have to allow you so much time to pick your stuff up and so on and on.

@NintendoFan4Lyf if this is the way it will work on Switch, then that's fair enough

@Fight_Teza_Fight of course, they're usually in last place in online matters. https://youtu.be/1W7c8QghPxk

Ah, the days of putting in a cartridge and having a simple 5 save back up.....I miss those. Other than maybe downloading from an "eshop", I want nothing to do with online gaming and saves.

@Fight_Teza_Fight

Well, I guess that's one way of looking at it.

I'm glad I'm not doing the online thing with Switch. Don't need it and they'll eventually cut online off several years after they move onto the next console.

Seriously @Nintendolife.. Stop turning every uncertainty into a definitive negative. Lately your articles have been hastily drawing negative conclusions more and more often..

No where in the FAQ answer does it say they immediately delete the data when the subscription expires. The North American FAQ even only speaks about availability.
Maybe ask Nintendo for a clarification statement or something? You know like journalists do?

Or if you can't get a statement, be sure not to draw hasty conclusions but address multiple possibilities.

This way you're not spreading information you're spreading confusion, and that's bad for the community.
Please try to be better!

@Ngamer

Same here. Its weird.

@mr_grimm

Precisely! Once you buy something, its supposed to be yours. This is why I'm against all digital gaming.

No one ought to check in on it to be able to still own it. They didn't do that with the eshop purchases. They shouldn't do it now. That's XBox levels of BS right there.

Nintendo is really killin it this gen. face palms

I'm still more offended by the way the tried to sell the "online gaming aspect". All that talk about fun online and supported games ... kinda left me speechless. This is really just another kick in the ****. I'm not really clear on why Nintendo seems THIS intent on undercutting the good will, which they spend now almost two years building successfully. Pulling this off wasn't hard. This was a wheel in no need of reinventing.

Promise us pristine online quality, stability and security, throw in bonus features without insane conditions, like a cloud-service ala Xbox Live or a half-way decent Virtual Console attached to the Online service, clear up the mess with the phone app ... and done. Nothing more was needed.

This kind of just continues Nintendo's tradition of fumbling anything-online. #sad

@Angelic_Lapras_King

Yes your right! People are totes overreacting.

And life is truly perfect. I mean there's no such thing as sudden medical bills, big family events, car accidents, funerals, vacations, being on active military duty, natural disasters, or people losing their jobs right?

Absolutely no reason why we shouldn't all be glued to our Switches. 24/7 and paying subscriptions when we should.

@Tempestryke
Agree. But I understand that you dont buy each individual nes game, so thats kinda like netflix. But you shouldnt have to check in. Im still playing psone classics I bought on my vita, and thats almost never connected to wifi. I bought it therefore its mine. Its kinda ludacris, every service have their own take on ownership of digital content. I've bought physical games thats not on the disc. Whats the point.

@Medic_alert Once in more than a million is close enough to never.

@mr_grimm

applauds

@maruse should have a grace period at least for a few days, like any normal cloud server service. I'm not expecting eternal storage though. But i guess that's asking too much from poor struggling Nintendo.

Not sure about your apartment analogy, but where i live you can actually make a contract that gives you a few days to move your belongings with you. Like you know... a grace period

@Tokiwa Actually we don’t know if there will be grace period. Have Nintendo said anything about that? (Genuine question, since I don’t know).

I don’t think they’re going to give us 6 months like PS+, but I don’t believe that the saves will be deleted instantly after the subscription expires.

Besides, the cloud saves are just a backup. The moment you renew the current, newest saves will be uploaded.

I see an issue only if your Switch breaks or is lost, but if you are not paying anymore for the service, then it’s pretty obvious (and logical) what happens.

I knew there'd be some crappy backwards catch with this. Nintendo still 2 steps behind the competition in regards to online as usual

@maruse One or two weeks would be more than enough in my opinion. I personally wouldn't complain if they made that clear. I'm not expecting 6 months either but most cloud services gives you at least 30 days to recover your data before deleting permanently.

Some people has really busy schedules or live in places with poor connection, a small grace period window would be very very appreciated by some of us.

it's bs.

let's be honest

Well, that sucks, but these are only backup save files in the first place, right? It should only matter if your Switch fails or gets stolen at a time that you've yet to renew your membership.

@PanurgeJr This whole comment section oozes first world problems. I see people crying about this online thing all over youtube and various websites, me personally? I didn't even bat an eyelid.

People will say "but the PS4 and Xbox online blah blah blah" I just don't care. I don't own either and never will so the comparisons are pointless. It's just games, it's not that serious.

@WiltonRoots These comments make me want to stop visiting this website and fill my time with something else. Playing more games comes to mind.

@Spudworthy I blocked Yorumi as well. But I think he/she should be banned.

It's like talking to a mirror with Yorumi. He/she is beyond reasoning and is not taken seriously. All he/she does is spew crud that he/she has no idea how the world works. He/she thinks he/she is right about everything.

Hence, I think Yorumi should be banned for being a troll.

@cleveland124 LOL you think that was an attack? I thought I was super respectful. Are you new to forums or the internet in general?

Sigh.... Nintendo, I love you but why do you guys keep shooting yourselves in the foot. Ironically save data security is no game!

@faint

Wow, you deleted all your comments except the first one that got a bunch of likes?

@Medic_alert renew and it comes back lol

I'm pretty sure I let my PS+ account expire for almost a year. Subscribed again and all my saves were still there.

Oh well, give Nintendo some time, they're still new to this whole games thing.

@IronMan30

Bill Hicks- REAL guy right there IM30 👍
Terrible smoking habit he had though, lol.

@maruse The issue is not that - the issue is that there is no other option - ie that there is no ability to back up the device saves locally, which every other console (and device?) since 1995 has had. They are saying pay the extra money continuously or too bad.

@Pete41608 I agree 100%. And yeah, he smoked like a chimney and made sure everyone knew that, lol.

@bimmy-lee Sorry, it's hard to catch sarcasm over the internet sometimes.

@MongolRaider - No problem, it is difficult. Most of my posts are (attempts at) jokes, but it’s not like you would necessarily know that either. I think we talked about BOTW a while ago, about the difficulty controlling the horses. I never did get good at it, and put 350 hours in my playthrough walking everywhere.

@cleveland124 what the heck are you talking about? Are you confusing me with someone else?

@Alantor28

As a lurker on Nintendo life since the Wii U era... On almost every Nintendo "online" article. I have watched you do nothing but pick/attack others that do not agree with you, on how the online service is being handled or are simply voicing their opinions on the matter.

You said you would like a nice, clean community... Yet you are contributing to the toxicity and now blocking people that simply don't agree with you. You can put me on your blacklist as well once you're done reading this, but two wrongs don't make a right and you will be proving my point if you were to do that.

It's people like you who makes people like me refuse to post about how they personally feel about the online. Because everytime someone voice how they do not like it. You or someone else community comes in and attacks them, or label the ones who disagree with how the Nintendo online service works as "whiners" when you are literally whining about those who are whining themselves.

I do not want Nintendo life to be another toxic place like almost every other community I had ventured onto. :/

@Avana Well too bad. U don't understand how the world works. If you don't like what this site is becoming, then leave. I haven't done anything wrong, yet you attacked me for no reason.

If you don't like what I say or can't handle anything this site has, then the best option for you is to leave since you can't handle something like this.

@Alantor28

I do understand how the world works and no worry, I won't be posting much on here so you do not have to worry about me. I'm Sorry if my post deemed offensive to you. I wasn't trying to sound rude but sometimes? The truth literally hurts.

Just saying.

@Avana I understand. And I apologized too for being a bit rude to you. Still, I'm sorry to hear that you won't be posting here anymore. Hope u find a better community.

@Avana don’t take it to heart but I totally agree with you. Every single comment and in the forums it’s alwsys ban this guy or ban this person because they had a opinion. Or it’s great service because I haven’t played nes games ever in my life so the service is good

@Avana welcome to Nintendo life. Again. Officially

@1UP_MARIO

Thank you. ^^ I am by no means offended. I could have continued on with them and not sugar coated my words and say things that would make me look like a hypocrite in their response towards my first response.

Like I said... I will be not much of a poster on Nintendo life because most communities I've been in the things I say, tends to hurt people. Especially when it comes to stuff like this, for example, tends to get under my skin for far too long.

By no means, I am not leaving nintendolife. I will be commenting from time to time. Just not as much as an average user.

Again I appreciate your welcome Thank you.

Makes perfect sense.

@faint Sony keeps them during a grace period.

@bimmy-lee Lol, I hear ya, especially trying to shoot a bow on top of it. Ever since I got the Master Cycle Zero I've not even so much as looked at a horse.

4 + a half years later and I wonder if people know that Cloud Saves are still supported for 6 months after you subscription ends, and nothing is deleted.