
As you might recall, September was the one-year anniversary of Switch Online. At Nintendo's financial results briefing today, president Shuntaro Fukukawa briefly addressed it saying how membership numbers had "steadily" increased since its launch.
September marked the one-year anniversary of the launch of Nintendo Switch Online. Global membership numbers are increasing steadily this fiscal year.
He also touched on expanding the service and said how Nintendo would continue to "enhance" it to continue encouraging Switch users to try it out.
We have previously discussed out the importance of expanding the Nintendo Switch Online service in ways that appeal to consumers. Here are the services and benefits added since the launch of Nintendo Switch Online last year. Going forward, we will continue to enhance service content to encourage owners of the Nintendo Switch system or Nintendo Switch Lite system to try the service and see its appeal first-hand, so they will join and maintain a subscription.
Prior to the one-year anniversary of the service, at a Q&A shareholder meeting in April, Nintendo confirmed the service had already passed 10 million subscribers. Since then, it's received the Super Nintendo Online service update, which has no doubt boosted subscriptions once again.
Do you have a subscription to Nintendo Switch Online? How would you like to see the service improved and enhanced over time? Tell us down in the comments.
Comments 88
Tetris 99 is great! More stuff like that, please.
Some more games to actually have on the NES and SNES apps would be recomended
N64 or Cube games plox.
I don't see any wording that indicates Nintendo understands why people are disappointed with Nintendo Switch Online. I can't take Nintendo seriously regarding their statements to improve NSO game offerings. They are metaphorically rearranging the chairs on the Titanic (Nintendo Switch Online).
Although I'm hearing good things about Tim Roger's "Truck Heck!" (I love it when he pitches that game.)
Excite bike 99. Mario 99. Donkey Kong country I imagine will be a holiday thing. Make Mario kart tour and Dr Mario world free games with switch online. Switch is just a bit touch screen.
Actions speak louder than words.
Keep giving us cool stuff like Tetris 99 and more virtual console, and I'm good.
This service has a long way to go still sadly.
But the SNES games are appreciated.
Mario RPG and I'll never complain about anything again
It’s only 19.99 a year, but they still need to do something on a monthly basis. I’d agree dropping 20 SNES games was nice in September but nothing happened in October. Why?
It will be really disappointing for subscribers to go the whole of November with nothing new as well.
I can't complain too much about paying $7 annually to play Tetris 99 and 70 or so NES/SNES games.
If this was Virtual Console, it would cost $7 per SNES game.
It's very cheap.
But it's also very limited. I defended the service for a while, but they've done so little with it, and done it so slowly, I feel it's clear they only see it as an after thought. We should have gotten SNES games 6 months in, and not we should be getting a 3rd retro console. And games should be added to the service more regularly and frequently. Have they added any SNES games yet, since the initial batch???
Tetris 99 is certainly a bright spot, but the NES and SNES Online has fizzled our. I’m a Nintendo apologist, but even I think they continue to drop the ball with the online offerings.
They’ve all but forgotten the app which isn’t necessarily bad, but the abrupt decision to for go the moNthly additional titles is not a good sign. We’ve seen Nintendo do things like this time and again.
If it’s off the schedule, it out of their thoughts. Not another single NES or SNES game has been added since the decision was made. There are a ton of SNES titles that could be added but it hasn’t happened.
Is it that hard to give us 3 NES and 3 Super NES games per month. Heck they could add 2 NES games with 1 Famicom title and 2 Super NES games and 1 SFC title to make the lineup much better. Having to wait for who knows how long seem like forever and makes the service seem lacking.
There is A LOOOOOTTT of work to be done,but I guess we'll get there....slowly
@KitsuneNight @mrmememan Let’s also get some GBA games on NSO. In portable mode, the Switch is like a giant GBA.
Logged into the 3DS eShop recently. Poked around for a bit & almost forgotten how much fun it was just to be in the shop. The background game music, the game categories featuring our fav Nintendo characters, the overall excitement for games. It was a celebration of gaming...Why is the Switch eShop still a boring, uninspired mess?
Nintendo needs to step up its game on the overall Switch eShop experience and make it fun again.
Between the 3DS and the Wii U we have had Virtual Consoles titles for the GB, GBC, GBA, NES, SNES, N64, and the Wii (along with some non-Nintendo consoles and arcade titles).
Not VC titles, but the Wii U also got a couple of GC ports - Wind Waker HD & Twilight Princess HD. And the 3DS got the original Luigi’s Mansion.
Maybe add messaging, native voice chat and parties Nintendo! Basic stuff like that and you'll get more people paying for this piss poor service.
I still can't believe these companies are forcing consumers to pay to play online. We're already paying for the internet why do we have to pay for this?
@bluenile101 I like the Switch E-shop because it is the equivalent of buying games under harsh hospital room lighting. All they need is Dr. Mario there pushing pill shaped “sales and deals” at you.
The best encouragement is lower the price or offer a restricted service, at least if a few hours of online gaming a month is your only interest. Otherwise, I won't reward Nintendo for their grotesque policy of paying for backups and restricting access to old games.
I'd like to see these enhancements come a little faster than waiting a year for SNES games and the ability to turn of the control icons.
We don't want it enhanced, we want the actual online play to function.
This is akin to an airline that ever decreases your leg room but gives you more movies to watch.
We seriously need to get N64 and Gamecube games on there. Especially GC. Anything other than a slow trickle of Nes and Snes games that honestly everybody and their grandfather have played by now. At least something newer than 1995.
I bought another year of family plan at a discount, but let my service lapse anyway. I don’t use it much, so just waiting until someone else in the family asks about not being able to play Splatoon 2 before entering the code. If it weren’t for that I likely wouldn’t have much use for it.
For the love of Hylia, just expand Splatoon 2's Online Lounge system to the rest of the games
But there haven't been any additions to SNES library, let alone NES since the launch of SNES Online.
Nintendo needs to make a proper first person shooter that uses all the hardware of Switch and have a single player and good multiplayer like Call of Duty! It will not be as good as COD BUT it will be enough good so that it can be a franchise later on to all future Nintendo systems. Think like a Timesplitters title. Fun, great music, very good single player and multiplayer without being so ultra realistic! Splatoon is ok but a more traditional western fps will attract to a bigger audience. It will use of course Nintendo Online.
Take a lot for me to renew. Only reason I'm there now is the Twitch deal.
Kind of hurting themselves a bit from dropping the monthly retro games additions. Sure the 70 odd games are great and all, but they're going to still be there for the foreseeable future.
There are enough SNES games to do a 2 games a month add on rather than waiting god knows how long till the next bunch are added.
Course what happens when the 2nd year anniversary happens remains to be seen. Is N64 possible both technically and does not under valuations those games? Would there be enough of a demand for the GB/GBC/GBA library even though there would be tons you could put on there? Where do you go after that since a Gamecube onwards app would take far too many GBs the system without a SD Card does not have.
@NotTelevision Nintendo said they would stop having monthly “offerings” like they used to do during the first year of the service, and they would now allow themselves to drop new titles whenever they felt like it. Which is an open door to “twice a year” or “never again” sadly.
@Angelic_Lapras_King I would love to have access to retro handheld games, having never had any Nintendo portable console before the DS. I’d like to try the original Link’s Awakening now that I’ve played it on switch.
For playing NES and SNES games it's fine but for playing online which is the entire point, it's by far the worst service I've ever come across. You can't have parties, you can't talk to your friends and some of the games are pretty much unplayable anyway. Yet somebody who doesn't even pay for the service and didn't pay £60 for Mario Kart/Splatoon etc can freely talk to people online in Fortnite!! How on Earth does that make any sense?
My membership was due for renewal in September. I haven't bothered renewing it. Played some of the SNES games when they first released for a few minutes. I don't play online.So i doubt I'll ever pay for it again to be honest.Some people may say its only £20 a year but its still money wasted if i never use the features. Cloud saves tied to it is also bs but hey, if my saves go missing then so be it
The Nintendo Shop is dull. It's slightly less functional than an Argos shop terminal. The search options are abysmal. There is no suggestions like other businesses might provide. NSO is on life support, with lot's of visitors checking that poor NSO has not died and maybe NSO's eye's flicker and a download appears. Pathetic would be the best summary.
Never a good sign when they do not release actual numbers 🙄
Imagine the excitement if they released the original Gameboy / GBC / GBA versions of the older Pokémon games on the switch, to celebrate the release of Sword / Shield.
Even priced at similar (preferably less) to the 3DS editions, they'd make a fortune
Would be nice if they provided digital manuals for the NES/SNES apps.
@AndyRogan Agreed, so easy to do. And rather than dropping 20 SNES games in one go, they would have generated a lot more goodwill (and excitement) if they'd released 2 a month. That would have focussed interest on the monthly games, and would have kept them going for almost a year.
I literally pay it no attention and forget it exists. Tetris 99 is great but you can now get that physical/download version and play it offline if you so wished. There is pretty much nothing going on. Yes it is cheap but also all the games i play online with any regularity do not require a subscription to play anyways.
Worth the mere $20/year for the SNES games alone for me anyways. Cloud saves on nearly all games is just a bonus. I'm not fussed about more social features, but I do think they should be implemented.
Worth every penny. The nes and snes is like a museum of great oldskool games.
But i want more games added on it, if u guys cant handle it, hire a team to handle it better.
If you want to impress more people, invest more in it.
Voice chat would be nice as third parties have shown the only reason it isn't there is Nintendo have their heads up their arses.
yeah - I'm totally happy with the service as it is now.
people that are "disappointed" in the service are just entitled brats anyway.
I bet they got a beenie or two sitting around. hehehe.
@tendonerd If you were trying to say that the Switch is just a big touch screen, I can't agree. I hardly ever touch the screen while playing games, and I use the dock even more rarely. So, what did you mean?
My subscription expires Xmas and may not renew. The lack of a regular update schedule worries me as Ninty seem to get bored of / forget these things pretty quickly.
Is it that hard to eg add a new game each week?
Personal requests include kung fu, blades of steel and speedball 2
@Earl_Grey i Neve use it as a touch screen either... But it's possible. Having the Nintendo mobile games on the system would help them get money and it's just a bigger screen to use than a phone. Oddly enough most of all Nintendo mobile games won't work on my tablet
It's worth the cost (for me anyway, the renewal was free as my partner bought another year for me). But i'd really like Nintendo to add more to the service, some exclusive Switch themes wouldn't go amiss. Still offer themes for those who don't have online as to not anger the players.
A Wii Sports type offering would help.
So the next update will be in September with n64 or Gameboy games right? Wouldn't be so bad if they gave us new console gen every 6 months. By the time they finish rolling it all out their next console will probably be out.
mmhm keep saying your words nintendo ill believe it when i see it
What is the point of paying $20 per year for having access to a dusty collection of games (that most of us already played on older consoles) that I won't even own after the subscription period? The only way for Nintendo to convince me to give it a try is to have at least half of the selection of retro games available as on the Virtual Console on the old Nintendo Wii.
@TryToBeHopeful Yes! I wish we got digital manuals as the text they include on the game page doesn't really tell you anything about the game and a couple of the NES titles I've really not even understood what I'm suppose to be doing!
For what I'm paying, there is a decent value to Nintendo Online. I would like more games in the NES and SNES apps, an N64 app, and please Nintendo, figure out a way to have cloud saves for games like Splatoon 2. Also, another surprise game like Tetris 99 would be great.
I only use NSO for the NES and SNES games. I think it's a decent price, but I miss having an update schedule to look forward to new games. Please add some more soon!
I wish R/C Pro am was on there
Nes online
I was excited to play SNES titles but I have not played in over a month. I have been playing DQ II and Castlevania (Genesis ver) form the collection.
@tendonerd excitebike 99 would be awesome
Cool. Please let me play online with minimal lag. With fibre-optic cable and consistent 400 mbs up and down, I shouldn't encounter crippling lag in games. Yet I do. Especially in Mario Maker 2.
I'd like Startropics 2 added to the NES games please Nintendo.
Have recently played Smash online and it's very hit and miss. Sometimes I get horrible slowdown which ruins the experience. Often get communication errors with Smash which I don't get on other online games so I'm sure it's not my internet. Am hoping I don't get it on Mario Maker 2, haven't played it yet.
@TryToBeHopeful @Shinnos They should at least have the links like the mini consoles did. I think it was just a QR code that would let you look the manual up on your phone.
And let us remap the buttons for the NES games.
The fact that they are not updating the NES or SNES online apps regularly concerns me. I love the apps and I loved the consistency of new content even if it was just a little a month. Sure it will be awhile yet before I get through the SNES games but whenever Nintendo does these things it makes me nervous that they are already phasing out the idea. For instance, I feel like Amiibo should be going stronger, but none of the stores in my area even get new releases and it is increasingly rare for new games to implement them in any meaningful ways.
I'm just worried that instead of getting a lot more games and systems added to the service we will be getting less and less and then it will be gone. Sure it's only been October without new games added if you include SNES but NES hasn't had anything added since August.
Almost 3 years in and still no way to message your friends and ask them if they wanna play. Just gotta pray they are online in the same game and in a mp lobby. Even the lovely Wii u had messaging. Its truly sad
@iLikeUrAttitude still way better than ps plus.
@gokev13 I'm sure they will add games. In fact they might be working on a catalog of games really. There is also talk of a Wii and GameCube service coming.
Since GameCube controllers have analog shoulder buttons (and games that used them), GameCube games are not likely coming to NSO.
I suppose they could sell controllers separately like they did for the NES and SNES.
However, we will get N64 and GBA games on NSO before we get GC games.
@Dirty0814
I'm sure that games will get added as well, I am just concerned. Like I said, I will be playing the SNES games for awhile, but if I finish all of them before any new games get added, that's a red flag for me. If nothing get added for the rest of the year that's also a red flag. I'm happy to pay the fees for the old games alone but not so much if there isn't enough new content.
@gokev13 Very true! A subscription model only works if new content is continually being added.
Otherwise, go back to the Virtual Console model of a one time fee for individual titles.
@Tandy255
I guess we will see what happens. I was fine with the rate things were being released on NES online even if others thought it was slow. For me few games a month was perfect since I played through each and every one of them, and finished all of them in August before the SNES games were dropped.
I'm still waiting for Startropics II, games from the Mother series, Super Mario RPG, The Donkey Kong Country games and more. There is a while ton of games I would be excited to see but I am not holding my breath for because of licensing such as the TMNT games. Plus I was hoping for Castlevania and Mega Man games but those are very unlikely as well since they have been released in collections recently. Everytime a collection is released I die a little inside because I know it won't be on the online service and I also know I probably won't buy it even though I want to play the games. There are just to many games vying for my time and money for me to spend on the collections but if they were released on the subscription service I would eventually play them because it is just so convenient.
@gokev13 yea but most those games have a high replayability along with are shorter than games now. The service for me is worth it and I already own almost everyone of those games on other systems.
For 20 bucks it's still better than what PlayStation or Xbox offers as far as free games with the service in my opinion.
@Dirty0814
Don't get me wrong, as of now the service is worth it for me as well. I played through each and every one of the NES games and my playtime was getting close to 200 hours by the time I was finished. I enjoyed finishing games I finished many times before and I discovered enjoyable games I have never had the privilege of playing. I also got a kick out of some of the more terrible ones that weren't great but still good for a laugh and thanks to save states/ rewind I didn't have to beat my head against the wall in frustration to get through the more terrible ones.
I get some of them are very replayable but I most likely will not want to replay most of them during the Switch's lifetime. For me the sweet spot was a couple of new ones a month. I would be fine of we got a few more by the end of the year but if all of the sudden we are only getting like a couple every 6 months or so then I feel that is to slow. Of course we may have a better idea how this will work in the next few months. It could be that Nintendo is planning on stopping more games at strategic times throughout the year, say during Nintendo Directs or something. "Take a look at this highlight real of 10 new games coming to NES/SNES online available now!" or something like that.
@gokev13 that very well could be the case and hope it is. Considering their consistency to add games on other systems throughout their lifespan I would say they will continue to do so for NSO. I'm sure they know they have to give something to keep people subscribed.
Like I said I have seen where they are supposedly working in a Wii and GameCube online. We will see how accurate that is though. I take hear say with no proof with a grain of salt.
@Dirty0814
I thought they were working in two more consoles but it was up for debate what that would be. I kind of assumed Gameboy Colour/ Advance or N64 would be added before GameCube and Wii. What if they did something crazy like use the VR goggles for Virtual Boy online? That would be kind of wild.
N64 and/or Gamecube games next, but in a twist, running internally at 1080p 60fps so they all look much better not unlike the recent Virtua Racing re-release or how PCs can play in Dolphin emulator.
@gokev13 Virtua boy done right would be awesome.
Last I heard there were no plans for a n64 mini. I don't think it's retro enough yet honestly and the GameCube and Wii definitely aren't. I would definitely see a n64 online before GameCube, I am sure they will go in order. I am expecting that to probably be their next games added hopefully.
@Dirty0814 I highly doubt that
Yea, as some have said, first orders are online fixes, voice chat and parties. Then how about Super Mario RPG and Mother series? I currently am not sure why I have it, I only play CTR online. I have Smash but don't play online, I have Odyssey but git my top ranking on the hide the balloon mode, so done with that, have Mario Kart but don't play online, either. Currently I've only played Super Metroid, the Kirby nes title and will smash out Link to the Past again since it's free. It was only 20 quid or so, but really it'll be for 1 game's online service. :/
@Dirty0814
It would be nice if all that happened. Hopefully there will be a Direct either before the holidays or at the very least January and they will clear some things up about it.
not with the least amount of classic games they arent enhancing anything
@iLikeUrAttitude just like their past consoles I would expect them to add games from all consoles prior. They did it with the Wii u and it sold like crap.
They will do it with the switch as well.
@gokev13 hopefully before the holidays but I would expect around March most definitely. If they add some games we will just have to wait and see.
Just make an F-Zero X 99 and I will pay the service forever!
simple chat, text chat, still cannot text outside the app, let us talk to everyone on our friends list's, a large majority cannot access the Nintendo app, a large majority does not want to use the Nintendo app, the Nintendo app isn't exactly compatible fully either, just add the simple text chat that has been around since PC terminal's were a thing in the 1980's. this is getting ridiculous to pay for a service and not have something so simple.
It's the worst online service. I now only play single-player or local multiplayer games - which is better anyway.
I would like an option to buy other gen games! The others are letting them buy ps3 games and Xbox games! Let us nintendo!
@KitsuneNight yes... "plox".
I have it but don't really play it. If they don't upgrade their 'online' portion, I may be done by next year. The release of games we know they have access to is embarrassingly SLOW. They always drip feed their games and it's usually one good one and a couple lame ones. Or just all lame. Why not a classic from each generation at the same time or something 🤷🏾♂️ I also find it funny that they don't have bluetooth for v-chat built in their system🤦🏾♂️ I LOVE my Switch but in this day and age, you just shouldn't be without certain functions. Their online needs more content. Just my opinion.
If they can constantly update the NES/SNES apps til a N64 one comes out - that'd be great!
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