Poll: What Do You Think Of The Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack Price?

This is really expensive in my opinion.
No chance I’ll sign up for it.

I probably would have subscribed if there was an online plan for the n64 and genesis games only.

Seems a fair price too me, but probably in the minority on here.

Terrible. But that's not really new coming from me.

It’s a bit expensive for what you get but not enough for me to do without.

The sega games are worthless, and there's not enough n64 content yet. But we will see....

A little too expensive tbh. Who knows, maybe it will be reasonable down the line when they add more games to their N64 library. I don't see the expanded subscription that worth it, even with the Animal Crossing dlc being added. Maybe valuable to the AC players but if you don't play the game that much like me (or doesn't play the game at all), it's just not worth the upgrade

EDIT: Maybe add the SwSh expansion, as well as the Pokémon Home subscription and maybe it will be worth it for me

If they include other expansion packs/DLC to this model of NSO then it'll be a far different picture for me that might be worth looking into.
If the Animal Crossing DLC and other stuff is really the bulk of what you get from this alone, then no, I can live quite happily without the N64 and Sega games as nice as they'd be.

I was expecting 30 dollars, 35 dollars tops, so yes, I think it's very expensive.

Yeah no. They would need some "killer app" to make me budge.
Most Genesis games are playable somewhere else, and same for a few N64 games. Even Banjo Kazooie isn't that big a deal if you have an Xbox One/series.
For a low price the ease of use would have been interesting.
Also the "year only" contract is way too shady.

Provided Nintendo adds many more titles in the future, just as they have with the NES and SNES, then the value won’t be too bad. But it really does need some standout games like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark to make it a killer feature.

As someone who has owned every Nintendo console other than an N64 and with 5 people who play AC in my NSO family, this actually is a great deal for me.

I know that my case is not that of everyone's though. All the same, time will tell with what else gets added. Compare NSO when it launched to now, and it's definitely more worth the price than it was at launch

I'll be doing it.no difference from the price from xbox and Sony which they don't give alot for there's either so no difference upgrading day 1

I was expecting a 10$/€ increasement. That's just absurd, guess Nintendo is just testing again what they can get away with

I was shocked at how high the price is, but I’m a sucker and I’ll end up paying it anyway. Still think Nintendo messed up though, the high price will end up putting far more people off from upgrading. Should have made it a $10 a year increase, the kind where it’s just low enough that it’s almost a no-brainer, and I reckon they’d have ended up making more money.

I know too many ppl who are paying this price for Series X and PSN so I don't see too much of a difference.

Internet People are so salty 😂 I need to stop looking at comments sections

Nope. And I actually think it's a bit scuzzy of Nintendo.

The standard NSO package is still a steal, I think. But the price increase for the expansion is a little too much, I feel. Honestly, a $10-$15 increase feels more reasonable.

I'm still going to buy it, though. And I'll probably spend $50 on the N64 controller, too. I'm definitely more of a die-hard Nintendo nerd though. I can't imagine the more casual subscriber base forking over the extra dough.

Would have been nice if additional features were added for that price instead of just 2 extra emulators.

I think many people think the price is on top of, but it's not. Still steep, but... yeah...

Not sure yet.

Too much at $80 for the family plan. It’s more than double than my current plan.

It is definitely more expensive than I was expecting, I am not sure N64 games and Genesis games alone are worth an extra 30 bucks unless they plan to have paid dlc added to the service regularly, then that price would make sense. Either way I will be getting it but I am not convinced the value is there yet.

@raygboyd333 The difference is that you're offered monthly 2 or 3 reasonably recent games. Not games from 20 to 30 years ago.

I already bought all the N64 and Genesis games I wanted on Virtual Console, and I don't play Animal Crossing, so this isn't enticing at all. I guess it's cool if you never played any of the games before, but for those of us that bought into Virtual Console, it feels like a ripoff.

Unless they add gamecube games , i see no reason to subscribe

Hey Thomas, Nintendo stated that although you lose access to the vacation islands you get to keep all the items, QOL improvements and unlockables including the ability to customize your house and your neighbors houses further with the new options. Essentially most of the cool stuff stays after you've completed whatever the islands have to offer. Not that I'm advocating for the Online Expansion, I think it's a dreadful price for a lackluster offering.

@Darkyoshi98 Sony and Microsoft have good online services. You can’t play Nintendo games online without tons of lag, not to mention the non existent online chat.

Since the online capabilities on the Switch aren't that good, the original price would have been good with NES, SNES, N64 and MegaDrive games added. This is way too expensive.

it's not great even for people who want the Happy Home Paradise DLC.

in Nintendo's own words: "To be able to visit the archipelago and take on requests of designing vacation homes again, you will need to purchase the DLC separately or renew the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership."

Who would of guessed that the price would increase by 150%? 😳

Yeah not bothered. There are tens of thousands of affordable good games out there. You don't need more entertainment. If you don't want to spend it don't complain.

Sheer greed from Nintendo when they eke these games out at a snail’s pace. If this included a lot more games like Dreamcast or GameBoy it might be worth that, but not for a handful of N64 games and the same old Megadrive ROMs we’ve had re-re-re-released so many times.

It's just that AC DLC for me. I don't even have that game. Why is that the only option? I am not going to pay for DLC I can't even use.

If they update their online service with: voice chat, text messaging and have the N64 games have some form of online multiplayer and widescreen support… then yes. Until such time, it’s a big ole NO.

Wave Race, 1080 or Xtreme G with widescreen and online multiplayer..? Are you kidding me? YES!

It's highway robbery.

My big question, and something I don't see very many people bringing up... Will this continue to include future DLC for Nintendo's current titles? Or will it just, rather randomly in my opinion, include only this Animal Crossing DLC among an assortment of retro systems? Because in the future, let's say they add things like BOTW2's inevitable expansion pass, or Pokemon Legends: Arceus DLC. With a future like that in mind, I think $50 a year begins to seem a lot less crazy. For somebody like me that purchases most of Nintendo's games already that has the potential to save me a decent chunk of change on top of letting me play N64 games online with my buddies.

However, Nintendo didn't clearly state that as their intention, so it remains to be seen. Though I do think it's at least somewhat likely!

It might be acceptable if you're in a family plan, but the individual plan price is nonsense

@Zag_Man It's $2.50 a month, right?

No way, too expensive. 64 games hold no value to me since I already own them all on wiiu

Nope. I’ll keep my basic plan for now. This is probably the push I needed to start emulating. They’ll never make all the games I want available on one console. It’s just too complicated to be a reality. I gotta save what I can for myself now.

50 dollars more is overkill for something you can get for free off the internet

It's very iffy, given Nintendo's rather slow churn out of titles for their current subscription. If I knew for sure that my extra cash would be a very good incentive to put out more titles for all four virtual systems, then this would be a no brainer for me. However, Nintendo's been IV dripping us content and I'm not sure if this will change with the introduction of two more console libraries to fill.

I think 20 extra € with the inclusion of AC DLC is a great price

It's an absurd markup, and I'll be upgrading my subscription day one. Congrats Nintendo, you win again 😞

When they drop the AC DLC (which can and should only be purchasable seperate) from the sub and offer a tier 2 sub with online and the 4 classic consoles then i will consider increasing my plan. Im not paying for DLC to a game i dont own and have no interest in.
Great news for AC players but a sting in the tail for people only wanting the N64 games.

No bother to me. It includes a DLC I was gonna buy anyway and a discount. Works for me. I mainly sub for the online and see the added games as a nice perk.kinda like how I have gamepass ultimate for the rentals and get online/gold as an added perk. People don’t sub to these things for the same reasons.

I really didn't think they would bump it up a whole 30$!

Not happening. I haven't seen (or honestly looked) but I'd imagine that's about 100 Canuck dollars for the family pack? No thank you.

Honestly, I think that if you're planning to play the AC:NH expansion pack, then the price is worth it, but Nintendo should have included the option to go without the AC:NH content so that people who don't plan on playing it wouldn't have to pay so much for something that they won't play.

It's an EXTRA $52.72NZD ON TOP of the existing plan so NO!
Arceus himself could appear before me and threaten to smite me if I didn't get the expansion pass and I'd still refuse!!!

@raygboyd333 I pay $35-40 for PS Plus by purchasing the membership through a 3rd party seller. PS Plus provides me with 3 modern ps4/ps5 games a month, and the online features are dramatically better than Nintendo's.

Utterly absurd pricing. I may have considered signing up for an extra $10 per year, but $50 US (roughly $70 Australian dollars) is asking way too much for games that are 25+ years old. No way I’ll be signing up for this.

Someone at Nintendo needs to be drug tested immediately. More than double the price of the normal subscription? I don't want or care about animal crossing so there is no way im paying $30 more for games, most of which I still have the carts of.

@Darkyoshi98

I mean, who cares about stable online services, cross party chat, voice chat, modern free games (3 per month in Sony’s) and most importantly again, generally stable online features. Oh and almost forgot, in the case of PS Plus, significant savings on both DLC and games during most sales on top of the already reduced sale price.

I just want a version without the Animal Crossing DLC since I don't have Animal Crossing yet for Switch. If the retro stuff was able to be added separately for like 5 to 10 dollars, then I'd totally get it

21% say it is reasonable, 31% will buy.
lol

I’m currently a family online member which I think is good value, but will definitely not be upgrading and adding the expansion.
Being honest I have played all these game when they first released and even with the nostalgia Nintendo have they can’t complete with their new games in many areas.
Waste of time and money, bring us some new AAA games from your in house studios instead, it’s like they have disappeared.
Proud Switch OLED owner.

@Daniel36
After you convert it to my currency and minus off the current plan price it's still an extra $52.72.

Its awful by nintendo and hugely disappointing. They could be offering a much better online service and access to their incredible back catalogue......instead its half baked and over priced.

I was so excited for this, when it was announced. However, there is NO WAY I am paying $50, especially since the still haven't fixed the issues NSO already has. I am also not interested in Sega Genesis games, and I've been completely done with New Horizons for 6 months now.

@Zag_Man Sorry, I read your £ sign wrong.

It's fully totally ridiculous that they're more than doubling the price. It is impossible to genuinely defend it.

I'm still getting it but I'm gonna be pissed off when i do

This is vastly overpriced. Just compare it with PS Plus, which is $60 for 12 months retail, and often on sale. It's absurd.

I've never played Majora's Mask and I was hoping with rumours of the Zelda anniversary and NSO upgrade to N64 I could find a way to play it on the Switch with ease. If I got this I'd probably play Mario 64 or Star Fox 64 for old time's sake. But this is a bit much for something I can easily emulate. $10-$15 increase would have been fine but $30? Hard pass on that.

So I basically waited for this to see how it would turn out, am disappointed and going back to emulation.

@nukatha
I don't understand how ANYONE could think that's reasonable.
More money than sense!
Can everyone just not get it so they'd HAVE to lower the price to a REASONABLE one?

It’s a great option for people who don’t have access to these games. I’ll stick to the basic tarrif. I only use it to play online switch games and cloud saves. Never really opened the nes or Snes app for the last 3 years

@TurtleTurtle
NO DON'T!
IF YOU DO THEY'LL BE JUSTIFIED!
If no one gets it they'll have to actually think and realize it's absurd and lower it.

In Wii U era Nintendo left my country and we had to create foreign accounts to play online and access eShop.
Sometime after Switch was launched, they again offered online services for my country, so when they lauched NSO I signed for the Family Plan, to use for my multiple accounts.

But now, I'll probably renew only for a single user account.

I'll definitely buy an N64 controller, but I'll mostly use it on my PC. The expansion pack price in the UK seems better value than the States, but its still higher than I would have expected - nearly doubling the price in the UK and more than doubling it in the States doesn't really seem like an "expansion".

To be honest, I'd FAR rather have paid £30-60 for a physical N64 collection I'd actually own.

The inclusion of the Animal Crossing DLC is nice for those who care about that. I'm not an Animal Crossing person. However, I AM very much a Sega person, so I'm glad to see the two companies working together again

I REALLY wanted to play Banjo Kazooie and Paper Mario on the go, but at this price I just don't care. I'll just emulate it on my PC.

The only way this price would have been worth it is if they had included messaging, voice chat, parties, and game discounts. Basically what Xbox Live on Xbox 360 offered back in 2008.

That’s pretty sad. Even the free PS3 online service minus plus offered voice chat and parties.

I guess they were really being very gracious all those years they let us have online for free which is strange because it's not like it's gotten any better since then. I'm starting to miss my WiiU/3DS. I also think they really overvalue the worth of N64 and Genesis. Most of those games did not age well at all and playing them online will be a novelty that wears off within a week, yet fast forward 5 years and you've spent $250 for the honor of playing whatever few titles they've decided to grace you with.

Hahahaha helllll nooo.
My wallet stays closed for that price. It should be included in the original price (n64)
Oy for sega, arcade, neogeo etc i would pay bit extra.
Nintendo didnt support the ness and sness for me.
So nope. Big pass from me.

Terrible, but it might be more palatable if more systems are added. Like, $50 for NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, GB, GBC, GBA, GC, and Wii would be fine, but just the first 4 is a straight up ripoff.

Even then though, it'll probably be ages before we get those and it might be even more expensive.

nintendo really saw their competitors price their online at $60 and thought they could get away with something even worse. heck no im not getting this, theyre lucky enough we're buying the $20 pack for the online access. not particularly the retro games that come with it

As someone who was pumped for both N64 NSO and a Happy Home style DLC, that price is highly questionable. At best.

The main thing is...its bizarre that this would be the only things on it. I feel like this is going to include more DLCs or something to that effect later, but why not say so in that case? (though to be fair, Tetris 99 was only revealed after the original NSO paid service came out)

I went from wanting to get it as a permanent upgrade to at most...giving it a year and seeing if they do more. If they don't...bye!

It’s not even that expensive for me. It’s just that it’s not worth it.

Freaking psychotic. Nintendo is smoking crack. The price is unethical and offensive to their customers. Absolutely everybody should boycott. In fact, cancel your basic online subscription too until they start to respect their customers.

It's too much of an increase at this stage I'm only interested in the n64 games and I don't think it's worth them alone until its a bigger library.
I've got n64 carts, 3ds remakes and VC on wii/wii u so.

It's not for me. The Mega Drive games already have a couple collections and isn't there a Sonic Origins expected for 2022? So adding Sega to the service just isn't for me as i already have the other collections which contain games I want to play and we have no idea what will get added to that service in the long run. Could end up being the same titles.

I've stopped played Animal Crossing to make time for other games so I've long moved on now. So Animal Crossing: New Horizons does nothing for me apart from push the price up. And even if i did want it, it's better to just buy it outright than to keep paying a subscription every year.

I really want to play the N64 games but I'm not willing to pay double the price for that alone. It should have been included in the current subscription.

Its not that its "expensive"... but in context, it doubles the standart service price... for just a handful of N64 games?
Unless they start giving discounts or free actual switch games with the service its a rip off.

Still cheaper than PS+ or xbox live and recently just renewed my NSO so I wonder what the upgrade price will be. Literally renewed last month

Whilst I'm not sure exactly how much they want to charge me yet I don't think I can really justify it. I can play most of the Genesis/MD games on the collection that I bought ages ago at a discount and I have many of the N64 games across other systems. Even with Banjo I'm still hoping against hope that some form of Rare Replay makes it to the Switch at some point. The only thing that might sway me is if they start limiting the 2 for 84 quid vouchers. That's probably my biggest use of the online service along with the odd free game trial. If they stay under the remit of the standard membership then probably nah.

If they gave discounts on games you would permanently own, I might consider it. But giving DLC for a game I don't even want to own is a no go for me. What a ripoff!

@Gryffin
There's too many people that go duh it's just money and if you can't afford it that's your problem. This is why corporations can get away with bending people over. No concept of value.

I was expecting $40, would have begrudgingly paid that much. Would've paid $30 happily. But $30 extra for N64 games and Genesis games? No thanks. Look at what we get for $20 - The ability to play online, NES games, SNES games, and access to Tetris 99 and Pacman 99. What kind of value is $30 for just the addition of N64 and Genesis for someone who (and I promise I'm not alone) burned out of Animal Crossing last summer? What about people who never played Animal Crossing to begin with?

I'm seeing quite a bit of "This is expensive and ***** me off, but I am still gonna buy it" in the comments so far.

This is how Nintendo gets away with this s*** every time. And the same mentality is why paying for online gaming became a thing.

People have to do what is best for them so if you want to buy then please enjoy, but I urge you; If you don't like this, please do not buy.

@SeaFishelle
Umm competitor Sony you can often get a full year of Plus for $40. Which is cheaper than this. Try again genius.

Sony gives away 3 games a month. And Game Pass gives you access to hundreds. Get a clue.

@SeaFishelle Two free MODERN games not 25+ year old games that feel and look like dookie. You're not getting a library here you're getting a handful of games with some good and some not so good titles thrown in whenever they feel like it.

@Darkyoshi98 That's completely false. Sony and Microsoft give at least two free games every month, and they're almost always relatively new. And, they have discounts for subscribers. Nintendo release like one rom a quarter that isn't worth playing anyway. I've never been opposed to the $20 price, since that's basically paying for online play. But this Expansion Pack cost should literally be a crime. If Nintendo cared about their customers, they'd release the Expansion Pack for free. They're roms of games that are at least 25 years old, and it cost them probably $2 to port them. Heck, the NES roms are running on the same emulator as Animal Crossing for GameCube.

It'll depend on the majority of my group but as the bigger fan myself I can't vote for this...That's crazy expensive and with how often they add content to snes/nes library, it's not worth the ambiguity. Please don't support buying this people.

I’m gonna upgrade, but only because I already promised my son I would before I knew the pricing. Oops. Oh well. He’s very excited to get 120 stars in Super Mario 64 again.

Over priced imho. Either take 10$ off with no DLC or consider adding dlc content for more Nintendo games than just animal crossing.

@LunarFlame17 I feel like now's a great time to teach your son about the value of a dollar and what greedy corporations like to try and get away with. In 3 years you'll have spent over $150 for this yeah? We can all help you find a way cheaper method of playing Mario 64 forever.

@miniMewtwo lol

"It's also fair to say that for those only interesting in the retro game library who don't play Animal Crossing: New Horizons or don't want that DLC expansion, it may be a tougher sell at those prices. "

This pretty much applies to me.

I don't even own Animal Crossing for heaven's sake, nor do tens of millions of other switch owners. Bundling that dlc and forcing us to pay for it if we want to play a handful of N64 games again is absurd. Horrific idea.

@TurtleTurtle You're enabling unethical and disrespectful business practices.

A couple of things, it’s ridiculous to put an expansion dlc pack as part of the online service. The committee needs to be reassigned.

I think they realized that N64 and Genesis really didn’t constitute the price increase they were looking for. They needed some sort of justification.

Second, there is no way this stays. There will be enough people irritated about this that they will separate this out. The deal is is probably pay an extra $10 for N64 and Genesis. I’ll probably buy the ACNH DLC for $25, but if I’m going to buy DLC, I dang well better own it.

I love Nintendo, but they just can’t get out of their own way sometimes. I can’t understand why they cannot get Online right. Just copy what other people are doing that works!

Note: I currently subscribe to the family plan

@SeaFishelle
Just wanting to point out how absolutely wrong you were. Research is your friend.

@LunarFlame17 why not just get 3D All-Stars Collection?

BOTW and Fire Emblem Three Houses dlc included and I would be in, zero interest in Animal Crossing so I won't be purchasing this.

They can forget it. 👎

Then again, I still think online gaming should be free.

@fortius54
Oh the price will stay I'm calling it now. Nintendo stubbornly stood behind that failure that was Wii U and didn't budge.

No thanks. DLC for a game I don't care about is pointless for me.

This still doesn't fix the issues with NSO. It's missing basic functionality and is years behind. Voice chat so limited it may as well not even be there, friends list that serves no point since I can't message or talk to my friends. No discounts. No free modern games. No achievements. It's a lackluster service with the absolute minimum effort put into it that they get away with because they toss handfuls of retro games on it every once in a while.
I'd pay more for a better service with actual modern features sooner than a handful of retro games and DLC for a game I don't play.

@SeaFishelle
Pour it back in!

@Vortexeo Pfft come on, these are games from past generations, there shouldn't even be an extra service, they should've just added them to the regular NSO and then the service wouldn't suck as much

Usual Nintendo policy, one step forward two back...

lol everyone predicting it would be a 20% price increase.

They wanted a $50 price point come hell or high water. That's the reason for the Animal Crossing DLC. It was the closest thing they could think of to get it close to there although they're still far off.

@SeaFishelle
Lol calm down

These guys are nuts,
Who's making choices at Nintendo?

Very little of value for quite a bit of money if you already have the ACNH DLC and the SEGA Genesis games downloaded permanently. Really hard to justify that extra $30 for finite access to a dozen 20+ year old games, even with the perks of online play and better resolution. If they brought it up to par with the Wii U VC by throwing in GB/GBC/GBA/DS/Wii/etc. on top of that, it’d be a different story for me, but I’ll hold out and get my N64 fix elsewhere for the time being.

They basically just priced out anyone who doesn't play Animal Crossing

If they localize custom robo 1+2 maybe, otherwise no chance.

@EriXz
Same out of touch leadership they've had for the past 30 years.

I'm not tempted if its just the ac DLC but if it's a rotating bit of content, like if the next mario kart's dlc gets in there it's something I'd consider

Wow yeah that's expensive. More than double for adding a couple n64 games people might want, and sega games that people probably don't want or already have.

Sometimes it pays to be a collector.
In so glad I already own every Pal Australian rated N64 game CIB.
Won't have to wait for Nintendo to drip feed me titles I'm not interested in for an extra fee.

I don't care for AC either so it really offers me nothing.
If I am going to spend that much money I'll get Game Pass instead.

Way too expensive, but I'm still going to get it because people in the family plan I'm managing want it.

I’m fine with it. I’m in a weird demographic that grew up w/ N64 and now does 100% everything mobile. This will be my first chance to ever play Banjo Kazooie (& presumably other Rare games) on the go, which I have wanted for 20 years. I’ll probably get way more hours out of this than a typical $60 game as well. For me, fair price. I get why others are complaining though

Surprised to see so many people vote that they would get it!
For me it's just a no go when 30% of the value is for a game I'm not interested in. Feels like a really bizarre move by the big N

@johnvboy I think the price in euro is fair, but the price in dollars not so much.

I will wait and see what, if anything, gets added to this new expansion. I don't play Animal Crossing and I don't think N64 and Sega titles are worth doubling the price.

the 16 users in my family share plan sure are gonna be happy to not pay $25 each

but now that my account price went up to $160 those buggers better chip in a couple bucks

@FishyS You can buy it for 25 bucks permanent, the NSO inclusion is just another option.
Where do people get the idea the DLC can't be purchased permanently?
It's even listed on the eshop like any game.

I keep seeing this 2.50$ a month crap. That's with a limited selection of games. I'd rather you offer me the game even though I won't own it cause it's a digital license for 2.50-5$ each.

@Zorox88
And why are they just including the price difference? In total it's over $4 a month.

Nah, got most of the Games physical or from other Collections digital.

There is no true Value for me in there.

If you think anything over $10 a year to play N64 games unreasonable then I cannot begin to imagine how throwaway you regard those games. I've spent more in an arcade!

I thought at most they would double the price to $40 a year. Without any upgrades in service/quality and no consistent release of games it is too much money. And yes I’m part of the problem because I already bought the N64 controller and I will be upgrading when it becomes available.

$50 is way too expensive, IMHO. The new paid Animal Crossing DLC is basically Happy Home Designer: Switch Edition; nice concept, but not worth $25. I still have my Wii U with most of the N64 games I like, so I’ll be sticking with that. If Nintendo were to unbundle the AC DLC from the Expansion Pack and make the N64/Genesis collections $5-10, that would be far more reasonable.

I was interested but I’m truly shocked by the $30 increase. I have animal crossing but regret as it turns out, it’s just not my kind of game. I tried new leaf too but it just doesn’t connect with me. I’m not sure why I was expecting 10-20 more. If dlc for other games start to get added, maybe?

@HungryHungryHomer Well, that’s a strong choice of words. Anyone who buys is a willing participant. The price stinks, I agree, but sensational language is just silly.

I uttered out loud, “Good Lord, that’s a lot of money!” Because I’m a late 80s/early 90s kid who makes timely references!

Well, I run my family group, and we’re all going to discuss this in the next few days, if not tonight. None of us are happy with the spike, and we all wish that Animal Crossing DLC wasn’t included (despite all of us being fans), but we still care about other some details. To be continued…

@Desrever The weird thing is, $50 a year is not unreasonable for what you get. But when you compare $30 for two systems' games and an expansion pass that applies to only one game, versus $20 for two systems' games and online play for literally every game that supports it, it does seem like a rip-off.

I keep looking at the price thinking it has to be a misprint. How does doubling the console platforms on offer equate to a 150 percent price increase?

Don't care for animal crossing, but my need for portable N64 and a few Genesis games that weren't on the Switch collection will cause me to upgrade. Worth it to me. Got the Genesis controller ordered, but I was late to the N64 controller party and now I'll need to paranoidally be on the lookout for the restock.

The UK price isn't as bad as I originally thought when the $ price was announced but still a bit high.

I have the genesis and 3d Allstars collections. With no interest in Animal crossing, the only games I wanted were Starfox and Mariokart. Not paying £35 to rent them for a year.

Will probably wait and see how often they add other games to the service. I would pay if they added games like Diddy Kong Racing, Snowboard Kids and some Megadrive Classics missing from the physical compilation.

With what's included I just don't see the value, I'm sure many will say otherwise to justify it to themselves. I don't think its a fair comparison to compare it to Microsoft or Sony's services either.

But people will pay it and this sort of thing will just continue as that is the way the world is today.

And I grew up on these games so you better believe I really really want to play them on the switch.

I really hope they build it out and add more value to it

@Burning_Spear Exactly, it’s an absurd price. the $20 subscription is not just nes and snes. It’s online play, plus Tetris and pac man. It’s weird to shackle the animal crossing dlc to the price, regardless of its high sales, it still only accounts for about a 1/3 of the player base.

Because my wife and I both have animal crossing and family plan it's a no brainer really to choose to upgrade. For many many people though it's a complete rip off and therefore they should seek "other" methods to play these games without even feeling any guilt whatsoever.

Well, it is double the standard price. But, it’s still not a huge amount.
It’s 60 Australian dollars a year, which split over a year is what… 5 bucks a month? That’s not much.
The standard sub, I’d forgotten just how cheap it was. No wonder nintendo online isn’t that great, if that’s how little they charge for it

@dustinprewitt I think it’s overpriced personally , but why do you view Sega games as worthless?

@dustinprewitt I agree with this sentiment. It's unclear what Nintendo has planned for the service now that they are including software beyond the retro software. The appeal of the normal online software was Tetris 99, Mario 35, and Pac-Man 99 along with cloud saves. It seems if this expansion pass had been here earlier you might have received Smash Fighters in this fashion. I think as of right now Animal Crossing players will find a bargain here. (I suspect future Animal Crossing DLC beyond this.) But what about games like Splatoon 3, Metroid Prime 4, and Breath of the Wild 2? Will DLC for those games come via the expansion pass too?

@faint They aren’t worthless, not in my book. With that said, Sega is kind of to blame for depreciating the value of their games over the years though low priced collections. The games on offer so far would have been a $20 buck collection once upon a time.

It’s a bit steep for what’s being offered right now

@Hurblyburbly I think the same a bit, but the way I look at it I think what Nintendo will be slowly trying to do is specifically push forward the family plan.

Specifically when it comes to the "free" DLC like the upcoming Animal Crossing expansion.

And that's the thing, individually it is "only" a 25$ purchase. But for a group of eight players(the max supported by a family plan), that would be eight individual purchases of 25$ for a total of 200$... meanwhile, the family plan cuts that to just 80$ to "cover" 8 separate players.

And that's the other thing, Animal Crossing is a game which saw a lot of multiplayer use during the pandemic. And perhaps I'll be wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wouldn't be the only DLC to be made available through the service specifically for that reason.

It's also why Nintendo probably will never include "full" games however because those would be "too much" of a benefit to share between 8 people.

But crucial DLCs to multiplayer games, suddenly made available to an entire group of players on the same subscription without needing to purchase them individually?

That could prove terrific if they play their cards well, and make keeping the cohesion of multiplayer groups terrific.

I don't expect it, but I could see a massive shift if something like Sunbreak for Monster Hunter Rise was ever to be made available as a benefit of the service(though honestly I suspect THAT would be too big of an expansion considering expansion to Monster Hunter games are almost akin to full new games of their own, ontop of the fact I expect the service to focus on first party titles)

@HungryHungryHomer I detest subscription services. In the context of such, i find the price reasonable since they will be adding more stuff (and the games certainly not throwaway) and I'll probably sub when I want to play Banjo and Kazooie. But I hate them. Over the next 4 years, I don't want to pay $200 and have nothing to show for it (like any sub service going.)

The only way I would spend this much would be if they brought Goldeneye to NSO, with online multiplayer added, and 60fps frame rate.

Wow Nintendo now THAT’s steep. I don’t even know if my parents will let me get it😔
I MAY still get it but DANG that’s expensive.
P.S please don’t hate me for this I don’t have a computer I’m typing this on my phone.

@InkIdols I think the emphasis here might be "right now" but something occured to me.

What Nintendo might be trying to push here is specifically their family plan.

That Animal Crossing DLC? Available to every member of a family plan

That's up to seven players(if we don't count the person paying the subscription) who don't have to purchase the DLC. And Animal Crossing totally has multiplayer functionality, so you can bet there's groups out there who already met each others through the game and got a family plan together who'd probably get to benefit a lot from this.

In the long run, with a good focus on DLCs for more multiplayer games... this could be perhaps a better offering than "just" free games(which would likely never happen specifically due to the fact the family membership allows to share benefits with every members of the group of up to 8 people)

It’s not cheap-but it’s fair. People are going to disagree, of course, but for $50 you are getting heck of a lot of good games to play. You don’t get to keep them, sure, but you really need to look at it as an extra with the main service being online play.

Am I happy about it? No, of course I would have liked it to have been cheaper. Is it fair? Absolutely.

Nope. Value proposition is way off. Don't play Animal Crossing so no value there. Plus, with the fact it's like 130% higher than the base subscription which gives you online play and back-ups....I'm good without it.

@FishyS Tbh I suspect the DLC is aimed less at single suscriber and specifically more at family plan.

With up to 8 users in a single family plan(all of whom who can use their own console), that benefit definitely would stack up with games that have online/multiplayer functionality like Animal Crossing do.

And there's chances of furthermore games getting DLCs made available through that NSO expansion, so I wouldn't be surprised if later ones also had a online/multiplayer focus specifically to make that family plan more attractive(especially as you don't even need to live in the same house or even state to share a family plan with someone)

@Cipher36 Tbh my opinion is this deal is aimed much less at the individual plan and more at family plan.

For a single player Animal Cross player... even that free DLC would be... eh.

But for an entire group of eight players all sharing the same family plan so they could visit each others online(especially as you don't even need to live in the same house or even state to share a family plan by my experience)?

This could have terrific ramifications.

Because you'd be basically talking about up to eight players getting the DLC at the same time without needing to "purchase" it(purchase is between quotation marks because someone is still paying for the sub after all, but even then you're talking about paying 80$ to make the DLC available to eight people at once. At 25$ per person if individually purchase, you're talking about 200$ which means that even two years of sub would still be less).

Tch, ooooh... Mmm yeah, I will need certain N64 games to appear before I upgrade. I'm talking Mischief Makers, Hybrid Heaven, Banjo-Tooie, F-Zero X (likely coming), Mega Man 64, Castlevania: LoD type of games, then I'll reluctantly bite. I'm ok to wait for now.

@Ludovsky very well said man

@mattesdude I 100% agree with this take

I never liked NSO to begin with. That service ruined Splatoon for me and I honestly can't forgive it.

@SpaceboyScreams s Just curious. Where did Nintendo address the specifics of the DLC? Not saying I don't believe you. I've been looking for clarification on how this would work getting the DLC through the expansion versus on it's own.

But then it begs my my next question: Is access to the vacations islands online only? Cause if that's the case, it doesn't really seem like it matters how you obtain the DLC. You'll need a NSO account regardless

Some of the cartridges for these games go for $20-$50+ at secondhand gaming stores, this isn’t unreasonable at all. Heck we only spent $20 a year for the service to begin with, that’s insanely cheap for an online service, plus it’s not like you’re being forced to pay extra.

What I don’t get (besides the price) is why is it just the paid dlc for Animal Crossing? In 6 months who is going to see the dlc inclusion as an extra reason to get the Expansion Pack? Now if they also added the Smash DLC or the Pokémon expansion passes, that’d be a pretty good deal

If everyone on my family plan wants to, and some more friends join on the same plan.... Maybe. But holy crap Nintendo.

I marked as "A little too high", but still planning to buy family NSO along side NSO. Firstly I planned buy to be able trade with brother, but I forgot that Local trades are free, so. Secondly the DLC deal for brother main game is cool, but the organization the give gifts to kids with cancer type diseases decided instead buying NS with 2 of 4 games he wanted they bought Animal Crossing Edition and that one had that game as code meaning Digital edition with second game being Physical, so I left without chance to play Animal Crossing from time to time myself. Plus my mom used to be Super Mario Bros. 1 fan, so that could help reintroduce mom to franchise and gives access for us to a lot of free games as well, so.

@chardir
I play AC and they STILL priced me out. XD

It's definitely not the greatest deal ever, but I don't think it's exorbitant either. I already have a family NSO, my whole family plays on the Switch and both my kids are into Animal Crossing. And to be honest, these are the games I've been wanting on NSO, and I'm sure there will be more to come. So yeah, we're going to pony up.

No, it is not the best thing ever. It is also not the worst thing ever. I get less value from Disney+, and more or less the same value from Netflix, as I do a lot more gaming than watching TV. I don't know, I just don't find this pricing outrageous.

Maybe it's because I already do a family plan and already pay for so many other entertainment services for the family. Could be I'm just blasè about it.

First, they sell you the same games every generation because they aren't tied to your account for some reason. Now, they are charging you to rent games that should be linked to your account in the first place like their competitors practice. The online experience is inferior as well. They really want to see how far they can go by just making quality games. Aside from the games, the rest of what Nintendo offers is getting worse and worse comparatively. I love Nintendo, but come on!

Sell a separate bundle without AC and make it $30 max. That's the highest I'm willing to pay and forcing AC on everyone seems nonsensical.

The price difference being £17 a year in UK doesn't seem as bad as $30 in US to me for reason. It's definitely more than I would have thought, but then I've also just gone ahead and ordered an N64 pad so I guess I'm going for it. My early gaming years consisted of Mega Drive followed by N64, and Sonic 2, OoT, MM and Banjo and 4 of my favourite games of all time so I couldn't really say no...

Can you guys allow cursing for this comment section just for today? Have ad it up to here with Nintendo for scamming us with Switch taxes for games, rarely discounting first & 3rd party, making us repurchase eShop titles from previous generations, hardly upgrading ports & hardware updates, and not improving online multiplayer connectivity or having voice chat. But then again, I enjoy playing in handheld mode...

The price is quite a jump but I'm also not as desperately poor as I once was. It's ultimately a drop in the bucket for me now. Others will make some big comparisons to Xbox and PlayStation, but I only play on Nintendo consoles so I don't have that frame of reference to potentially dissuade me. I intend on ponying up the dough.

There should be option to pick an older free Switch Game to the value of the AC DLC...

Unless you've got Animal Crossing the Free DLC is worthless so feels like we are being over charged.

Hey what did you expect it’s Nintendo, they don’t do cheap!

It is expensive, for sure.
I will get it because I didn't play half of those N64 games, and I really want to play Banjo again after 20 years.

But yes, I was expecting maybe $10, not $30.

@Dezzy70
And yet, since I play exclusively docked the OLED seems a waste of money. A lot more than a 1yr subscription with the AC dlc.

It's a matter of perspective and what's important to each individual.

It's a absolute rip for what it offers. A DLC pack that some people don't even play. No upgrades to the server. No Voice chat.

As I've said before if Ninty online price gets close to MS and Sony's asking price then I expect Sony and MS incentives.

Free Indie and Switch games per month, promotion deals, and better online servers.

You can't just increase the price and not have a package deal that's nowhere near your rivals deals. I'm not supporting this

Huh a bunch of people say that if you don’t want the ACNH DLC (which I do want) then it should be cheaper. That honestly sounds like a good idea.

I need to know if, in a family plan, does every member get the DLC? Or just the main account?

Game Pass is 10-15 bucks a month, i believe PsPlus is around the same.$50 a YEAR for a completely optional service is perfectly fair. if it doesn't interest you, don't buy in, right?

I was hoping for a monthly payment so I could play OoT and be done (until the next Zelda became available). They’ll need to come up with new a few other games I’m interested in playing first I think. But then again I really want to play OoT… hmm

@FishyS
It's all over the 'net that users who buy the expansion pack then don't renew their subscription lose the use of the archipelago but not the items. That's from Nintendo.

I think this is way too high, not to mention you can also get all but 3 of the Genesis games via the Sega Classics Collection to own forever

The price (at least in the EU / UK) is fair. The US price might be higher due to inflation. Which would also make it fair.

To be honest they should've just increased the base price to € 30 / $ 40, and included everything in the base pass. I feel like it's more expensive because less people are likely to get it. (which increases the price a bit)

Also Nintendo added additional games to the original pass, I think they will do that here as well.

Right now, is an awful deal. I already abandoned my animal crossing. The N64 games i already own them for my n64 (except for winback, but is an awful game). I own the Mega Drive collection for switch. What i am paying for? Being able to play my games online with someone stupid enough to pay.

@johnvboy
same
i was hoping it would be like +10 USD to the price but im still gonna fork out im a sucker for stuff like this

Not that good to begin with but that is only because a lot of the games I like are not there yet. Give me Ogre Battle 64, Paper Mario, Rocket Knight Adventure, Splatterhouse 2, Alisia Dragoon, and Banjo-Kazooie and maybe I'll upgrade.

I will only upgrade to the expansion pack if enough titles I want to play are added. For right now, I am very content with a basic NSO sub.

I also don't like the AC:NH dlc being bundled in, if it's not free separately. Otherwise, it's paying for something that I will not ever use. It reminds me of how cable co.s in the 90's would put a literal few good, or popular channels in a package with mostly niche, or just unpopular channels. It speaks about the quality of the overall package, if Nintendo doesn't believe in offering (consumers/me) the ability to add an individual system that I want, or all of the offering, if I choose.

That said, I hope all of you who pay for this, get your enjoyment out of this.

I don't even want dlc for animal crossing I just want to pay for zelda... that's it. Everything else will be left unplayed....

@armondo36 nope, I disagree. It was fine when Nintendo was just charging $20, they could do whatever they wanted because they were "cheaper" than the competition. Now though? They're asking for nearly the same amount per year and as such must be scrutinized much more since, when you put them side by side, Nintendo pales in comparison to what the competition is offering.

I really do hope people take your last sentence to heart though. Please don't support this, for once let your wallets do the talking people.

@k8sMum
This is very true and each to their own as long as we all enjoy gaming.

Why not give us a choice of DLC, it's crazy to me that they just decided that everyone who would get it wants Animal Crossing DLC. I don't own Animal Crossing so what would I do with £25 worth of DLC.

I'm going to get it. £17.99 for a year isn't too much considering it's like 24 games at launch and several more following.

Its kind of weird that in any other context a lot of these games are critically acclaimed and topping peoples personal best lists. But suddenly they aren't worth it even when it's less than £1 per game per year.

i live in Europe
and €40 per year
that is a reasonable price in my eyes

Yeah, have to admit I’m not too thrilled at the pricing. No interest in Animal Crossing and the range of games is too limited for the money. Compared to the value of PS Plus and Gamepass, it’s just not quite there. I don’t sub to NSO currently and this isn’t changing my mind.

I’m just glad I can carry on playing splatoon 2 Mario kart 8 smash with the standard plan and I don’t need to pay more

For me it would have to have the very best of the GameCube and the Wii games on there and made up to full wide screen 1080p and 60fps.

Honesty it's really expensive and a testament to how out of touch Nintendo is when it comes to their online offerings.

I can't speak for everyone, but what I would like is a more stable online service, with voice chat, text chat, and some sort of social media lite interface to share screenshots with friends. It doesn't have to even be that fancy.

To play retro games, I want the virtual console to pick and choose what I want to play. And it's just ridiculous that games don't transfer over from previous virtual consoles. I have very old games on my 360 account that still work great on my Series S.

I don't think most people want to subscribe to retro games they've definitely already bought before.

@Dr_Lugae wow is it same price as the standard plan. I thought it was 35 pounds for expansion.

Edit just checked. You got the price wrong

@Mahatma If you don't want to spend it don't complain.

Ah yes, the old 'if you don't like it, don't buy it but don't complain about it'.

You realize that people are here to DISCUSS things, right?

I do find the “if it’s too much for you, don’t buy it” comments a bit silly. There’s a poll on this article and we are being asked to share our thoughts. Share away everyone! Don’t get caught up gauging others on what they believe is fair. That’s what the poll is for. I think the price stinks for anyone who isn’t interested in animal crossing. That’s not an insane stance to have.

@Crono1973 Comments sections are always filled with people like this. It puzzles me. I agree with you, sorry if that wasn’t clear.

@luxoricious I will get it because I didn't play half of those N64 games, and I really want to play Banjo again after 20 years.

I think Banjo is on Gamepass.

I'm in the "this is too expensive" camp. Had there been a promise made about the Expansion Pack adding access to future DLC (not just Animal Crossing), I think this would be a bit more reasonable. Having the Animal Crossing DLC makes the impression they wanted to tack something on to justify more than doubling NSO subscription costs. I'm not an AC fan, either, so this does absolutely nothing for me.

I still don't really understand why the Genesis emulator is there, either. Nearly everything worth playing on the Genesis is already made available in a variety of collections. Plus, this is Nintendo Switch Online. Why is Sega there? 🤣 It's just odd optics, IMO.

Not a fan of how the new virtual console content is being bundled with an Animal Crossing expansion and exploding the price.

I'll wait for a tiered membership to upgrade my subscription.

They can keep it. no way i'm i spending $50 for individual Membership or $70 for the family plan to play Animal Crossing DLC, and some Sega Genesis or Nintendo 64 games. (and you can get Happy Home Paradise for $25 alone.) if they add more stuff to the expansion pack that benefits NSO in general, then maybe i'll consider getting it later.

Bwah ha ha. That pricing is sooooo Nintendo. What is worse is they will probably bundle these all together in a few years and offend half the people who pay for this service.

I would rather invest my game $$ in almost other way. I had my time with N64.. it could have been a nice bonus to encourage me to keep my switch membership but that’s its limit for me.

Meanwhile people are buying GamePass and PSN subscriptions — for less than the price hike — and getting a totally different (imo better) level of deals. Heck 1 year of Apple Arcade is $50.

It's too expensive for reto games considering I get that ***** free on my PC and android nintendo is too greedy

@PickledKong Why on earth would I be fuming if EA did it? EA already does this for $30 a year and it's great. I get it as a perk of gamepass ($15 a month) and I get to play a ton of there stuff at no extra cost. I love subscription models. I get to play a good amount of games for a fair price rather than paying full retail per game for things I might not enjoy. I think $4.17 a month for this is great. I get why people might not like it if they don't like retro games, but I'm pretty jazzed.

It's legit absurd that they're asking for more than double the price for it.

It's higher than I expected, but isn't a deal breaker. The real key to keeping it worth it will be if they actually add more "hard to get" games with any frequency. Like licensed stuff, etc.

The $50 price is ridiculous. Emulators on the SteamDeck are all the more attractive now.

@johnvboy "a fair price"....you're joking, right? More than doubling the price of the annual cost to $50 while NSO still doesn't have basic voice chat, still crappy infrastructure, and it doesn't even have exclusive discounts and quality free games per month like ps plus and Xbox live gold do. Nintendo is screwing us over and it's pathetic

Thanks Nintendo but I’m good.

I'm not a NSO member now and will only buy the basic plan when Splatoon 3 launches.

@Yomogi I can say personally that no matter how many N64 games they add, it would not be worth it for me. I think most N64 games have aged poorly and its one of the weakest Nintendo libraries outside of like Mario, Zelda, BK, and Goldeneye (which will never happen).

Hopefully Nintendo will do the right thing and provide an option for those who don't play Animal Crossing.

NSO was already pretty bad.... they should have augmented it from go. Especially, when the supporting controllers are $50 a pop. Apple already showed the path to defeated piracy. Nintendo, have fun spending money on whack a mole with ROM sites.

It may be a fair price if you’re really into Animal Crossing, but since I’ll never play that game it’s a complete rip-off.

Honestly, if they added GB, GBA, and GameCube games it would be closer to a fair price.

It’s an extra £2.91 a month. Two pounds and ninety one pence. It’s hardly mega money is it? Straight away so many people were saying it’s far too much but it’s time to take a breath and actually look at it again. Yes, NSO has never been the best service but for the games I will be playing then I will pay £2.91 extra a month. Personally I thought it would have been have much , much more of a price rise. As it is, it’s fairly low and nothing to really go over the top about with the complaints.

When the announcement was made I can kind of see why there was an immediate reaction of how this was far too expensive and in the US I accept they are getting a pretty rough deal but the reality is that this isn’t actually that much of an increase in price. It is much lower than I thought it would be and more games will be added.
NSO has never been a great service let’s face it but it is what it is and you don’t have to upgrade. For me there are enough quality N64 and Genesis games that will be available that make the increase acceptable. I expected it to go to £10 a month so I’m actually happy with the cost. There is just too much hysteria when these things are announced. Step back, breathe deep and then react.

Nintendo probably should do a direct tonight to better explain the value proposition being made. The current facts are not enough to justify the pricing and it doesn’t clarify if a sub is required to retain access to the DLC. $45 is the price of a good game (and more during a sale), and N64/Sega games are not enough to fill that gap. I got 30 Genesis games for a fraction of that permanently.

Not gonna happen. I don't use it now and ain't no way in hell I'm giving more money to animal crossing. Moving on.

OMG it just gets worse, they just revealed the NZ pricing and they are as follows:
Individual 12month membership $69.95
Family 12month membership $119.95
That's not even a straight conversion from the US price which was just over $113, it's more than $6 more than the US price!!!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha, no

@jarvismp
Not much of a jump in price? 😕
I don't know where you live but for my country it's an over $50 increase in price.

@FishyS I dunno, in my experience it's not that uncommon

The inclusion of AC content really irritates me. Obvious marketing strategy to get more sales both for AC and NSO+. I'm not interested in AC at all. May cancel NSO altogether.

Very sad to see that according to the polls, even though there are a huge amount of you complaining about the price, many of you will still fork over the money for it. Why even complain about it at that point? If you're going to buy it anyways you have no right to moan about it afterwards...

I don't think the price is outlandish. That said, my Steam Deck will be an emulation monster so I don't need the N64 or Genesis games, and the Animal Crossing DLC is too late since I fell out of my daily obsession with that game a long time ago. So I'll probably pass.

I let my basic subscription lapse. I may pick it up again at some point (probably with the premium subscription) if I feel like playing some of the games on the service. I generally prefer SNES games on the low-res 3DS XL screen and I picked up a Wii U for games not available on 3DS VC (like N64 games that don’t have 3DS ports). I would be interested in seeing what it is like to play Banjo Kazooie again. I’d have to consider game pass as well for that though. I did play some Yooka-Laylee a couple years back and enjoyed what I played but didn’t finish it.

My feeling is they will add a few more consoles to this tier eventually but in its current state it just isn't worth it.

Add in Gameboy, GBA and perhaps even DS and then I think we'd be talking. I think the other thing they could have done is make all first party dlc available on this tier not just animal crossing which is just ridiculous.

496BloodWolfe6:25pm
I love Nintendo but this price hike is effing absurd! They can just eff right off with this, more than double the price just for genesis and n64 games? ACNH dlc is a one-time purchase so I'm not subscribing to this ***** expansion to "save" on dlc. Year after year its cheaper to buy the dlc and stay on the low tier so I'll keep the cheap tier, buy ACNH and save my money. Not worth it just for n64 and genesis games. I'll buy an emulator on my phone for $5 and play there instead if I really want to.

I'd pay at most $20 more per year for the family plan (and that's still too much imo) but going from 44.99 (IIRC) to 99.99 just for this is insanity and nowhere near worth the price unless they start including dlc for all first party games.

If they think they can compete with ps plus or xbox then they are sorely mistaken with the little they offer for such a steep price. Keep pushing customers away Nintendo, because I've always been a big supporter even though you do some stupid things but this is pushing it and I'm about ready to walk away, especially once my Steam Deck arrives.

I'm fine with the price. See no issues at all and think it's easily worth the money for me. Even managed to grab an N64 controller Also most of you moaning probably have a subscription service like Netflix, which is what, £7 a month! I don't have or pay for anything like that as that to me is a rip off. Each to their own I guess.

@miniMewtwo
Agreed. My main point was the disconnect. If 77% think it is too expensive, and 28% are for sure buying, there's a weird group of 5% who simultaneously say it is too expensive, but will still buy it. I call them weirdos.

Nope, not upgrading. Already paying the $20 plan to play with friends online who don't play PC games, and the handful of SNES and NES games I did enjoy (actually liked Magical Drop II, Psycho Dream, and Vice: Project Doom).

Sometimes, you got to look at it and think "wait, this is more than double," and decide based on that.

Also, I'm a PC gamer in addition to being a fan of Nintendo's games, so that alone can sum up how I feel about paid online.

Besides, I have the Genesis collection on Switch, and yeah that does have online play too. Also, the few N64 games I like are on my Wii U. Why am I going to pay $50 to play games I already have?

If I want the Animal Crossing DLC, I'll just buy it. I rather pay once than have to keep paying annually to play add-on content.

At least that's my thoughts on the subject.

these price Nintendo want us to pay for NSO+expansion pack is absurd, i refuse to pay more to play N64 games in my extended battery Switch, a $10/15 increase i would accept but a $30 increase this is unacceptable.

I’m so outraged I plan to go pirate the entire N64 and Genesis back catalogues. It will take me literally tens of minutes.

ive love nintendo switch i will sign up for 1 year then there is 11 month to next payment and maybe buy 3 year
then there are 2 y and 11 month to next payment

1 year is only 1 payment is not every month

I’m as excited as the next person for N64 games but even I think it’s quite expensive. Honestly I’m not even counting Genesis because I already have probably all the games they’re going to release in that Genesis collection thing. I’ll probably dabble in the Happy Home Designer thing but that’s a title I skipped on 3DS and just stuck with the core Animal Crossing experience.
So that leaves double the price for the ability to play N64 games , not even own them. And I have to remember to connect to the internet if I ever go mobile with my Switch.

It’s kind of making me feel like a fool for paying the extra money but I’m a huge sucker for N64. I’ll give it a go for a year and see how much I use it and reassess at that point. 🤷‍♂️

This is so absurd. People comparing it to PS plus and Game Pass are out of their minds. How many high profile multiplayer games are released for Switch each year? Sony and Microsoft give away at least three games a month. Nintendo is out of their minds charging more than double for the pleasure of playing some n64 and genesis roms

My goodness people are stingy and cheap as hell on this site apparently. Do the math. 50 dollars a year is less than 5 dollars a month. That's nothing. Let's just be real, you can walk around a department store parking lot a couple times a week and you will find 5 dollars a month with ease.

If it's not for you, you don't care about the expansion, just don't get it. But just because it isn't worth if for you doesn't mean it should be cheaper. People are just too darn spoiled from their pirated rom libraries.

Hey, if you've got all the roms downloaded already, why the hell do you even care about a service like this?

@GrayFox666 I remember when the defense was 'you can't compare NSO to the other online services, NSO is dirt cheap'.

What now?

It's like they're trying to compete with PS Now and Game Pass, saying "oh we're much cheaper, people will buy it," and just completely forget that all they're releasing is a small selection of retro games

@Heavyarms55 stingy and cheap as hell everywhere, then, considering it's very much the majority opinion that this is vastly overpriced

I'm indifferent really. We haven't subbed to NSO in years and I don't think that'll be changing anytime soon. Most of the retro games are throwaways and the bright spots are good for a weekend romp here and there at best. IF the had a monthly option for the NSO + Expansion I might bite a couple months of the year to burn through them but $80 is more than 2 years of PS Plus doesn't offer near the value. Def. not for us but hopefully others can enjoy it!

@Darkyoshi98 lol what? I'm a Nintendo Fan Boy and always argued for NSO with the price Tag of 19,90€ a year. But now doubling the price to 40€ I personally think that the value of e.g. PS+ or PS Now is much higher, tagged at 60€. You get new games and old games from their library, most importantly also AAA current gen titles, which Nintendo is far off from. If they would at least add the Wii U Remake Titles in the subscription, it would be worth 40€. Just emulated old games, with a lot of important titles still missing for SNES, it's hard to accept this price tag...

@Crono1973 exactly. Now they have to tackle the comparison to PS+/Now and Gamepass, because they entered their ball park. But looks like the came unprepared...

I'm not signing up for now. The fact these fools at Nintendo were wholly unprepared for N64 controllers selling out in North America in a heartbeat while jacking up the Switch Online price for what may come, AND tying a DLC to it...wow. An absolute disgrace of a day. Steam Deck is looking better by the day.

I was kind of interested for Mario Kart 64 and a couple of other things but the N64 was largely a heap of sh*t system anyway imo and with an abysmal controller, and I have the Mega Drive stuff about 5 different ways already. So for double the price no, they're having a laugh.

How many Nintendo games do you people actually play online right now?

Me? I can count them all on zero fingers

@Clammy 2.

I'm still surprised at how many are justifying buying it at all. For a family membership, required for multiple users on one machine, we're taking $45 PER YEAR, to play a $25 DLC and old Genesis and N64 roms. That's $90 to access a $25 dlc and play Sonic 3 & knuckles for 2 years. That's $315+tax to access a $25 dlc and play toejam and Mario 64 for a typical 7 year console generation. I have a drawer full of genesis games. They haven't gotten any more interesting since 1993.

This almost makes WATA games look like a bargain.

I might have paid $10 a year just to play Ocarina and casually dabble with the other N64 games for nostalgia sake, but $30? Hell no. Between this and questionable pricing for other recent releases (cough Skyward Sword), they are getting a little too exploitative.

It costs $210 to buy all 21 N64 games that were made available on Wii VC.

Realistically, no one would play all those 21 games, and would probably play no more than half of that amount.

So buying the games is more bang for your buck if you ask me, I still have Majora's Mask after all these years, and still play Smash 64 from time to time. That would be (both released in 2009) ~$1,170 to this year in the yearly NSO price model.

So, yes, this is a rip off and not worth it, even if you just want it for "quick, new experiences" eventually you'll have to quit it, or it will drain your money for just a couple of N64 games.

There are simply better things to do with money, like investing in physical media for instance.

I think they should do $1 per month, per console. You wanna play SNES? That's $12 unless you get a year's worth now for $10. Want n64 on top? Another $10 for the year. Want NES? Genesis? Gamecube? GBA? GBC? $1 per month for each. You pay for what you want

Doesn't Playstation and Xbox charge like 10 or 15 dollars monthly? So 50 dollars for the entire year is still a bargain compared to that so I think is still a reasonable price, specially if we considered that up to 8 people can online subscription for 80 dollars which is like 10 dollars per person for the ENTIRE year!

People are spoiled...

I love Nintendo.

But they are not consumer friendly, love to mess fans around, build hopes up and dash them.
And most of all rip them off.

Wish they could be more like Microsoft in how they look after fans.

It's like come on Nintendo, your online service has been terrible until now.
And now it's getting good, you want to rip us off.

It's not good business.
All those games should be free.

Or just bring the Virtual Console back, and let us actually buy stuff, and have decent games selections.

@raygboyd333 I pay $60 a year for psplus. This month I got mortal Kombat x for "free". Some months I get a crappy online multiplayer game but most months you get a decent game. I got a lot of good games like Detroit become human and doom 2016. Comparing this to NSO is just a joke. NSO has zero value to me.

@Chibi_Manny game pass is £10.99 a month.
But it makes Nintendo's online offering look like a turd sandwich.

Having a series x, the game pass has been a literal game changer.

I am not understanding why I am being forced into Animal Crossing DLC?

Way too much, but I'll likely still begrudgingly get it, because I will.

@Chibi_Manny
PS and XBox are on such a higher tier of quality and value for your money. Xbox I think is monthly now but PS Plus last I had it (couple years now) it was a yearly same with Xbox but Xbox changed when Game Pass Ultimate came around which is a far better value so worth the monthly cost.

Those both offer much better games thrown at you free per month (Xbox you keep the games even if you end your subscription) and PS Plus only while subscribed but both also then offer discounts on their respective game shops and a far better online experience. Also, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate let's me stream Xbox games on my PC and phone and play a huge selection of great games included with that price (Doom, Halo, Forza, MS Flight Sim, etc...) so it makes this plan by Nintendo a huge and total rip off!

Nintendo slightly more than doubling just because they added N64 and Genesis is NOT worth the price and the ACNH expansion I can buy one time and not have to worry so that DLC does not make the additional price justifiable either... at least not after the first year is done that's for sure.

PS and Xbox gamers get value for their money. Nintendo is just screwing us over with this.

Sure the family plan is good if you have 8 people to include in it but for me it's just 2 of us and $100 CAD is ***** absurd for the little bit they have added. I'll keep my current "low" tier and just buy the ACNH dlc if I decide I want to play it.

At this price Nintendo needs to up the online multiplayer BIG TIME and add much more value otherwise $64/$100 CAD for single/family so I'm sorry Nintendo but go ***** yourselves!

I'm not outraged because I had checked out some time ago. Whenever Nintendo mentions NSO, my brain turns off. Unsurprisingly, I won't be getting this amazing offer from Nintendo.

No way I'll pay this price.. it was already hard to digest paying for a non-existent online "service". This enters in the rip off zone

@Hurblyburbly yeah I agree especially if you are getting the animal crossing dlc and if you don’t have animal crossing you are basically paying 20$ on the animal crossing dlc and you aren’t even gonna use it.

They need to either lower the price or add more features to get me to care about the expansion pack. Nintendo's being ridiculous for that asking price

I just wish they'd add PC Engine/Turbografx 16. And more of the games I want so badly like Parodius, Super Bomberman, Overhorizon, the SNES Aleste game Space Megaforce i think, Super Famicom Wars, Earthbound, FF VI, Chrono Trigger, GunNac, wipEout 64, Tetrisphere, The New Tetris, etc.

Virtual console needs to make a return. This is such a RIPOFF.

@nukatha Nintendo needs to take notes because if only 30% upgrade at the $30 mark-up then a $20 or $15 mark-up instead might be more profitable for Nintendo. Actually I almost guarantee it'd be more profitable at a lower price.

@Heavyarms55 It's 50 dollars for basically nothing. That's the problem. NES, SNES, N64, and Genesis stuff is cool to have (even though they're still missing a ton of big games on the platforms), but that doesn't mean anything when the online they offer is still dogs***. It still lacks a ton of features and and they think they can still get away with charging almost as much as Sony and Microsoft. Though they probably will with people like you defending this practice

I'll be upgrading. It'll actually be cheaper for me to upgrade. I've had a Switch Online family plan since day 1 with two other people. When I upgrade my family plan we will have 8 people this time, so each of us will only pay $10 a year. A good deal for me!

What do I think?

I really wish Nintendo would release a $100 N64 Mini that I could position between my Sega Genesis Mini and PS1 Classic. I’d much rather have that.

I just want the N64 games. Nothing else

As someone who shares the Family Membership within a group of 5 people - of which 4 of us are interested in Happy Home Paradise - this is actually a good deal.

Paying $80 for NSO Family Plan across 5 people, with 4 of us immediately getting access to the Animal Crossing DLC, is a lot better than paying $25×4 = $100 total just for the Animal Crossing DLC and no N64/Genesis games.

But I still can't get over how Americans are getting screwed by the regional pricing compared to Europe.

And of course, if you are on an individual membership plan and you aren't interested in Animal Crossing DLC, then this deal is a pretty huge rip-off of you just want access to N64/Genesis games.

As it stands, I’ll have to say “thanks, but no thanks” to Nintendo and work through my massive backlog instead. Vote with your wallet.

@Chibi_Manny It's 60 dollars a year with Playstation and Xbox. Plus you're getting a lot more then what Nintendo's offering. That's not being spoiled, that people wanting their money's worth

I wouldn't say I like the pricing, but at the end of the day, I share my family membership with 4 other siblings, so it's not the worst deal out there, but I don't think I've ever seen an expansion that is more expensive than the main service.

I think a fair price would have been $35 for individuals and $50 for the family plan. Especially seeing as how you lose access to the AC DLC when your subscription lapses.

If they add another two or three systems to the expansion pass, I could maybe see it being worth the money. Maybe add Dreamcast, Saturn, Gamecube, GBA, Gameboy, or something along those lines.

Wow that's... expensive. Very disappointing.

Literally though. Compare this to Playstation Plus. With PS+, I get:

> Online play
> Free FULL games that I can keep as long as I maintain my subscription
> Added deals on games that can sometimes make 1st party games up to 50% off
> Exclusive content for big multiplatform games like Fortnite
> Walkthrough hints on PS5
> The PS+ collection on PS5, which includes 20 amazing FULL games.
> Cloud backups

Meanwhile, with NSO, I get:

> Very spotty online play
> Cloud backups
> Tetris 99 and Pac-Man 99
> Game Trials (Which they only do like 2-3 per year)
> SNES/NES/Genesis/N64 games that range from pretty solid to awful

What makes it even worse is that Nintendo barely does anything with lots of the extras you get with your service. They do Game Trials VERY infrequently, and they used to add new NES games each month, but with SNES (and I presume N64 and Genesis as well), they only added games every few months. They sometimes give you extra packs or items in games, but all that has really amounted to atm is extra spirit items in Smash. Why even bother committing to these ideas if you aren't going to support them?

I just want a couple of games. Nintendo should allow me to purchase a couple of download games, not subscribe to rent a bunch of games that I am not interested in.

@Gryffin No suspend points.

@Madder128 I've heard it said that Nintendo is an amazing Game Developer, but they are some of the worst when it comes to Business Desicions.

After today...I have to agree.

This is just an excuse to be close to the same price range as PlayStation. They only want to make a reason for people to pay more. I give it one or two generations and 50$ will be the normal price. Which I wouldn't mind for one year, IF they actually had some of the beloved features of other console networks. Like party chat, and actual discord support (which is coming to PlayStation.)

@Sora181 We live in different realities.

I am thoroughly done with this type of shenanigans by Nintendo. I am not hankering for these games and not the NES/SNES games either. Come 2022, I may actually cancel the base NSO as it does not offer much value to me. I'd rather take a $15 dollar solo plan to be able to play online (which I do rarely) and save data cloud. I don't need these retro games.

it's higher than I was expecting, but the 4 people on my family plan all have animal crossing, so having the paid dlc included as part of it is enough to justify the price, at least for the first year. hopefully by the time the renewal comes around the N64 and genesis game libraries will be expanded enough to justify maintaining it

I'll upgrade for the prorated amount and reassess come April when it's time to renew. They'll have until then to really impress me (with Game Boy and Game Cube games, Goldeneye, etc) or I'll downgrade and just buy the AC DLC.

@Heavyarms55 it seems like it if you think what Nintendo’s offering is worth $50 a year

@Emperor-Palpsy @Emperor-Palpsy I feel like N64 is “top-heavy” with titles. Its Top 10 or Top 20 are strong, but it falls quickly from there. The SNES is more suited for variety of quality titles (even though NOS scraped up some bottom barrel games).

I think they need more Chameleon Twist, Bomberman 64, Snowboard Kids, Rocket, Mischief Makers type stuff.

@Audiogore0733 That's the thing. They're saying you have access to the Animal Crossing DLC at no additional cost. So I don't think the DLC adds to the cost of the plan in any way. I think it's just some tacked on incentive to get people to upgrade.

50 bucks a year just to play ocerina of time..... just sell me a physical copy already

@NEStalgia "For a family membership, required for multiple users on one machine" completely nonsense. I only have my personal account and I'm in a 8 people plan, I never send any information (besides my email) and never even met them, only talked with the administrator on the day we close the deal (and mow today, to be sure we won't upgrade)

That's not mean it's worth it. It's not! This price is ridiculously skyhigh

As if putting down money for stuff you will never own is bad enough, it’s like choosing to rent a house over buying and owning one.

Online streamers retain success because of the cheaper subscription rate in addition to the amount of content you get for that price.

The cost of admission here is simply far too high for the absolutely meagre selection of titles included. Add to that the crazy money Nintendo are asking for their wireless controllers and the whole thing just isn’t affordable. At all.

@BloodWolfe my Steam Deck preorder was the easiest decision I've ever made.

@Heavyarms55 Your reality is being ok with paying too much for a online service that hasn't even tried to upgrade the service?

Hell it's like 2 years and we're still waiting on certain SNES games like Earthbound and Mario RPG

I'm still undecided whether to upgrade or not, especially now that I got a Japanese copy of Banjo-Kazooie (the N64 game I was looking forward to play on Switch) and I played the American version not too long ago. If I upgrade, I'm changing to the Family Membership plan and share with my sister and nephew.

Regarding the SEGA Genesis games, I missed on the SEGA Genesis Mini (and nobody sells it second hand around my area) and I've heard the emulation on the SEGA Genesis collection on Switch is a bit of a mess. So if the emulation is better on the Expansion Pak, I'd go with that. I'm craving for some Ristar.

Regarding the Animal Crossing DLC, I don't have that game yet. If only I could play Happy Home Paradise without New Horizons I'd consider it a "not-so-bad" deal.

@RealDoctorWho42 I agree with you if your point is regarding whether or not they respect their customers. But they're great at business decisions with the objective of increased revenue and stock value. They're a very smart capitalist organization. They invest exactly as much money as needed into a game to sell they're target number of copies. Like Mario Golf: Super Rush. It could be better, but an extra 10% or 20% investment would not net an equivalent return. Same with whatever the new Mario Party is called. It's essentially a port, but it has only 5 stages. Why? Because another 5 stages wouldn't sell more copies, and also they might sell more stages as DLC, which WILL be effective because they know they're audience is willing to pay more.

@Ludovsky That's pretty darn good IF you play Animal Crossing. I personally don't and pay for the family plan for my family. Also, I will hold final judgement on that until I see if the primary or everyone would get the DLC or not?

I can understand the price increase, Nintendo doesn't own the rights to these games and will undoubtedly have to pay to use them. Having said that, this is currently a terrible deal if you already have the older games on your n64 or whatever. If they were to throw in Banjo tooie and conkers bad fur day (maybe chuck in forza horizons as well), I think I'd jump on this. Still, if you're sharing with family, perhaps it isn't too bad.

@HammerGalladeBro Not sure where you from, in my area they still sell Genesis systems in stores. As for the Sega Classics collection on switch, I own both the physical copy and digital copy and honestly have very little issue with either. I have seen post talking about the input issue, I've really not seen it to the point it's an issue.

@Clammy

I was playing a lot of Smash last year.

Until I just couldn’t take every other match being a complete lag fest anymore.

@Gryffin

Same! I pre-ordered the top model and regardless of price it was an easy decision and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

@LunarFlame17 ok, fair rebuttal.

Dang thing is too high. Interested in what the discount is for existing members. Apparently depending on how many days you have remaining in your current subscription you get a prorate. Doubt it will be any good though. Mine just pay for the animal crossing dlc and continue emulating.

I don’t play online, I have most of this stuff, and throwing in animal crossing dlc rental is the kernel of corn atop this crap sundae of a package. No, no chance.

I’ll get it definitely. For those angry about the price, if Nintendo came out with a game that had all the games featured on nso for $60, would you get it?

@Gryffin TL;DR: Nintendo left behind the persuit of excellence it embodied under Iwatas executive leadership and Miyamotos creative leadership, and instead adopted a Westernized lean profit maximization principle in the vein of EA, Activision, and 2K under Furukawas executive leadership.

@Jawessome It's exactly the same, between taxes and upkeep you'll never actually own the home you "bought" anyway, and with dlc, mandatory downloads and drip feed content, you'll never own the games, either! 😂

@RCGamer multiple users on your machine, who aren't also account holders on that family plan or any other plan also get access to all the membership software and online play? I didn't think nso worked like that. E g. People like myself with alt accounts for Splatoon need a family plan to each account..... Did they change that?

@faint fair question. I definitely want to stress that its not for lack of quality, but mostly because the market is saturated with them. I already own 90% of these games, first on the sonic collection on PS3, but also on the sega collection for PS4/switch, AND on the sega collection for PSP. Not to mention of course the ages and 3D releases, or the sega mini. These games are just too common and too easily available for permanent purchase. Maybe if they add some rare or out of print games like Chakan the forever man, Pulseman, crusader of centy, sonic 3 (and knuckles) or as unlikely as it will be, moonwalker, jurassic Park or Taz mania, THEN there will be some value to segas contribution.

@mrchills I would, but I'd also only have to buy that collection once, not every year.

@Cipher36 tbh my point is less animal Crossing and more the precedent it sets.
I wouldn't be surprised to see more games DLCs end up on there, and specifically for multiplayer ones.

If you think about it(oof things do turn out that way) I could see groups pooling together to get a "family" plans between friends for the convenience of all getting at the same time the expansion of a game they're playing at the time that Matt -very- DLCs added to the sub

Within spitting distance of the pricing for microsoft and sony's service. In the grand scheme of things, $50 a year isn't that much...but wouldn't trust them to only add three games a year to it at this point. Also still have my original hardware and carts, and they'd need to add more value to that service to make me remotely interested.

Remove the animal crossing dlc and bring the price down, $50 for a year isn't extreme but it is not what I'm willing to pay.

Haha wow Nintendough, just wow. Glad to see almost half of us realize it's a total rip off especially seeing as how poor their online is to begin with.

At first I was aghast at the price point. Truly taken aback. I was expecting a $10-$15 increase, not a $30-$45 increase, so it seemed like way too much. But I've thought about it a lot today and the reality is, it's overpriced if you consider the additional content being added minus the Animal Crossing DLC. But.. it's not overpriced for the overall package. It doesn't feel like a strong value proposition when compared to the standard subscribers, but not because this is an overall overpriced sub.. rather because the standard is so ludicrously cheap, particularly the $35 family plan that comes out to $4.375 a person for a year.

The new plan is $10 a person for the upgrade. And 6 of the 8 people on my plan want the Animal Crossing DLC. That's where the real savings comes from. 6 copies of that DLC would be $150 alone so.. a $64 (my prorated cost for this first year) doesn't seem so bad to get everyone the DLC and the other NSO games and such.

Whether or not it will be worth it next year is a different story. I HOPE this big free DLC business continues to happen once or twice a year, because that would make this pay for itself time and again if they're bonuses like this for other big games. No way to know for sure today, though, as Nintendo is always tight lipped.

@Cipher36 I'm in a city in Mexico where being a Nintendo fan can be difficult at times. For instance, I haven't seen Miitopia restocked since its launch shipment ran out, I had to get it when I was visiting my sister in another city. You can tell how bad it is when your stores that specialize in selling videogames don't have copies of Metroid Dread at launch.
I know I could buy online, but I don't want to because I know I'd be buying anything I see and constantly running out of money.

It doesn't help that one of the only 3 videogame stores in my city closed during the pandemic. By November 2020 it was gone and only some leftover copies of Animal Crossing remained. They might still be there. That store was really conveniently located, the other 2 are in a shopping mall that's a little too far for me while other stores also sell videogames but don't really specialize in them.

In regards to the Genesis mini, it was the same story, you missed it at launch? Tough luck!
About the Genesis collection, I'm not usually the one to complain about performance, probably the only time I've really complained about it was with the Switch version of LEGO City Undercover. As long as a game is playable, that's enough for me to give it a try. If I ever come across a physical copy of the collection I will play it as I would with any other compilation.

As someone who hasn't played many Genesis games outside the Sonic ones (including Sonic CD), Ristar, Pulseman and the Vectorman duology, I have a lot of catch up to do.

@miniMewtwo If only people were that smart. Sadly they will even complain here, and then pay the outrageous price, letting Nintendough know they can still make millions for adding the bare minimum from people whose wallet votes will let them continue doing this. Can lead a horse to water I guess...

So... No option for a monthly subscription?

Tom Nook is the CEO of Nintendo, pay more bells to upgrade.

I already own most of the N64 titles that are coming to the service.
I have no interest in Animal Crossing.
Until the N64 range is at double digits and we see another new platform like GBA, I think I'll pass

For me to pay that much I’m going to need a better party system and a slew of more platforms and a huge catalog of classic games.

Way too expensive. Come talk to me again when they lower the price.

I am holding out for updates. If the N64 service keeps getting games, that have previously not made VC (games like Pilotwings 64, Shadow Of The Empire, Rogue Squadron, Diddy Kong Racing, and other Rare Games, like Blastcorps, Golden Eye, Perfect Dark), then I will subscribe.

I am also hoping the N64 Controller will work with Turok, Turok 2, Doom 64, and All Stars SM64

This is at best not a priority for me. I would be buying for Star Fox 64, F-Zero X, and Winback. But another $30 for that is a tough sell.

I would rather go back to the Virtual Console model or have them offer N64 and Genesis as separate add-ons, $10 for the former and $5 for the latter. I already have the Genesis Collection and Sonic games up the wazoo on Xbox so the Genesis games don't matter much to me.

$20 a year and you get NES and SNES games along with playing online is a no-brainer. Pushing it into the $50 range gets you close to Xbox Live and Playstation Plus pricing, making you expect that level of additional content. As others have pointed out, as stands this ain't it.

Make the Animal Crossing DLC not a rental and it's much easier to justify.

It's more expensive than I hoped, but I guess the Mega-Drive and N64 games will keep coming, so there's that.

The NES and SNES catalogues on Switch's online service began promising and have devolved into B-listers and SP titles at a drip feed pace. There's no reason to think Nintendo will treat the N64 and Genesis channels differently and the price hike just for those two added consoles is insane. When you're a diehard fanboy like myself and the price has you saying, "Oh, heck no," Nintendo's up to some serious greed.
If the new tier was more robust, say Gameboy, GBA, and Gamecube, maybe. Maybe the hike would be relevant. But at this pricing if and when they get around to adding those systems, a yearly subscription could be just shy of 200 bucks.
The only other thing that could have made this pricing reasonable is if they gave members PSN-level discounts for its own online subscribers. The Sony sales are solid, even with top titles.
As it stands I nabbed one N64 controller, though their own stock of NES and SNES pads always refilled and came with sale pricing, and called it a day. That alone was over 60 bucks with shipping and tax.

Don't get me wrong, I think the price is WAY too high. But I will probably still get the family account. I have myself, my wife, 2 kids and mother in law on our family account and we all play animal crossing. Its cheaper to get the DLC that way for 5 versions of the game at 99.99 CAD then it is to pay 32.99 CAD each.

I never played the n64 games so im looking forward to playing ocarina for the first time although it is a bit pricy for tje amount that is offered

@nukatha
Yeah I got that, that's what I meant with the whole more money than sense thing.
It's so sad when people do that and just let the companies rob them.

@BeetleSpider99,

Even the full family membership only works out at 7.2 pence per day in the U.K so it's peanuts.

@miniMewtwo,

Personal subjective opinion, you feel it's poor value so everybody must feel the same, when in reality this is very rarely the case.

@Heavyarms55
Not all of us earn enough to justify spending another $50 on a game subscription for their family.
The total price for the family expansion pass in NZ is a little over $119.

@PickledKong,

I do not defend anything as there is no requirement for me to do so, I simply stated I thought it was good value in my own personal opinion, if you or others feel differently that's up to you, not suggesting you are wrong, as it's your own individual viewpoint.

But any price for the online service would be too much for certain people, as they believe it should be totally free, and then would still moan about the service.

@Clammy
3

@Chibi_Manny
You're assuming everyone in the group is chipping in their share of the money and not actual family groips where only one person is footing the bill.

@westman98
Us Kiwis are getting even more screwed over as it's a more than $50 increase.

NSO went from bad to worse for me. Not interested in Animal Crossing, so the generous inclusion of the DLC means nothing to me. Of the 9 N64 titles I have 3 as cartridges, 5 on Wii Virtual Console (including all three cartridges). I would have subscribed and bought two controllers if there had been a plan with just the N64 games at a reasonable price, let's say 15 € a year. Nintendo have already received hundreds from me for those games, at some point the convenience is no longer worth it for me.

I want there to be a monthly option. $7.99 a month. I would gladly pay that for access to their classics and some DLC.

@johnvboy Fact it IS poor value. How else would you describe a $119 price tag.
Proof in case anyone doesn't believe.
https://ibb.co/C0rrZML

@miniMewtwo,

Where is the $119 coming from?, the U.S price is $49 single and
$79 for a family.

Both deals are great value broken down over the year.

As for the New Zealand price I would require more information as to what general things cost there, as at the moment it's just a figure, no idea good or bad.

@r0mer0,

Stick with the original service, if the other stuff is of no interest that is....

I'm gunna go for it. The cheeky sods must have been listening when I said I thought it would be £30 and the max I'd pay was £35. It has come to light that they went for the max bracket of my prediction at £34.99 thus yes, I'll bite.

@Aya-chan ^ <grabs pitchfork> Lynch him, Lynch him 😜

Sorry ^^"
I dunno, man. I really echo @nessisonett 's view where he said: "It’s a bit expensive for what you get but not enough for me to do without." I would have liked it to be no more than £30 but my N64 cartridge of OoT has recently died and playing it on Switch would be great so I don't wanna miss out just for £5 more.

Would be a hard pass if I wasn't part of a family group and we'd be looking at purchasing 4 copies of the AC expansion otherwise. Including Pokemon Home would make it a bit more palatable, but not much.

This is such a bad precedent to support. The whole idea of paying for it in the Hope's it will get better is some serious Copium.

The reason why i see it as a rip off. Sega already offered their classic games for free on mobile etc, but on switch you have to pay, for what is already for free.
When my Deck arrives it will be the last time i pay for the switch online service. I am not happy about their choices lately.
Man do i miss iwata.

I will be continuing to pay £12 for my yearly subscription here in the UK. Not that i particularly want to but i will be forfeiting the N64 games.

I won't be upgrading (yet), since I only use the subscription to occasionally playing some online games and the charm of AC has worn off from me. N64 game selection isn't quite enough for me yet.

However, I could bet that in the future Nintendo either drops off the "basic" Online subscription altogether or starts tying good stuff (i.e. DLC for Zelda, Pokemon...) to this Premium service, thus forcing people to buy it.

The price seems fair to me man. So much outrage going around all the time I’m video games. It’s not obligatory… it’s $4 a month basically.

@Crono1973 there's barely any discussion. Mostly entitled consumers whining their toy isn't cheap.

@Heavyarms55 "Hey, if you've got all the roms downloaded already, why the hell do you even care about a service like this?"

I'll let you in on a secret; not everyone has roms downloaded. I would love to play these games on Switch. Unfortunately, people seem more than happy to rent games in perpetuity and not keep them. Money is not the issue; the terrible online experience which has not improved since the Wii U days and lack of ownership are the issues. I could play these elsewhere, but if I want Nintendo to put these on Switch a la virtual console, what else to do besides complain.

This is for all the whining [email protected] and Xbox charge 60 a year and give next to nothing.i have all 3 consoles I know.nintendo offers more then both Xbox and Sony combined.if it's to much stop crying and don't buy it.pay more and get less from Sony and xbox

@Mahatma I think the people complaining don't really own a switch.im upgrading the day they flip it on

The problems I have with it are firstly NSO is the online service, which it doesn't do great, poor connections and tbh I don't use it much at all unlike psn or gold.
The werid lack of a workable voice chat etc is glaring.

So atm I'm basically playing for the netflix style Nes and Snes games. Which have very slow add decent new games. Like how are Earthbound and Mario RPG still absent.

But at the price point I'm happy to say internetplay OK not perfect but you get what you pay for and mainly here for games , I'll take that

Problem I have with expansion is no indication online service is improving.
I've no real interest anymore in animal crossing NH .
Megadrive games are in bundles, minis etc I already own plus bit sick of alot of them at this point.

So do I pay double just for n64 games? (if they had some gba and gamecube sure it pay 50-60 for a proper nintendo style netflix)

At the increased pricing it's now near Psn and Golds costs. So comparisons are valid.
Trese have better connections, voice chat etc,
3 free games a month ( although 2 often aren't great) and also a few discounts, ps collection games on ps5 etc.
Gamepass is way more expensive but you get alot from it that mages it worth the money.

The question really is not if 40 is too much for a service it's is this service worth 40 and it's hard

Inject sin & punishment into my veins pronto!

Why don't you guys stop complaining and just have a family membership amongst 8 friends, like I do. Then it's only 7.49 each, for the whole year.. simple.

Wish we could just buy SNES games for £2.50 and N64 games for £5 each as an added option.

I already own an n64 so it’s a no from me. The day SNES gets taken away from the basic bundle is the day I cry. I’m loving playing the SNES.

@johnvboy [quote: Stick with the original service, if the other stuff is of no interest that is....]
I would, if I still had it. =) Considered to subscribe again for the N64 games and controller. But so far there are no titles I'm interested in, definitely not for this price. I still play games from the beginning of the Virtual Console—that was 2007, fourteen years ago! Had these been part of a subscription at the same price, it would have added up to 560 € by now. NSO is not for me. Though I would really have liked to get the controllers …

I think this thing is too expensive. And Im disappointed that we're getting Genesis games instead of Gameboy. And have no interest in AC DLC (the new stuff seem lame to me).

That said I loved N64 growing up so will be getting this as well as the the controller. The only thing that might stop me is if the emulation is bad.

Hate myself a little bit for doing it but there you have it.

If you play AC, the price is justifiable.
But if you don't - it's an absurd rip-off that boggles the mind a wee bit.

I might have to push back against Nintendo on this one. Are we getting more future DLC included? Like, DLC to Super Mario Party Superstars?

This is one of those polls where I enter.. "An absolute Rip-off!", because it is, as I don't play AC.. but yes, I will buy this. I need those N64 games.. Damn you, Nintendo

@miniMewtwo that isn't how I ment it, but you are right about that. Unfortunately 7 out of the 8 people in the family plan is likely to not pay their share, and any working adults in that group will just be mooching off of whoever's payment info is tied to the subscription account.
(not that I am one to complain since I am doing that exact same thing too 😅)
I was just giving a broken down example of it, how people choose to handle the family plan payments is up to them entirely.

@dustinprewitt woah you must have played the crap out of the Genesis.

@ALazyUsername128 exactly. They're track record for adding games is abysmal. At BEST, I'd expect four released in a batch every quarter. More realistically, one a quarter.

I will absolutely pass. I own all of the N64 games listed already. They are on my N64, Wii, and Wii U. Same situation with the classic NES games and SNES games available.

Don’t get me wrong I absolutely would LOVE to play some N64 on the switch. It would be a dream come true but I don’t like the idea of paying for a subscription service. 10 years from now I can’t break out my switch and play OOT because the service won’t be available. It’s paying to rent the game and that is absolutely ridiculous from a consumers standpoint who has supported these classic games since the beginning.

It might not seem expensive to a lot of people but it adds up. Especially when you consider how much it cost to have internet to begin with as it’s required for the app to check your NSO status weekly. A lot of us in America are working poor so money is thin already.

The last thing I’ll mention is even if I didn’t own these games already I wouldn't be hype for it because Nintendo has straight up with out a doubt showed how little they care and the effort they put into the NES and SNES over the last few years. It’s pitiful. Much rather use my other older consoles and actually be able to keep my games.

I bought a Nintendo console and I can't play any F-zero game on it unless I subscribe to that garbage. Thanks Nintendo

Price is fine, just not interested. Too many games already. I don’t even play the regular NES/SNES games that come with Switch online. I use it for the save game backups and online play.

Hot pile of hot gahbage

@Lilmonix3,

I think most people will just subscribe as it's pretty cheap when you break it down.

Absolutely not worth it to double the price for only 9 n64 games on launch. I'm ok wirh paying €40 a year but it needs to have significant improvements to nso, not adding a few amount of n64 games, sega games that are already in the eshop to buy for less and some AC content.
I dont care 1 bit about genesis and dont even own or care about animal crossing.

For me this is a huge bummer since I was looking forward to play banjo and zelda on switch online, but as long as the prices are this crazy high, they will not get my money

This price isn't the big deal that people are making it out to be. Cutting out one takeout order from Longhorn Steakhouse over a 12 month period will cover the cost of a family pass. That said, I'm not doing it because I have no interest in any of the games being offered.

It’s absolutely fair.. Especially the family plan. I don’t really understand the screaming.

I am mainly signed up for the original plan so I can get my game saves backed up. There should be way more games on there for what they are charging already.

I’ve been mulling this over for a few days and I’m trying to look at it from different angles:

I’m a veteran Nintendo/SEGA fan since the 80s so there is little incentive to upgrade (or tbh renew Switch Online). I have multiple ways of accessing most of the games offered by NSO, so it doesn’t seem like much value for me (other than the convenience offered by off tv/ handheld mode).

Having said that, at £35 a year (I think that’s right) that works out to about £2.90 a month, which (at least for me) isn’t very much. So actually there’s no real reason to worry so much about the higher price (which I don’t have to pay anyway).

However, if I was either a much younger player (who doesn’t have access NES, SNES, N64 and Mega Drive games already) it’s actually a decent price to pay for a huge amount of content. Likewise, if I had stopped playing games 20 years ago and as an adult played the Switch and had nostalgia for these games, it would be a very convenient and cost effective way of revisiting them, easily connected to modern tvs. Both types of people are probably not too invested in worrying about whether they can still play the games in the future when the service has ended, so don’t care about virtual console purchases; they’ll be happy to either move onto the next generation of machines or stop playing all together.

So really, it all seems to be about how much you personally will get out of it. I hardly touch the NES/SNES apps and when my kids play Switch it is usually for regular games; they can play older games on older systems, mini consoles or original hardware. For a (relatively) low cost I may get it just to have access but I may well not bother. I’ve not actually paid for online for the two years I’ve had a Switch as I got a year free with my Switch lite and another year in with Tetris 99.

I am still on the fence about this. I am not a fan of how access to the DLC islands is tied to the subscription. If I just buy the DLC standalone, I won't have to think about staying renewed in order to use it. However I am interested in the launch lineup for the Genesis. We have no indication whether or not any future DLC will be included in this subscription and based on how slowly they have been adding SNES games, it might be awhile anyway.

I may just wait on the subscription and just buy the AC DLC.

@johnvboy,
I agree the price is absolutely fair, here's why:
Reason 1, Nintendo 64 - Nintendo Switch Online:
It will start with seven launch games, more games in the future have been announced, plus others will be suprises later on if they do it like nes and snes switch online which they definitely will.
Reason 2, SEGA Genesis - Nintendo Switch Online:
While it isn't as good as N64, there is a lot of potential, most of the same and n64 switch online.
Reason 3, Animal Crossing New Horizons Happy Home Paradise:
Keep in mind that this is 25 USD, so let's do the math, 50USD-25USD= 25USD, so that means 25 for ACNH dlc, and 25 for n64 + sega genesis.

@Ogoalie30 That math loses all meaning unless the extra $25 is a one time fee. Does it drop by $25 when you renew? I doubt it.

Tying it to the Animal Crossing DLC makes absolutely no sense to me. I own it but haven't played in months and I do not plan to go back. The DLC is worthless to me.

I love the idea of adding N64 and Genesis games to the pile, but considering how poorly Nintendo has supported the NES/SNES library on Switch after the first few months, it doesn't justify the price.

Can I afford it? Sure. Do I need it? No. I have the original systems. I have an Everdrive64 and a MegaSD. If Nintendo hadn't decided to completely screwed over their customers with this pricing I would have purchased it for the convenience but this has me rethinking keeping the online service at all now even at the lower level.

I pay for a family account with 4 ACNH players on it, and the $7/month price seems fair to me as long as they keep adding titles & features to the service. I’m in 😁

@Ogoalie30
Ya ok and then after that first year you're paying another $25 for ACNH DLC year after year so in 3 years you've paid $75 for ACNH DLC then by your logic and excuse. Their is no justification for this price point Nintendo has set for the little bit they are offering. Tell yourself whatever you have to so you can feel better about wasting your money but no reason or excuse justifies this price hike of just more than double. It's absurd and Nintendo has finally lost it and gone over the deep-end with their stupidity.

I've been a die hard loyal Nintendo fan since the NES and this is making me reconsider even keeping my Switch and supporting them. Once my Steam Deck arrives I may just get rid of my Switch and say goodbye to Nintendo forever.

-Now, can I afford this price? Sure.
-Do I think it's reasonable or justified for what they offer? Absolutely not.
-Will I pay this price? NEVER!

@Teksetter
I'm sorry but where do you get $7/mth? Family is $80 USD/$100 CDN so divided by 4 that's $20/$25 depending on currency. If you have 4 or more people then sure I can swallow that price but family is only 2 of us here so basically family price still equals the single price each and for the little bit that they offer, it's not even close to being worth a slightly more than double the price now.

@Ogoalie30,

The Animal crossing DLC is the icing on the cake, both me and my daughter will be using that as part of the plan.

@BloodWolfe
$80 annual price / 12 months = USD$6.67 per month. I just rounded up. Of course, I’ll probably have to pay tax, so it’ll go up to USD$85.59 annually, like USD$7.13 per month.

I’d prefer a lower price, naturally, but for me it’s a fair package.
I would pay and treat my 2 siblings and 2 kids to the service. All 5 of us have a switch or switch mini. 4 of us play ACNH and want that designer DLC. My brother and I will most certainly play the N64 and Genesis offerings, and if I can still access the Japanese N64 and Mega Drive games like I do the Famicom and SFC, well that will be the cat’s meow. 😸

In my case, I feel it’s worth the investment overall. I spend an equivalent amount on HULU each month, and feel this expanded NSO will match that entertainment value for me.

I can def sympathize with your situation, though, with a family pack for just 2 people. Maybe you can find a relative or friend to sign up and share the cost of a family pack with you?

I will probably just think of it like purchasing a collection game. I just renewed my base subscription, so to me it is essentially a $30 game that includes a library collection and then I can just revert back to the base next fall once I have had ample time to explore it all. Maybe in the meantime Nintendo will do something to convince me to stay after year 1.

@Teksetter
Oh sorry per month, I misread and was thinking per year per person... my bad.

If it's 4 people or more then I'd be fine with it but as it stands for a single person or for only 2 people like my situation either way it's just an absurd price for what they offer, especially in comparison to Sony and MS so not that I can't afford this, I just refuse to pay it because it's just not enough value for my money.

As for your suggestion, ya I may have to go see if any friends want to sign onto my family account and do it that way because I would love the N64 games. Gotta ask around and see if I can find 6 more people LOL then I justify paying when it's $100 divided by 8 per year lol.

I chose a little too expensive but admittedly I would pay that for F-Zero X online MP alone

Even at $50 a year that’s only just over $4 a month… that’s still honestly nothing. Way cheaper than buying original hardware and games AND cheaper than the old VC business model.
People just love to complain.

Never had an N64, and never really bothered with the hassle of trying to emulate it, so sounds good to me.

@Rob13 you and a bunch of other nintendo fanboys are completely missing the point. The $50 price range is making it close to ps plus and xbox live gold. When it gets that more expensive then I expect the value of the service to increase. But that's not the case with NSO. They're increasing the cost yet lack so many basic features that it's competitors have. I expect cloud backup saves for every game now, actually good quality monthly free games, exclusive discounts on the nintendo eshop, actual good quality infrastructure that doesn't lag every 3 seconds, etc. But of course that won't happen. It's pathetic. There's still minimal value to the service

If I don't play Animal Crossing and I already have the Mega Drive Classics app (and a Mega Drive Mini), then the only thing of worth here s the N64 games, and they alone are absolutely NOT worth the drastic increase in price.

If they were up rezzed and had some kind of additional features I'd do it.. otherwise it seems a bit much. I don't care about the AC stuff... they need to decouple it otherwise I don't think they'll get a big sign off

I would get it but it's really high yall like to keep eating our money away while we are picking up some good games that are already coming out in October yall can do better than that Nintendo for all of us family pass and regular price it's to much money you should at least let us have it for free like super Nintendo since we already purchased yalls Nintendo online card

@BeetleSpider99 Nintendo sucks as a company, they just know how to make quality games. Not a fan here, just seeing things objectively. I’ve never seen people go up in arms over an extra $10 to $20 a year (over what it “could’ve” been). We’re talking a dollar a month or so.

If you want to compare Xbox and PlayStation, just move to those systems dude because if we compare quality and price straight up, their online services are better, duh. The quality of the games though… Nintendo makes some pretty good *****.

Nevertheless, you don’t have to buy it. If you can’t afford it or refuse to pay for it, then don’t. Maybe if enough people do the same, they’ll lower the price. I know I’m paying for it though; I’m an AC fan and the pricing seems fair to me. I don’t give a ***** about the competition because I don’t own those systems and won’t.

Expectations are the thief of joy. Don’t expect much from Nintendo you know how they are.

The N64 offering, which is the only part that interests me, is just woeful. No Smash, Pokemon Tournament, Golden Eye or WWF No Mercy. I know a lot of those have rights issues, but frankly for the money Nintendo is asking for they could pay to sort them. This all seems very anti-consumer and Nintendo need to do better, the Wii-U and the near destruction of the company isn't long ago enough to pull this sort of stuff against the fan base.

Unless they add more and better features at no additional costs, I'm not renewing my subscription OR getting the expansion pass. Nintendo needs to stop being so much like Disney.

@ConanLives Nintendo's become arrogant and stupid lately. -_-

@MarioThePainter Yep, it's a board that's looking very short term on its margins and not thinking strategically about its market position. Long term it will cause issues that are harder to fix. Especially, as a quality online offering has become so intrinsic to the continual service model
that videos games are moving towards.

I hope they rapidly expand the N64 offering, what their providing right now as an online service is not as good as the competition at this price point.

I love the quality that underpins Nintendo's view of gaming, and in my mind that's the reason their games continue to hold their value after purchase, but I wish they'd put that same concept of quality into their service's. Nintendo is sometimes very poorly managed.

@johnvboy
Well as a New Zealander I can tell you it's a terrible price, and it comes straight from the NSO app on my Switch; hence the photo link I added into my previous comment.

Reasonable to me because people seem to forget how cheap $20/year for the regular NSO is. How much is PS4 online, $60 a year or $9.99 a month? To me that's unreasonable. $50 a year for N64 games is a no brainer for me. I sub to PS4 online and I get almost nothing of value out of it. I never play the games that you get with it, and I never play online on PS4. I mean yes cheaper is always better but everyone always wants everything for free. I will happily be paying and playing N64 and Genesis games.

I'll be getting it since I was excited for the N64 and genesis games coming to Switch Online. It costs more than I was expecting but I voted for the unsure if it is a good deal or not. The reason is that it all depends on what they end up doing with it in the future. The Animal Crossing DLC makes it so I can stomach the price since I probably wouldn't have bothered getting it except for the fact that my kids had wanted a Happy Home Designer addition for awhile so it kind of helps me out a bit. It does seem weird though and I would feel ticked if they offered DLC for a game I didn't have or enjoyed. Makes me wonder if access to future DLC will become a normal part of the expansion pass, which I would be okay with.

I always felt the original subscription gave me good value for my money and time will tell if the expansion pass feels worth it or not but I am willing to pay it for what they are offering now so unless they literally add nothing else for a year I am sure I will end up being happy with it.

@Rob13 I can't help but compare. Why? Because I am in all three console ecosystems. I pay for both of the others' online services and game...borrow/stream services? Not sure what to call em lol. But Game Pass Ultimate, and PS Plus + PSNow. On the one hand, and in comparison, Nintendo is charging peanuts. On the other hand, I'm spending quite a lot on these things and Nintendo wants to double its price for...not much that appeals to me. These are some great games, that I already own multiple times over in many cases. I also have the Genesis collection and Konami's anniversary releases, so there isn't much in the Genesis catalogue I don't already have digitally on my Switch. I think I'm missing Ecco the Dolphin and MUSHA basically. Taken on its own merits, and to the right audience who hasn't been avidly buying this stuff over the years (and ideally someone who is into Animal Crossing), this isn't terrible. But for me, I can't really justify throwing Nintendo double the price, when Game Pass is dropping AAA games day and date of release.

The only thing good from nintendo is the games they make ...most of the time. Everything else is complete ******* bull**** they just like to screw everyone over with everything else.

Unless they add more N64 titles, like Kirby and the Crystal Shards and Pokemon Puzzle League, it's a hard pass. However, I do thank them for including Gunstar Heroes and Ristar. I highly recommend playing both if you never have and if you're getting the sub. Absolutely fantastic games.

I am super stoked to play some classic Nintendo 64 games, so I will absolutely be upgrading. For me to keep the subscription though, they will have to keep the incentives coming besides just Nintendo 64 games. We are close to the prices of other services with less value at the moment in my opinion, though this is a very good step in the right direction. At the very least for now, they have one customer in me. The added features make this an easy upgrade for now.

@johnvboy I've been loving this and the other comment section as you can imagine...who needs Jeremy Kyle when you've got Nintendolife. And it's over games!

I throw more pocket change into a jar at home in a day than what this would cost me per day.

@WiltonRoots,

As you say it's always entertaining on here, and as usual the people complaining are the same ones moaning since the start of the online service, as they feel it should all be for free anyway.

Like with most things they seem more expensive when you get the total price upfront, if your local Pizza delivery service was to charge you upfront for a full year it would seem a fortune, but broken down over a year, weeks, or days it's minute.

£34.99 for the single full membership i the U.K, which equates too the following.

£2.91 per month
£0.67 per week
£0.095 per day

£59.99 for the full family membership, which equates to the following.

£ 4.99 per month
£1.15 per week
£0.164 per day

Very fair pricing in the first place, and even better if you have Animal crossing new horizons.

And people say this is too much, not sure how cheap people are these days, and as you say you would lose more loose change than this, even assuming one person is paying the full amount for the family plan, then you will get someone from New Zealand saying their dollar price is more, which on the face of it looks to be true when compared to the U.S dollar amount, but then fail to give a wider context to the amount average things cost, or the general cost of living or wage differentials, so at that point it's a figure with no wider meaning.

And that's before you factor in all of this is a choice, you do not have to buy into or subscribe to any of it, you can stick with the regular plan if you wish, or upgrade to the top package, it's up to you, nobody is putting a gun to anybody's head.