Doug Bowser (Kind Of) Addresses Complaints About Switch Online's Nintendo 64 Emulation

Well, as much as I'm not into subscription services, I'm glad they think it's important to keep improving it. But I wasn't expecting him to say 'we are listening to the feedback and decided to let it rot.'

Doug may as well have PR Manager as his job title for all the influence he has on Nintendo development. This is just another example of "say this, and then go away until we have something else for you to say".

"We take feedback seriously and are constantly looking to improve our product/service" is standard corporate response 101.

A price drop would be nice. I share a family account with just 2 of us, but adding the Expansion would triple the cost for each of us. Can’t help but feel that many people were using family accounts for small numbers and Nintendo wanted more individual memberships.

"We take Ripping you off very seriously"

It feels like Nintendo has been a doing poor effort with a lot of things recently just for the money. I mean if you're gonna try to bring 64 games on the Switch you would think the main goal would be to make sure it performs well.

Prediction - they never do anything to tighten up the in-game or network problems. Latency & emulation get no better with time. Nintendo’s will miss the point entirely & in the long run, their idea of ‘improvement’ will just be adding more games. I really hope they do something meaningful here, but for some reason I can’t imagine they’ll go in and actually fix any code. Prove me wrong Nintendo!

More games, button mapping options and a couple of GameCube titles

He says nothing here. Hollow words. I bet the emulation is never fixed.

They continue to offer as little as possible for maximum they think they can get away with.

The service is a shambles compared to any other sub service gaming or Movie/TV.

People who say otherwise don’t understand what other services do or don’t understand what we have are a few roms slung in a app.

Bowser sent his minions to Google and removed the dislike button from Youtube.

Having played a fair bit if Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time, calling the emulation poor is just flat out nonsense. It's fine, could be better but it's good overall

@NoTinderLife it’s funny coz it’s true. What a ridiculous decision and justification from YouTube too.

@carlos82 they are Nintendo games…. “It’s fine” isn’t good enough. They should be perfect.

It Netflix had sound issues or sound and picture was out of sync or movies stuttered would people say “it’s not perfect but it’s fine” hell no….. gamers are a funny bunch.

I don’t understand how the Wii emulation of Zelda can be be better than the Switch emulation. I can only guess that they didn’t put any effort into this service.

I'm fine being charged $50 a year BUT I expect the emulation to be perfect, I was so excited for the release of the N64 service till I started playing, first game was Yoshi Story and was immediately disappointed and felt like i got ripped off, the emulation is worse than the WiiU

Lost me at the great value part lol , jokes aside i rly hope they improve the emulation of older games

@Wesker,

Funny how at the time people complained the the Wii's virtual console N64 games had a very muddy look to them, and were washed out.

Now we get much better looking versions and people state the Wii versions were awesome, not sure who to trust with all this.

@Stocksy streaming a film and emulating a video games console are 2 very different things. I've put a few hours into both of the games I've mentioned and had no issues whatsoever, so yeah I'd say they're fine

Please take this feedback: My problem with Nintendo these days is how they overcharge their customers in the name of evergreen titles. Even if you can play 10 year old titles, technology moves forward and other companies bring their prices down accordingly. With Nintendo, they will still charge $60 for a previous generation title, and won't even give the option for previous owners to "upgrade" it at a reasonable price.

The fact Nintendo are talking about this shows it’s hit their bottom line financially. I wonder if the 32 million subscribers number (which I guess is for just the base model) is for paid subscriptions, or how many people use it in family plans and stuff? Seeing there’s 91m consoles it makes sense it’s the latter. Taking an average guess how many single users there are to family plans, it’s likely there is more like 10m subscriptions being paid for, or possibly less. That number isn’t very impressive at around 10-12% of the install base.

If we don’t subscribe, they will have to up their quality and value.

@johnvboy "better" doesn't mean good

Banjo for christmas, reduced draw distance to match the original titles, fixed input lag on the few games that have it, much better infrastructure to improve online play and button mapping. It's not a long list, it's not even a difficult list, but every point is vitally important, and I have faith in Nintendo to get the job done; this many ***** ups in a row looks really bad for the company, and generally speaking that's when Nintendo put their best foot forward.

"we'll continue improving the service... by adding the games every one already knows we're adding and nothing further"

@johnvboy
Obviously not gonna trust this attempt at revisionist history that the wagon circulars are trying.

I think Nintendo will do a better job, they listened with Mario party superstars, and it went back to old Mario party, it is the Mario party game we have all wanted, they do listen, and I think they will fix the online expansion pak. I am willing to give them the chance to do it. You want dormant franchises? Cruisin blast, advance wars and big brain academy say hello. People wanted a more in depth Kirby game? We get Kirby and the lost land. They do listen , and I am patient, in the next few months, I think the expansion pass will be much better.

we are the game testers in this modern gaming era.
it's almost a PR move at this point to release a less than perfect game and fix it with patches to show goodwill towards the customers

Someone should ask Doug if Nintendo is constantly looking for ways to make their services bring more value to the customers. He could finally answer one question straight!

"We’re constantly looking for ways to make our online features and those games better"

Really Doug, really? Ive seen no improvement with any of the games that have had issues online. Even Smash, one of the biggest competitive games on the switch still has issues running smoothly.
These people must sit in their offices just thinking were stupid and buy in to everything they say. Well some do i suppose.

I just renewed my NSO subscription without the expansion pack. Don't think I'll ever be bothered about it now.

They took it so seriously that they forced Youtube to remove Dislikes.

I mean it serious, the Change Youtube did will mostly be because big Players didn't want that a Backlash is watchable in Public.

What? That is a typical vague PR Nonstatement as it gets? Nothing there is them specifically acknowledging the negative reception.

@Azurisa are you being sarcastic?

I'm guessing homeboy got hired on the spot because of his name, lol

@NoTinderLife @Stocksy pretty sure YouTube was on this before this expansion? Am I missing something? This is from March:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/30/youtube-tests-hiding-dislike-counts-on-videos/

‘Please understand’ 🙈🙈🤣

Ah... Corporate talk for "we ain't doing anything about it. Deal with it"

Do they take feedback seriously though?

Other companies provide a smooth online playing experience, so it is possible, but this hasn't been rectified.

There are 3rd party joy cons that don't have the drift, so again it's possible, but not been addressed.

@Azuris I highly doubt it was Nintendo that made YouTube do that.

Watch. They'll just add more stuff and raise the price again. Smh.

Because they are charging a premium I would actually expect some improvements. I think that’s reasonably expected.

What I don’t expect is for Nintendo to address the slowing drip feed of games, particularly for the base NSO and especially NES. That’s not changing.

@Clintos please explain what was so "bad" about yoshis story emulation, ill wait

What, Nintendo cares about critics?

Button mapping would be handy, as well as improved input lag. As it's emulated, some enhanced graphic options and 60fps would be great.

@johnvboy You mean Wii U? Wii VC had a total of 4 games with the dark filter, but the 3D graphics had no filter/blur, because it's a perfect 2x scale. SM64/MK64/WaveRave/CrusinUSA

Wii U has the dark filter on all titles, and they're also all super blurry.

Unless they complained because "it's Wii" and most users played with composite cables on HDTVs, which should still look considerably better than a real N64.

I guess I really must have no eye for tech specs at all! Honestly have found no issues with the N64 emulator. I enjoy it. I found it far more responsive and faster than I expected. I think having only played Pal versions means these versions feel smoother to me?

@Bustacap
Yep. Got to say I found it better than I remember it being!

The Nintendo Switch is nearly 5 years old. Both hardware and software have been selling like crazy.

NSO has been out for 3 years, and has 32 million subs.

Neither the OS or live service has been drastically overhauled or improved in that time. Adding N64 and Saturn has been the biggest change so far, and that's come too late, and with a pretty hefty price tag.

Why should anyone take Nintendo seriously?

As a life long Nintendo fan it really must be said that they are one of the most anti-consumer companies I've ever seen. They may 'listen' but they certainly don't act on player feedback.

@NoTinderLife
I legitimately want to believe that it's true. It doesn't feel like a coincidence especially given the time it took between Nintendo hitting a new low on YouTube and YouTube removing the dislike counter.

Just don’t subscribe to the service. It’s pretty simple. I’m a die hard fan and haven’t subscribed in over a year. Do I miss playing some of these games sure. But it annoys me more rewarding this company which takes its fans for granted.

a perfect non-answer

@Rob3008 i dont think you know what anti consumer means

@Slowdive I don’t know if this is your own take or if you are simply repeating your idol Nate the hates recent takes.

What annoys me is that the eShop is a loaded with too many games, and is slow as hell. There's no way to organize what you see, I simply just favorite games I want to buy to get around the obnoxious loading when scrolling through the pages. Their servers are garbage at best...

@Stocksy your comment was 100% on point!

Corpo speak for, 'Sure guy, we'll fix it, someday.'

subscription is nice for the ones who like it and want a ton of games to explore. But what happens with the rest? I just want the option to buy games separately. Give us more options

Dear non-customer,

We take feedback very serious. If you had negative feedback and haven't been silenced by our ninja's yet, you'll soon be contacted by our lawyers for damages, for the possible loss of our profit that is, not for you. Rest assured your negativity will be censored no matter what.

Positive vibes,
Nintendo.

I'm just glad there are 2 tiers for on-line.

We mostly use on-line for 2 games. Mario Kart and Animal Crossing. That's pretty much it.

The original NSO is priced low enough that even if you are only using it for 1 or 2 games it is a no-brainer to pick up.

The N64 games look good, but I just picked up the N64 games I wanted to play in either DS and 3DS carts a few months before rumors of the NSO expansion came out.

I just can't say any other thing that value on the Subcrisption service is not there. As a Nintendo Fan, I had most of these games on the original system or in the Wii/WiiU. The only value there is the online... but with no matchmaking and rankings is useless to me, as I can't take the time nowadays to meet my friends there.

The only thing that adds a bit of valor is the family sharing stuff that allows me to share with my family members that owns another switch, the online games... but again, not fully satisfied because I can't play with them at the same time :/ It worse is, that it doesn't apply to the physical games.

Stuff like Tetris 99, Mario 99 or Pacman 99 is cool and I really apreciate the value there, it's the only thing.

So in short, I'll never pay for the expansion pack stuff for the online, because it simply doesn't feed what I expect. For that Price, I would rather have every month a couple of new games free like the PS plus does (been subscribed at that service for 10 years now??)

I kind of wish he would address the shortage of their wireless controllers. The N64 pads were nigh unobtainable, and now people have to wait until 2022 to buy them, and I wish they were a little less vague on when exactly that would be. The Genesis controllers sold out, but no one really gives a damn.
Mysteriously, however, SNES pads have also sold out since the release of the other controllers, as if scalpers who couldn't get their disgusting mitts on the shiny new items decided they didn't want to leave empty handed, and took the SNES controllers on their way out out of sheer pettiness, which is a shame, because I was just about ready to buy my third one for when my brothers and I play Secret of Mana through the Collection of Mana.

In other words "thanks for the cash suckers".

"Takes feedback very seriously"

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuure they do

@Bustacap There are many moments when the framerate gets choppy for no apparent reason.

Again, how weird is it the nail Sega Saturn emulation but N64 is a mess?

The Expansion Pack was released late last month. Not earlier this month.

Having retro games as part of a subscription feels like it's been a failure for Nintendo when compared to how much better the wii u's virtual console was, it'd be a mess of a transition but I feel like they should just ditch the game subscription and make the animal crossing (and likely other future dlc) that's part of the premium subscription as part of the regular one to replace the retro games

You should add to the article how owners of 2 switch and 2 acnh get locked out of local play permanently after both downloading happy home paradise dlc via switch online family + because that's really sad.

@GuitarAnthony not so weird. Sega Genesis*, don't get them confused. Saturn is far from being easy to emulate period. Almost anything can emulate genisis well. Also 64 is 3d. So it's a whole nother dimension.

Lol I would be stoked if we actually got Sega Saturn games.

I wish they allowed us to transfer virtual console games to Switch with maybe another upgrade fee to play it on TV and portable. I don’t want to lose my save data and games when Nintendo one day take the retro games off the Switch Online service.

@Travisemo007

Yeah the Saturn is an absolute nightmare to emulate. Even on the PC emulation scene it’s not perfect.

The Genesis is easy, except for one thing. The Yamaha FM sound chip. No one ever gets it 100% correct.

So, typical generic CEO non-answer, got it.

@PtM it was the same emulator with different settings back then too, just a different delivery method

@FX102A I’m in the same exact place honestly. I only have two people using the family subscription not including me. I ended up buying the expansion pak but boy did it feel like I was breaking my bank.

Until they can offer a service that is superior to googling n64 emulation and downloading a couple things, they're going to have a very difficult time selling the online subscription on the virtue of those n64 games.

Honestly, the quality isn't good for N64 emulation. But for me personally, if they fix that and add basic chat features for your friends list on the system(party chat, sending messages and what not) then I'll be happy. Also, I think besides expanding the game selection, I think they should add other expansion packs to the service in the future, like add the expansion pass for Breath of the Wild, since the sequel will be coming out, and stuff like that. Also, give members who are the expansion pack members discounts on the eshop, similar to PS plus users

If you translate that from the Managers Nonsense phrasebook I believe it comes to "we don't plan on doing anything but hope you forget all about it".

I’m another person not giving them my money for this. I’ve had NOS twice over the past 5 years—the second time I was shocked at how few games were added and how little the service improved.

With XBox, I can start a game on my console, continue it later on my cell phone or laptop, then go back to the console. All seamless. Meanwhile, Nintendo makes it as hard as possible to play games on both my Switch and Switch Lite that are both linked to my account. The Switch has been a lot of fun, but the online is so far behind it’s embarrassing.

@AlienX,

My point was people are very selective with their memories, when it comes to emulation on past consoles.

I had my N64 connected to my old CRT T.V, with a S-VHS cable, and it looked great as I remember.

@somebread,

They look very good on the Switch.

@ModdedInkling yt removing it was in the works before all that so don't see the point in "wanting to believe" that

"You'll take it and like it!"

@GrailUK Improving their service is on the same level of priority as providing non-BS, empty corporate answers.

@CammyUnofficial
Yeah, I meant it as a bit of an exaggeration. The idea of having a dislike counter was always problematic enough, considering there was always an arbitrary number of dislikes on videos that seem perfect for everyone.

I don't know why the hell people are complaining. The emulation is amazing, those games never looked better. I was playinh OoT yesterday, all the 3D models and textures look great, there's no input lag, rumble works great, and yes, FINALLY there's no fog.

@Edu23XWiiU Bro the fog was a game feature. It's part of the mystery/ exploration expierience. I actually liked the fog lol. Them games kinda feel empty without it or slight lack of discovery excitement build up.

Probably the best response they can give since actually explaining the complexities of Nintendo 64 emulation would likely require a more in depth explanation than what most of the internet mob is willing to listen to

Well, good old Mr Bowser addressing complaints, about the Switch Fan complaints of poor emulation for Nintendo 64 games on Switch Online. Constantly looking for ways to make their online features and those games better......

What we have been given is quantity over quality. If Mr Bowser and the rest of Nintendo have not noticed this, or worse thought we would not notice, then what have then been doing all this time. It's a rush job with little thought, putting the N64 games online.

@Daniel36

Not Nintendo alone, but it is a common Thing that big Companies don't want such Backlash openly demonstrated.

Such a big Demonstration because of the Price of a Service can cause Investors to doubt that the Company made the right Desicion.

Same happend when bigger negativ Reviews appeared on Metacritic and Steam.

@ModdedInkling The short time frame is exactly why I don't believe removing the dislikes was done at Nintendo's behest. There's no way Youtube just yeeted the dislikes overnight even if they had been inclined to listen to Nintendo. A move like that in a corporation as big as Youtube doesn't happen that fast. You have to go through multiple layers of corporate beaurocracy, as well as physically programming the change and testing that it didn't break anything. It's not like some dude waved a wand and poof! No more dislikes! They HAD to have been planning to do this before Nintendo's bad press started.

Microsoft needs to give their retro games a facelift and bring quality of life improvements to them. Just like Microsoft did for their Xbox 360 titles.

sigh Listen Ninty (Navi Voice), I would literally gladly pay $100/year for a comprehensive & extensive Nintendo Virtual Console Subscription Service (basically like every other popular streaming/subscription service currently) if Nintie would just give us all the platforms + catalogues we want on competent legal proprietary emulators i.e. with rewind, fast-forward, turbo, more save states, downloadable/uploadable/transferrable community shared saves, cheats, scanned game manuals, multiple suspend play, custom button-mapping, online netplay with chat, filters, borders/themes and/or widescreen adaptation... most of which is already included notable free emulators out in the wild for some time now.

Nintendo has such a beloved and cherished archive of gaming history... yet they either neglect it, withhold it or give it little TLC. C'mon pick it up and get it together with the NSO service quick, fast and in a hurry please Nintendo! ... Cuz this? This ain't it right now.

... Wun can only hope.

@andykara2003 Considering Nintendo completely upgraded their network infrastructure a few months ago. This type of comment seems so clueless.

@Nuageux Hardly - all the complaints have been over the last week or so.

I must not be picky bit I haven't noticed any poor emulation yet. The lack of fog isn't a big deal but yes certain parts don't look right because of it but otherwise the lack of fog is a good thing for the most part in my opinion. I understand there is a bit more lag but it doesn't seem to be enough to effect my playing, and it isn't something I would ever have been able to notice. I've been enjoying it so far. I don't think anyone will be able to convince me it is shoddy or bad because I just can't see it from first hand experience.

The printed feedback makes for very serious toilet paper.

@JasmineDragon
You might wanna read my later comments about this.

"We take the feedback very seriously, and we’re continuing to look at ways to improve the overall performance. For us, it’s about quality and great content at a great value."

Ok so this means they aren't going to improve the service anytime soon if ever and that they know its trash but they don't care. Thanks Doug!

@nocdaes
Frankly, NOA president has historically seemed to have little to do with NOJ decisions. Yes, Reggie and Doug are faces for the company, and certainly make business and marketing decisions, but I'm not convinced they have much sway in R&D or general company direction.

I really wish the Switch had Virtual Console instead of Switch Online. I’d much rather have a wider pool of games to choose from and be able to simply purchase the ones I want to rather than hoping Nintendo will release more consoles for Switch Online.

Do like me , pass your way and you won’t be disappointed
Don’t get me wrong, after the switch the N64 was my beloved console

Something tells me there's multiple readings for the kanji that represents "value", and he may have read the wrong one

This is such a textbook big company complaint response you can get.

@Edu23XWiiU because many on here are talking out of their backside, the emulation is perfectly fine and as for the missing fog on Ocarina, it's not a big issue. As someone who played it on an N64 at launch and its one of my favourite ever games, I can wholeheartedly say that I don't care if its missing and it made no difference to my enjoyment of that part of the game, I'm just going to keep having fun with it

@gokev13 nor have I, I've played better N64 emulation but this is by no means poor and many will get worse input lag through their TV then whatever this emulator adds

Words are one thing, actions are another. I only tend to believe actions. I will say that I am not horrified by the emulation or anything. It could just be better as a whole.

@Travisemo007 no, the fog was used to cover deficiencies in distance drawing. Turok was a prime example of that. And now that's been corrected, and emulation always tried to reduce the fog issue, and Nintendo has just done that,

@carlos82 Exaaactly. I'm having a lot of fun with it. Winback is a good surprise, enjoying it so far.

@Edu23XWiiU I don't think u understood me bro. I LIKED THE FOG. AND TO ME WITHOUT IT, I feel like it's not as enjoyable. To me it WAS a game feature, as it added to my enjoyment of the game, especially with turok, no fog means no more jump scares or suprises. Not knowing when I'd be attacked next. Discovery and mystery was part of the fun for me. Also added suspense to the lost survival feel. Turok is not turok without the fog. Imo.

"We take feedback very seriously"
Doug, baby, joycon drift has been a problem for the device since day one, it took years for Nintendo to even admit there was an issue and while in some regions Nintendo has been quietly doing free repairs, it has not, to my knowledge offered a permanent solution to the issue, so when you say "We take feedback very seriously" I'm just going to call that a lie because evidence seems to suggest otherwise.

I don't get why they have to be so vague and lump in unrelated things like expanding the service. No, fix what you screwed up, first before considering adding new things. Nintendo said they had so much money that they had to find new things to spend it on. Well, if they don't get their stuff together they're not going to have that problem anymore.

@Edu23XWiiU what are you smoking? Emulation is and always has been about replicating a piece of hardware with software. Changing things like fog in a game is not something that emulation should be trying to achieve. Games were programmed in a way that both catered to that hardware and for stylistic purposes. Ultimately, emulation should be aiming to give you the exact experience from the original hardware with the obvious advantage of pure digital signals being output to the display. Anything else is extra and should always be optional; including scaling, texture upgrades, overclocking, etc. But even with all that, removing fog that was programmed into the game has nothing to do with improving emulation or the game, as this is merely a side effect of poor programming for the emulator that does not handle the original hardware calls properly.

Doug Bowser has literally 0 input on this. Do you guys not remember when Reggie addressed that he heard everyone on wanting GameCube games for Switch Online? Or when he said he was thinking of a way to give Switch owners who purchased ports from Wii U a discount of some kind? Yeah, it never happened, because he had 0 say in it. The money-hungry Japanese HQ is calling the shots, and they couldn't care less how buggy or bad the N64 online is, as long as it's churning money. None, and I repeat, none of the problems on it will ever be addressed. Mark this post and screenshot it if you don't believe it.

@Travisemo007 Turok was awful, honestly, the fog made it seem like you were in prehistoric London hahaha. And, it was not a feature pal. You can still buy the original, and play it in all of its foggy glory.

@RchUncleSkeleton no, emulation always tried to improve on the presentation of the games, with upscaling resolution, improving antialiasing, and reducing fog. And specially, on the N64 games, make the games run, and run the best way possible.And emulation will never be 100% exact for the N64, the rate of data exchange that the console had is still unprecedented. And the Switch emulator is the BEST one to date. You can still buy the games and play them the way they used to be, you know.

"Great value"
So $50 is a great value in Nintendo's eyes, then.

@Edu23XWiiU you are very sorely mistaken on all accounts. Emulation is supposed to reproduce what the original did, not change it. Also, the switch emulation for N64 has been one of the WORST implementations ever. Now go back to your desk at Nintendo HQ.

@RchUncleSkeleton Hahahaha then why would they make improvements and new plugins to have better effects on emulators? Hahahaha emulation was done in order to be abe to play games of consoles on PC's and other consoles, and improvements on performance were always a priority. And I've been using emulation since the ony game that could run was Super Mario 64, and sincerely, Nintendo has come out with the best emulator for the system. Thank you for wishing me such good luck !