Video: Switch Online Could Learn A Lot From Xbox Game Pass

Making the online part of switch online good would be a good start.

@Snatcher But the NSO is amazingly PERFECT!!!
https://twitter.com/Joeynator3000/status/1500567761080053761

@Snatcher That costs money though, and companies don't like to spend money.

Game Pass is useless for me as a physical games collector.
I bought the games to be owned forever, not by renting the games.

The biggest thing it could learn is by having every game on it be purchasable so that the subscription is an option, not mandatory to play legacy games

The only thing Nintendo should learn from Xbox is that they should make their legacy content available for purchase. Nothing else. If the 3ds and Wii u had game pass, all of their games would become completely unavailable in a year’s time. Thankfully we’ll still be able to play downloaded games even after the shops close. With every company wanting a subscription based future we have unfortunately already passed the time of widest game availability. In 10 years when NSO closes all those NES and SNES games will be unplayable. And when Xbox game pass dies some day all of those games will escape availability to those subscribers. I can still play my 1991 cart of Sonic 1. Game pass ain’t got nothing on that. And never ever will in a million years. Because even then my cart of Sonic 1 will still probably exist.

Nintendo is hopelessly lost in the 90's. They won't even make a current gen game free every now and then with NSO. So to even suggest they'd ever consider something like Game Pass or PS Plus is laughable.

Yeah but releasing 1st party games for free (with subscription) isn't one of them! At least not yet. Only Microsoft can afford this cause they got 30 years monopoly on Personal Computers with Windows. Not Sony, not Nintendo can afford to make such a killer subscription service

@Joeynator3000 Oh my god, how have I not seen this perfectly running FTP nintendo game!?

@Snatcher lol anyways yeah, even in MH Rise (with the "new and improved" online or whatever), I've seen monsters and hunters teleporting here and there...nothing has changed. lol

Switch online could use a lesson from almost everyone, I think AOL might have had better features in it's hey day. Certainly it was easier to connect with others and chat with them online.

Nintendo being so far behind in this respect is sad to me but I can't tell if it's them just being cheap because they know we will settle for what they offer.

@Ultimapunch
I agree in part. I have Gamepass and really like it for getting to play those games I would have probably never bought anyways but still would like to try. Also, while I do also like to look back on my collection of games that goes all the way back to the snes, i find myself rarely if ever playing them despite to this day proclaiming some of these games as being my GOATs. So I often ask myself the question how important it was to own these games? Granted, there was no way to buy games online on the snes, so its a moot point for retro consoles. But I can apply the train of thought to games available today.

Through gamepass I really only buy the games I absolutely must have, at the same time it gives me the opportunity to play games I just dont want to buy (ME Legendary Edition, Scarlet Nexus, Hitman Trilogy etc) and dont feel the need to own.

Guess this is better than the incessant rumours of GamePass coming to Switch

Yes the wealthiest company in Japan could learn from how the failing gaming division of another company basically gives games away in the hopes to recoup all the money they put into entering the games market.

I love gamepass, but its not born of Microsoft's good business sense, its born of desperation. Gamepass is to xbox as the early 3ds price drop is to nintendo.

Also I know how these things work, remember netflix in the early days? It had so much stuff, then over time it lost those shows/movies as companies began making their own services. As these other companies create their own game pass style services, you'll see gamepass lose a lot of its hard hitting titles.

So enjoy it while its good, wish I could go back in time and tell myself that about netflix.

@Ultimapunch nope, when game pass will be gone we'll in any case able to buy any game that was present on game pass. Don't mistake the backward compatibility with the possibility of using games for free (they are not there indefinitely, in any case).
What Xbox does that nintendon't is preservation. At the moment the overwhelming majority of games that came out on any Xbox are playable across the current and previous gen

Game pass or no game pass all that matters to me is new top quality games and some big AAA games that appeal to me.
If Sony and Nintendo business model deliveries those games the way it does like now then that is great.
As for Xbox they are not delivering nothing AAA and new this year or maybe just Starfield November, so gamepass is pointless to me and so is Xbox.

Games sell consoles that’s why Nintendo are top of the tree and Sony there as well.
My local stores in the UK now all have Series X sitting on shelves and easily available to buy meaning the momentum of Xbox has now slowed, meaning Gamepass is not really selling consoles as it has no new exclusive AAA games and no buzz about it. Microsoft think gaming is about old games, making an appearance in June and having one big AAA in November 2022 and not managing their studios well. Which is why they will always struggle and sit in third place.

@AugustusOxy
Very well put, and a good read.

Honestly both Gamepass and Microsoft Rewards are vastly better than Nintendo's equivalent programs. Makes it feel a lot more customer-friendly, especially combined with the more frequent and more generous sales.

Though to be fair Gamepass is also very easy to exploit. I've had my Xbox for like a year and I think I've spent maybe $4 on Gamepass while having it virtually that entire time.

I just want to buy a game and play it with minimum fuss. How about Microsoft copy that instead of steering everyone into continuously giving them money?

no thank you, I wanna own, not borrow for money.

Online this, gamepass that.
I had a group round last night.
Local multiplayer MK8 you can’t beat that, all together competing and having a good fun and some food. PS, I didn’t play well 😂👻
When I want to play MK8 online I just start it up always gamers online and race online, it’s so simple what’s all the issues and fuss about.

@electrolite77 Consumers give up too much to be milked like this. I hope SONY and NINTENDO avoid it like the plague (but I can see SONY getting involved.)

@electrolite77 Well it is controlling the agenda, if from pure wealth one company shifts the market towards a unprofitable model that its competitors can't afford to compete in. If journos and players act like the competition HAS to do it, then the money lost by MS has done its job.

Is this any different than when DLC and microtransactions were introduced to support the costs of AAA development, an uncompetitive business model designed to muscle smaller companies out of the market or into ownership of a few big publishers?

I prefer the Wii, Wii U and 3DS model of purchase. Sorry.

There is a lot Nintendo could learn from literally every console thats ever had an online function.

People seem to forget that Microsoft HAD to make gamepass as the xbox brand was dying and was in serious need for change and its exclusive games were lacking. Sony and nintendo are releasing amazing games at a steady rate and unlike xbox games they are selling multi millions, and then there's hardware sales in which sony and nintendo are shifting way more.

Without gamepass xbox would of been no more after this gen, but sony and nintendo would be absolutely fine without a gamepass service, heck even with gamepass being on four different xbox consoles, Android, IOS and PC's sony still has more playstation plus subscribers than all those combined.

Nintendo should just keep doing what they do best and make great exclusive games and innovative hardware and forget about a streaming future

@electrolite77,

Pretty much agree with everything you said until the legacy content part, still not convinced this appealing to anyone other than the core Nintendo fans.

Just look at the two highest profile retro games, one of which was part of the biggest overreaction to it's discontinuation I have ever witnessed. On here alone there were about a million articles about it.......and to this day you can still buy a new copy very easily.

Skyward sword sold 3.58 million, and the Mario 3-D collection around 9 million, the vast majority of the Switch user base want new games, not re released legacy content, pretty sure Nintendo realize this which is why retro stuff is bundled with the online services, rather than being made available for a virtual console service time and time again.

Lol and not online the online part..

I do think Ninty should allow their old games for sale on the switch. Not sure what this has to do with NSO, mind.

Microsoft is one of the biggest companies in the world, and has a a lot of leverage and influence. A lot more than Nintendo.
But Xbox is still a poor second to PS. So Game Pass is not working for it that well for it's console. Edit: it appears that it's working for MS in terms of revenue though.

I think Nintendo could get away with having a paid-for service where you get a limited time game or two each month. Obviously it would be great if that was at no extra cost, especially after the additional cost of N64/MD.

Maybe instead of Nintendo Selects, it will be a load of older Switch games available for a monthly fee?

@electrolite77,

It's a tough one to predict the future, and as you suggest a failure after a great success can be just around the corner, after all we did witness this exact same thing from the Wii/DS era to the Wii U and 3DS. Of course there is a chance of this happening again, but we also have to look at things in context and access the factors in each individual situation, because there will be differences.

The Wii/DS was pretty much lightning in a bottle, to emerging technologies touch and motion that had both been untapped in the public domain until that point, the consumers when't crazy for this and created Nintendo's best selling generation with around 250 million consoles sold. But here comes the rub with all this as Nintendo were new to these kind of markets, and they simply could not predict how many of these new consumers would stick with them, even more so with cheaper tablet devices and smartphones becoming more common, and motion controls being far more niche as time when't by, which brings us to the Wii U/3DS sales. A perfect example of this was on the Wii with Mario Galaxy a game advertised very heavily promoting the motion control aspect, but under this facade was a traditional controlled Mario 3D game, the game sold around 12.8 million copies, but then when the sequel came out the sales were much lower at 7.4 million, so obviously the more casual gamers gave this new game a miss, as the original was far more tough a prospect than they had been led to believe it was.

Comparing Nintendo to Microsoft is also very tough, and Nintendo have been very wise in my opinion since the GameCube era in getting out of the core arms race. Competing with Microsoft is tough as they have huge pockets and their gaming division could pretty much run at a loss forever, they make most of their money form their other businesses, and can afford to throw loads of money at the problem, Sony will have their work cut out for them competing with this long term.

So lets look at what Nintendo have done right in my opinion, they have managed to create a new market with the Switch and bring in new loyal customers, while at the same time staying away from the core power race. They seem to have avoided the Wii's rapid sales decline with the Switch, again this supports the loyalty of the user base, and looks like they have used the Wii/DS as a learning curve.

Nintendo have also been very wise to invest in the mobile space, as rather than them abandoning their more traditional market place as some feared, it has helped promote Nintendo's IP's to a new marketplace, and both Mario Kart 8 and Animal Crossing seem to have benefited the most from this, of course the added mobile revenue stream is also welcome too.

They have created a nice low cost online service, that while lacking compared to the efforts from both Sony and Microsoft, is still pretty decent and will appeal to the majority of the Switch user base, maybe not the more core users with multiple consoles and gaming p.c's etc, but for the customers who only own a Switch it's fine. They have found a great way to offer their legacy content which again will have been heavily influenced by the sales of the previous virtual console services.....

Only difference is Nintendo has about 8 times AS MUCH first party titles on the Switch compared to Microsoft. In the same time. Nintendo releases about one new first party title each month. Microsoft really only has one / two each year. (first party)

So a service like GamePass Ultimate would cost Nintendo a lot of money, or it would be a very expensive service.

Day and date new releases for exclusives would be huge, but Nintendo wouldn't do it. Even if it really is a good way to keep earning money. I would, of course, expect them to keep it on the Switch and they'd still make a lot of money.

And retro mini console sales, as outside of the core there is just not as much interest in these older legacy games.

I suppose my main wish is for Nintendo to remain as a console and game developer as they are better this way, and lets be honest here Sega were never the same when they stopped making consoles.

Nintendo are in a good place as it is already, I don't want anything from Gamepass or Xbox. The only thing Nintendo really needs to Switch online services is Voice Chat by system level instead of the phone app, text messages to friends and mb consider something in the style of street pass and Miiverse.

I love seeing a bunch of complaining about Nintendo’s online, but I had a pretty much lag free playthrough of Super Mario 3D World on Switch with 3 friends. We all have fairly decent internet and were on a wired connection.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve experienced some lag in games, but only when playing with randoms or people with low dl/ul speeds. “Good online” won’t really improve much if the people using it have potato connections.

On topic, I have an Xbox Series S and a Nintendo Switch. I also use PC Game Pass to play some games too. Game Pass is a great service, but it has also been going around for a lot longer than Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack (which is an absolute mouthful, so I’ll refer to it as NSO+EP going forward)

Game Pass has been around for almost… 5 years? And it’s clearly providing what it advertises. It’s a pass that allows you to play a variety of games for as long as you stay subscribed to the service. Over the years, they’ve added things such as EA Play and Bethesda games, which actually both happened somewhat recently (within the last year or so). It’s undoubtedly fantastic value for the entry price.

Now moving over to NSO+EP, which I honestly think gets too much bad press, because it isn’t Game Pass. There is a clear difference though, NSO at a base is a service, much like Xbox Live Gold which allows users to participate in games online and use certain online features. (Along with some other stuff)

NSO+EP is an upgraded version of this already existing service, with the marketing geared towards subscribers having access to N64 and Mega Drive titles. If it was just these two benefits, I’d question the worth of the service.

However, it launched with access to a meaty Animal Crossing expansion, in addition to the recently announced Booster Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Now, so I think it’s worth it on the basis of a single user subscribing to the service? Well, that’s a subjective thing, because everyone values things differently and I understand for some people, it might be too steep to swallow and they’d rather just buy the DLC — Which is absolutely fine, of course!

However, if you have a family subscription and a few of the people on it want to play the Animal Crossing DLC and a few of them want to play the Mario Kart DLC, the value of the service really skyrockets in my opinion. (Okay, you don’t need to own the Mario Kart DLC to actually play it, but to play it offline you do.)

I’m a happy family subscriber of NSO+EP and I’ve only dabbled in the Animal Crossing DLC. We have a full plan, with everyone contributing to it and the yearly price is so minor that I can’t even remember how much those guys have to pay me. (I’ll have to check that when we renew lol)

I’m aware that a lot of people will disagree with me, but honestly, that’s fine. I’m just happy that I can grab 7 of my friends from all corners of the world and share a sub with them for a fraction of the price! No skin off my back! 😃

Microsoft invented the paid online, the broken games on released date, the day one paid DLCs, the season passes, the full price microtransaction based games and Nintendo is slowing learning all of that awesome features.

Now super smart people are asking for Nintendo to copy their DRM based and anti-physical way to monetize game. That's awesome!!! Pay but never own!!! That's the future!!!

@GrailUK
You do have the option to buy the games on gamepass, its one of the things i really wish the NSO legacy games did, rather than having them dependant on the service being active.

Having gamepass is more so you get to try out a bunch of games but you can buy them to keep if you want. (at least on Xbox, not sure about PC) Which again, you dont have the option to do that with NSO games so once that service ends the games are gone, with likely no way to play the games you have downloaded and no guarantee the service will carry on to the next system.

The switch is definitely my favorite console in years but i do feel like in terms of how things such as its online services and legacy support is concerned it does feel like microsoft definitely handled things the best this gen (it feels like a bigger issue also because nintendo has such a strong back catalogue)

I do hope at least the switch concept carries on since having a system support lots of different control methods rather than focusing around a specific one (like wii and wiiu) not only allows for players to play games how they feel comfortable but also will hopefully future-proof their game library a bit more.

I didn’t even touch too much on Xbox on my previous comment, but I’ll just follow up with the thought that I believe Xbox just has the best ecosystem across generations. I never owned an Xbox One, but I love how I can still download most of my 360 games on my Series S and some of them even get performance and visual boosts, which is really cool.

If there’s one thing I hope Nintendo learns from MS/Xbox, it’s evolving their ecosystem to always include access to previous generations of games. I hope Nintendo keeps running with the concept of the Switch, just improving the hardware with each “generation”. I think the Switch is a perfect concept and I really don’t want Nintendo to deviate from that.

I'm genuinely surprised Nintendo are offering as much as they are with the Online stuff. Still have no intention of getting it unless it's improved, of course, but Nintendo being a few years behind a new concept (game subscriptions) instead of a decade behind is quite a surprise.

Next article: What the Pilgrims can learn from NASA.

@Ultimapunch Why would they be unavailable? Game Pass isn’t tied to the Xbox storefront. It’s not even tied to the Xbox—you can get it on PC only if you want.

@WOLF13
It's less that, and more like what a very successful if small company can learn from one the biggest, most successful companies ever, which has money to burn

@Rambler Nintendo is doing what it’s doing because it can. They can charge full price for ports. They can put minimum effort into online services because they can. My comment about Pilgrims is about Nintendo not wanting to advance.

@Anti-Matter but it is like renting the game and if you like it you then buy your physical copy

1. Make the classic games a separate service.
2. Start adding all Nintendo games that you cannot currently buy on an active e-store
3. Add the gaming service to DS and Wii.
Now you have a earning money on people that just want to keep the Wii or DS, with still having an incentive to buy a switch.

Now the real way to earn money with advertising for the switch and new games.
Put the classic games service on other platforms, while settling controllers.
Like PC and mobile.
I do not think it would be hard to Nintendo to make a "Razer Kishi" like controller, perhaps one with a extra screen on it so you can put new DS games on the service.

Think of it like a gateway product.

@Matty1988
Nintendo isn’t doing it out of cluelessness, it’s pretty much a deliberate strategy.

@Guitario
I don't want to rent as I bought the game only once.

i am absolutely baffled at the "No thanks. I want to keep the games." comments--YOU AREN'T KEEPING THEM WITH THE NSO NES/SNES/N64/GENESIS/DLC PACKS ALREADY, THIS IS ARGUING THAT PORTION COULD HAVE A WIDER SELECTION--it is literally in no way a downgrade to expand it a la gamepass

like, complain about it if you want, but it is not an exclusively XBOX/Microsoft thing, that's the entire point!

@somebread I actually agree. Gamepass is a hail mary pass by Microsoft to maintain relevance by basically trying to outspend Sony and Nintendo knowing they cannot offer the same kind of deal. BUT, Nintendo can always learn from MS and offer a comparable service. Maybe add some legacy titles that have sales plateaued on Expansion Pass? Astral Chains, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Xenoblade 2 there are a number of titles Nintendo could add to Expansion Pass that won't harm evergreen sales (asking for Mario Kart 8, Animal Crossing New Horizons or Breath of the Wild might be a bit much).

From a fan perspective, I see nothing but good things for Nintendo adding to Expansion Pass by taking notes from Gamepass. Nintendo fans are an odd bunch sometimes.

@carlos82 No, if you pay for a year you should keep anything that releases, they are literally roms lol.

They should take notes from Apple Arcade instead. Fund some small indies, charge $5 a month extra for a new game each week. They already have a decent library to start off.

People should be willing to buy games instead of wanting to be spoonfed them from subscription services, the end result of subscription services are soulless games designed by algorithms to retain subscribers just like what’s happened with streaming video; all those terrible Bruce Willis movies that keep being pumped out, the awful live action adaptations on Netflix are likely made to inspire hatewatching. The end goal of Game Pass isn’t giving you a endless stream of $60 games with no catch it’s about MS having complete control over what the value of a game is and that value is solely based around what benefits subscriptions.

@Medic_Alert I don't think the publishers would care if their games are on subscription services because it is consistent income for legacy games that have probably maxed out on potential sales. Having Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft pay licencing deals every month sounds like a dream for EA, Square Enix and others. But, once we start getting Gamepass exclusives, Expansion Pass exclusives and PSNow exclusives... then as consumers, we end up screwed. That is the only real downside I see to Gamepass becoming more prevalent.

I really like GamePass honestly. It's especially good for people that can't simply spend 60 dollars on a single game.
Nintendo could try this, but I don't think it would be a good financial strategy, because while Nintendo is "big", it's a dustmite compared to Microsoft in its entirety.

Gamepass is great, but Nintendo will never touch this kind of subscription model.

I'm happy with NSO as it is. Especially with the family plan pricing if you split the cost between multiple people.

It's important to remember that Game Pass is a thing because the Xbox brand couldn't compete with Nintendo and Sony long-term otherwise. It's a play to hook gamers onto a subscription model that transcends hardware. I'm sure they'd happily put it on Nintendo and Playstation consoles if they were allowed to do so. Their ultimate goal is make GP ubiquitous. Just turn on your TV, navigate to the GP app, and go. It's why they're also working so hard on cloud streaming technology.

Putting aside the fact that Nintendo isn't a big enough company to host a proper GP competitor (neither is Sony, btw), it's also just flat out incompatible with Nintendo's way of doing business. It's antithetical, to be perfectly honest.

As long as Nintendo keeps making money from full priced remasters and badly emulated retro games, they wouldn't feel the need to get better with their services. We as fans are supposed to speak with our wallets, but instead, our wallets are the ones enabling their current practices.

@Medic_Alert "Two services competing for devs that are prepared to put their games onto a subscription service just means two lesser services." That is the issue I have with streaming services. If the devs are wise enough, they could strike a deal between both services and put the game on both relatively quick instead of completely alienating one console's audience over the other for at least 1 year.

@HungryHungryHomer it must have been a huge struggle to even get them to add Mk8 dlc and ACNH.

Why should Nintendo learn when they are winning? If anything Microsoft should just bring over Game Pass to the Switch.

@ImmortanJho "That costs money though, and companies don't like to spend money."

Especially not when the fanbase will spend full price money for half assed effort and defend it.

People wouldn't be so mad if they were actually trying and not just pocketing the money. They could be actually buffing the online servers, adding more NES and SNES titles though licensing, buying dead IPs, translating titles (like the 3 SMT games Japan has), or just adding the decent handful of their own library we still don't have (still waiting for Startropics 2). What about creating or commissioning more games like Mario 35 and Tetris 99 (and not killing them after a few months)? Or just adding more small perks for being part of the program that add up, like not having your My Nintendo Coins expire, more discounts here 'n there, some more exclusive 'content' for NSO users like the Splatoon clothes and rug for ACNH (maybe make an exclusive Mii Costume for MK8 DX or outfits for Pokémon), or if you live in NA, the ability to buy the Game Vouchers, which we haven't had since they tried it.

Even if they were doing some of these things, even poorly, it would at least show they're trying to make it worth it. But because they're not, it just comes off as a scam.

I think the NSO Expansion Pack being bad value in comparison to Game Pass is not necessarily a bad thing. The monetization of Xbox Game Studios games have worsened since Game Pass started with the most problematic of the bunch of course being Halo Infinite, meanwhile on the Playstation side of things GT7 just so happens to feature really problematic monetization mere weeks before Spartacus is supposedly announced (the media calls it Sony's Game Pass competitor).

So I'll gladly ignore the NSO Expansion Pack with its bad value while being able to enjoy Nintendo games with no microtransactions. The DLC model is far superior to the microtransaction model.

@Anti-Matter Game Pass is useless for me as a physical games collector.
I bought the games to be owned forever, not by renting the games.
Exactly and people forget you have to pay a ISP to have internet access as well to download the eShop games. So remember there is another cost Factor those advocating only Digital don't tell the consumer.

Personally, I've always been against "Software as a Subscription" business models. If I want a piece of software (a video game, a computer program, etc.), I just want to make a one-and-done purchase. I don't want to have to shell out more money every month or year just so I can keep access to the software.

It's especially bad with companies like Autodesk. Maya alone costs $1700 a year. Not even the entire Adobe Creative Cloud is that expensive! And Microsoft is getting into it too with Office 365, one of the most basic programs on a computer.

So yeah, I don't think software as a subscription is a good idea. It is very anti-consumer, in my opinion, forcing us to shell out more money than we should ever have to.

@SwitchForce
And playing physical games require you to have electricity. There's another added cost. Lol.

@AstroTheGamosian
But in this case, nobody's forcing you to stay subscribed to play one or more games. You can still buy those games individually outside the service, physical or digital. It's not like say Netflix where you're locked into their ecosystem and unable to buy individual movies to own. So not an apples to apples comparison really.

@Specter_of-the_OLED
Winning what? Last I checked PS5 and XBX were still hot ticket items.

@Anti-Matter
You realize that Game Pass doesn't prevent from still buying the games physically, right? With GP, I was able to avoid some games that I'm glad I didn't buy.

FYI this is a weird shift for me, because I was a GP basher for a while.

@Medic_Alert Think more without ISP how do you get internet access to get Digital games. Guess one doesn't think here.

@HungryHungryHomer Childress response go figure.

@SwitchForce
Is it though? I mean unless you live in a cave that you've somehow figured how to power your Nintendo console in. And live near a retailer where you can physically buy your games. Or own a car...
No internet remember.

I guess I'm just being childress

@HungryHungryHomer
Game Pass is a rent service.
If i want to get physical games, I will buy them from game store, i don't even need Game Pass.

@Anti-Matter
Well you can get a discount on games when they leave the service to buy but that is just digital. So from that standpoint I guess you're right. But as I look back at all the plastic former console games that I still have and never played since, I think what does it matter? And for me a game or movie rental is where you get a day or two to play said entertainment. I don't view this the same in that regard.

learn a little?? i love you Nintendo, but your online SUCKS. ive been a Nintendo fan since the 90's. but now i am also a Xbox fan thanks to the series x. its an amazing piece of hardware and their onlice services is amazing. free cloud saves, microsoft store is super fastx Xbox app is very very good. games have dedicated servers and dont rely on P2P like Nintendo, and Game pass is an amazing service in comparisson to NSO. I was a Nintendo fanboy for decades but now i am just a fan. I am subscribed to gamepass but not no NSO.

Not to mention that on the microsoft store you can still buy some original Xbox, xbox 360 games which are compatible with the series X. I think Xbox is more commited to game preservation than Nintendo by far. your digital game library from previous generatios is still there for you to download on new hardware and in many cases, improved. I definitely trust XBox more than Ninteno when is about owning digital only games. i know they will be there on my account for decades to come, or probably forever. Nintendo on the other hand.... closed wii shop and games are gone. is closing 3ds and wiiu and games wil be gone forever. and you cant have them at all in current hardware. what's the guarantee the same wont happen again and next generation your "Switch2" account will be sepparate from the original switch just like wiiu and 3ds are from the switch, and you will have to start paying again for all the games you already bought ? Nintendo has to improve in absolutely everytng online related.

Nintendo Switch Update: You can now Download, to your hard drive or Micro SD card, your favorite Retro Classics via NSO Expansion Pack. Just like Game Pass!!!

Nintendo Fans: "complain, complain, complain, complain!"

@Anti-Matter Exactly

@Medic_Alert Seems like we agree! That's the part I really dread is publishers paying for exclusive rights to games and it quickly becoming a mess with every company adopting a Gamepass-like model...

Sony could learn from Gamepass too.

Jim Ryan went from “Gamepass not sustainable” to trying to reveal a Gamepass clone [although it will still be inferior based on revealed detaile]

NSO online wishes it could be even half as good as Game Pass - its the best deal in gaming right now.

@NintendoEternity
For a higher fee to play 25 year old games. What a deal!

@Anti-Matter how many games and systems do have currently fellow collector?

@Dr-M
I have more than 350 games altogether and have these machines.

PS2 Slim Japan
PS2 Fat USA
PS3 Slim
PS4 Slim
PSP 3000
Wii
Wii U
Switch
NDS Lite
Old 3DS XL USA
New 3DS XL USA
New 3DS LL Japan
New 3DS XL PAL

Games i have:
PS1
PS2
PS3
PS4
PSP
GBA
NDS
3DS
Switch
Gamecube
Wii
Wii U
XBOX
XBOX 360

@Medic_Alert Says someone whom don't want to pay high ISP prices. Keep harping it's going now where fast for you. Gamepass is what it says a pass. Not even Digital download that actually have Offline should tell one enough.

@HungryHungryHomer
When i want to play certain games, i have to make sure the games are enjoyable to play.
I always watch from YouTube to see how was the gameplay and i can decide to get the games or not after watching and some deliberation.
I don't even care with discounted price of the games from Game Pass as owning the games in physical is more than about possessing the things. Even after I finished the games, I still play with them and I will never sold the games after finished. I like to collect interesting things so I never like everything from Game Pass that just only a rent service with no benefit at all for me as physical games collector.

@SwitchForce This right here !

I love game pass for games I'd never normally buy. That's it. So I don't see them learning much.

@Arawn93 GamePass is not sustainable for anyone who actually makes money selling video games which applies to both Sony and especially Nintendo.

And it's not like it's profitable for Microsoft either

@a1904 That's simply not true. If you skip money on publishers, and Microsoft is doing just that by buying out studios, the costs go lower. There's also a fact that there are constant costs and costs that depend on number of subscribers. So the more users GP has, the cheaper per person it gets to provide the service. It certainly is sustainable. Moreso, since MS did actually decide to abandon the idea of platforms. It's getting easier and easier to play GP on phone, PC or whatever platform you want. GP is actually a great move from the point of view of the company future proofing. IMHO Sony already lost that race, they did it long ago actually by not supporting their own products - handheld market was given away to Nintendo, smartphones to samsung and apple, heck, even PS now never even tried coming to my country (in the middle of europe).

Nintendo, imho, is not going to outright lose to Microsoft, Nintendo is kinda playing a different game them MS/Sony, but whether we want it or not, the physical releases are going to go away sooner or later. mayube not completely, but to a great degree, much like music and movies have went away from physical media

@YessMasster And to build up that userbase you have to spend money and forego revenue to a degree that isn't sustainable for anyone apart from Microsoft

We should all be thanking Nintendo for not doing what Microsoft and Sony are, pretty soon they will have you pushing controllers in the bottom of the tv and it will be be cloud based. The whole online world is full of crap, hackers, abusive people, game ruiners, and it will never benefit anyone classed as a nindie trying to make money.

That is no future I want!

@a1904 Pretty much, yeah, that's how it works for any major companies competing for a market, such as Epic Games with their store and weekly free games

@Anti-Matter tbf the context here is comparing to NSO. That's even less ownership, it's just a digital library. Game Pass you download games, there's discounts, and you can buy to own if they leave the service. If Nintendo decided to take games off the NSO line up, they'd just be gone. I understand digital vs physical collection in a more general sense, just saying it's not a negative in this case as compared to NSO. There are also arguments for digital in the collection space. It depends on the company, but the fact is Nintendo is pretty bad with this. Meanwhile Xbox is supporting 3 legacies consoles on their current model. Games you've owned digitally for over a decade download to a Series X/S just fine. And digital files can be dumped and preserves. You can dump a physical...but then you're again dealing with digital preservation. Your carts and discs aren't going to work forever and your hardware will fail too. It falls to companies supporting legacy content, and/or the emulation scene, to preserve. And Xbox is more respectful of their legacy content than Nintendo right now.

@electrolite77 It might have worked well for some third parties but it is not something Microsoft themselves make money with

@Kisame83
I don't care with digital games from Game Pass. Digital only + Renting service = NO for me.
Purchasing games in physical media is the only way I want to do to owning the games.
Also, I don't see something worthy from XBOX ONE and Series games. They are basically copy paste of PS4 / PS5 games (3rd party games) that I can easily pick the PlayStation version since PS4 / PS5 have slightly better games than XBOX games (I only play kids games, don't even play AAA games).

@electrolite77,

Signed up to a dedicated retro based service from Nintendo and got burned twice, they will not get me a third time, plus how many times do I want to play these older games, I hardly have time for all the new ones.

Yes you can suggest Nintendo have an obligation for all this legacy content, but in reality they do not, and I am still thinking the appeal of all this is very niche.

@electrolite77 It is good for some of them yes (or else they wouldn't agree to it) but that doesn't mean it's a worthwhile thing to do from a first party perspective. And for both Nintendo and Sony, having a service on the same level as GamePass would mean incurring losses that neither can afford long term

@Anti-Matter ok but that applies to NSO and moreso since you can't buy. This article is comparing those two services, so...🤷🏽‍♂️
And as a customer of all three systems/companies, when it comes to cross platform just get the one most accessible to you. But it's disingenuous to act like a third party game is a "copy" on Xbox. If you don't like the features or unique titles of Xbox enough to get one alongside a PlayStation that's perfectly valid. But the service does have it's appeal and it certainly has "kid" games on it. My 13 year old uses Game Pass more than I do (I'm more of a PS Now and Steam player in the house lol) and he's not a typical Fortnite kid. He likes platformers, strategy games, sims, etc.

@Kisame83
But once again, I am a physical games collector, only play games with disc or cartridge so I have no interest at all with Game Pass from XBOX that being a rent service and digital games. I still play the games with old style gaming.

@Ultimapunch that's a little unfair to how GP works. You can buy the games if you want, typically at a discounted rate. So no, that won't go away if the service does because the games in the service are literally games being sold on the platform. Sony and Nintendo run into the issue of having NSO games and PS Now divorced from their content shops, so it's just a Netflix-style rental kind of deal. Also for collection, I prefer it too but remember physical media can degrade, be broken, lost, stolen. And hardware erodes as well. There's arguments for both sides here. Like my Genesis stopped working a long time ago, but the copy of Sonic I bought ages ago on Steam works fine and on as many devices as I want to back it up on.

@Anti-Matter and once again this article is comparing the service in relation to Nintendo Switch Online games. You have utterly failed to mention how that model meets your requirements better. Just saying. Physical vs digital is honestly a different conversation, this is literally comparing two digital subscription services. You're choosing to single one out and ignoring the fact that the other one (NSO) doesn't even let you buy the games to own.

@Anti-Matter good for you. Most of us that have access to it can heavily enjoy it. And guess what? You can still buy your favorites, but get to play those you’re curious but wouldn’t necessarily buy. Shocking, right?

Most suck tough, as you mention you don’t play AAA games, and only kiddie/indie games. Many of them are not even offer digitally (and if they do, it is months after launch). Seems you’ve put yourself in a tough spot!

@Casco
I'm not even interested to try bunch of free games from Game Pass subscription.
I don't have curiosity like that.
If I want to consider other games, I will watch the gameplay from YouTube to get my verdict.
I don't even want bunch of free games with some of them are the games I really hate most.
I only buy and play the games I have interest about and thus I'm very selective in choosing the games.
I have different interest, different life experience, different influence so I don't care with too popular AAA games that I don't have interest at all with them.

@Gwynbleidd You must enlighten me, is FUD a good thing or a bad thing?

I would personally go with NO online at all, but I do see that others are quite keen on it!

@electrolite77,

Sorry I was saying people in general think Nintendo have some obligation to preserve such things.

@electrolite77,

Without a doubt Nintendo will be looking for ways to make money out of all this old stuff, just not so sure how big the market is.