Nintendo Make Changes To Switch Online's Automatic Renewals

Consumer choice is always a good thing.

It never did sit right with me that you had to go to a separate menu to turn off the automatic renewal, instead of being given the option from the start.

Good news especially if you're struggling and don't expect some bill of 50 or more or less

Alternatively, maybe the tech companies could offer auto renew as an option and allow refunds within 24 hours of the auto renew? Some consumers may like to choose opt-out instead of opt-in.

Good idea and about time. As for me, being wrong side of 50 now, while I'm still compos mentis, I'm happy to have the auto renewal switched on. Lets hope Nintendo don't forget to add more games regularly and are compos mentis too!!

About time honestly.
Always felt it was pretty unfair this "Renewal is active by default, if you want to deactivate it you'll have to do it later following separated steps, if you'll remember. It's not like we can offer you the option here and now...mostly because we don't want to owo". It's not much, but any step in favor of customers is a good step.

Always nice when a business decides to be helpful to humans instead of cynical and exploiting. Too bad it’s usually after regulatory pressures

This is really good, I don’t mind paying my subscription, but not being charged automatically helps to make better organize my payments.

It feels like the whole point of auto-renewal is that companies hope you forget about it. I’ve been had in the past by other services that weren’t open about their auto-renewal policies. In an era where subscriptions are becoming more common in all facets of life, it’s nice to see a more consumer friendly approach.

Auto renewal is on mine even though I used a 12 month subscription code from Tetris 99 and they have no card details of mine. Can't wait to see how they plan to renew it later this year!

Thankfully I'm usually pretty good about canceling my subscriptions when I know I won't be using something very often but this is still welcome to see.

I remember when my dad was helping me set up the Expansion Pack for NSO, he noticed that automatic renewal was on while I had no idea. If he hadn't noticed that, I would've been losing €50 a year without having any idea that it was happening. Thank god there's changes being made so that no-one else has to fall victim to scummy subscription tactics from all the big console makers.

That's great news.

Now to look up what CMA stands for.
Edit: Competition and Markets Authority (UK) in case that helps anyone else.

@WoomyNNYes
CMA = Competition and Markets Authority

Edit: You beat me to it by one second

I mean I really didn't mind it too much since it was only like $20 a year but stuff like that does add up.

@ModdedInkling thanks<3

Having auto-renewal as the default option will and always will scare me. I'm so glad they changed that, because it was definitely some scummy behaviour.

I always prefer keeping track of what I pay for, especially in the face of subscription services.

Nintendo switch online is like all of modern day Nintendo’s scummy practices and views bundled into one slimy package, the fact there had to be an investigation into it really says a lot.

Campaign donations must have been a bit light this year.

Good. My Switch broke around 3/4 through my subscribtion. Didn't get a new Switch yet, but was eventually faced with a very scummy renewal of my subscription that I can't even use.

I always disable auto-renewal anyway cause I rather pay manually for the subscription

I felt Nintendo Switch Online was always particularly aggressive with it’s auto subscription insistence. Heck! Early on in the NSO days it was even ambiguous if autosubscribe was turned off or not.

Very glad to see this particular practice get axed!

I immediately opted out of auto renewal at the start of my year subscription. Then, after a year I didn't get a notification of it ending; it was just shut off. My family members were just confused what suddenly happened, not being able to connect.

Pretty happy about this, I'm very dumb and forget to turn these things off.

@bones Yeah, that happened to me with NSO once. Had a tight budget worked out, forgot about NSO and Mario made my month worse.

Good! These forced auto renewal policies are sketchy and anti consumer.

It is a good change because it is a pretty scummy practice, but at the same time how hard is it to turn off auto renewal. Just do it as soon as you get switch online.

@NinChocolate I know, imagine being useful and kind to your own customers, as if it'll make them want to return or buy your stuff more. 🙄

@blindsquarel People forget quite often and time is very short.

You should renew it every year and if you forget then tough luck. 🤷‍♂️

I like this. I know that PlayStation sends notifications when PS+ is drawing close to its' renewal date - does NSO do the same?

"Hey! Listen! Your Nintendo Switch Online expires soon!"

Playstation does the same thing. Also, I swear on my life, last year I turned the auto renewal off, but just this past month when I figured it would be running out, I went to check and my PS Plus had recently been renewed for a whole nother year...

This is a nice change but the change that needs to be done is that if you cancel your subscription before it ends, you should get a refund of the days you didn't use.

I just renewed a couple of days ago myself and I immediately turned off the auto renew. Glad its going to be off by default now, I always turn it off when applicable cause I keep track of my subscriptions. And when it ends and I no longer have service I can decide then whether it's worth resubbing.

It should have been this way from day 1.

My auto renewal is ON!
Also, Nintendo Switch just sold 107 Million Units to Date! Almost catching up to ps4 fast!

Thank goodness I don't like auto renewals. It should have been this way from the start for all companies.

Good to see these predatory practices getting knocked down.

I noticed this after the last update, but I thought you could already turn off auto-renews.

@andyg1412 Hopefully your eShop funds balance is either at 0 or below the cost of the plans.

So will I now be able to cancel a family subscription and opt for a signal user subscription too? I paid for an annual subscription and decided to wait for the renewal to change it prior to this new development.

@Knuckles certainly is

99% of subscriptions services auto-renew unless you opt out, how do people have dozens of them but haven't realized it by now? It shouldn't be like that in the first place but it's still mind blowing that so few people don't know.

It's always the first thing I turn off the rare occasion I subscribe to something.

@ChrisWPoindexter
That’s why you do it as soon as you purchase

Huh? People had issues with this? Couldn’t you just…turn it off to avoid getting charged like I do in other subscriptions? You had like a whole year to do this. Just feels like this puts a bandaid to cover bad consumer management tbh.

Is the next complaint gonna be what companies should do if a kid grabs their parent’s credit card to buy video games?

Not to mention to the shock of some people here…some consumers actually PREFER having auto subscribe on by default because they like the service enough to keep it going long term and it’s objectively convenient for them.

The argument of “hate having to go to a menu to change it” can just as easily be reversed by the people that always liked it on by default.

I don’t know feels like a really minor gripe to cry at Nintendo [have to go to another menu] when there are more legitimate other reasons why Nintendo is perceived anti consumer that should be fixed

I subscribed for a month of gamepass ultimate the other day & had to turn off recurring billing so what exactly did Xbox change in January

@Rhum17 that's exactly why they do it that's why with most subscriptions even if you just try to use a free trial they offer you need to have a credit / debit card or PayPal etc linked to your account so they can charge you if you forget

@HorridCrow I'll tell you a little secret. You don't need a Switch to cancel Nintendo Switch Online.

Go here: https://ec.nintendo.com/my/membership and log in with your Nintendo account

Very scummy indeed. The corporate greed has provided you with a very simple webpage to do it.

I mean yay I guess? Its just not that hard to take the less than 2 minutes to turn it off though.

So glad that is finally going under investigation. Had to report to my bank that Nintendo charged my credit card twice for NSO. I turned auto renewal off soon after that. Nintendo’s payment system in EShop doesn’t sound like the best if the CMA is now involved.

Interesting how some seemingly justify cynical design implementation as a way to punish the part of society that just can’t do the simple things they can and never have trouble with..

But in reality Nintendo knows all kinds of people, young and old, well-abled or otherwise will encounter their systems. And they know default auto-renew takes advantage of stored CC info.

It's pretty simple, after I subscribed to anything, I cancel it immediately, just make it a habit, it's not hard at all.

A very welcome change, I always did find it dirty that you wasn’t just asked from the start. And it’s not like I didn’t have a problem of forgetting or anything, I just never liked it.

Typical government overreach.

The moment it takes Nintendo getting investigating to add something so basic

@Circasurviver
It's not an overreach if the findings benefit the consumer. Consumer protection laws are important.

There was always the option to just simply turn it off right after purchasing the subscription instead of leaving it for later just to forget about it, but it is actually better this way since most likely most of the parents out there wouldn't even know about it or wouldn't know how to turn it off. It is definitely a welcoming change and probably a needed one for many folks.

@CharlieGirl That's the whole point. It's a great money-making tactic. These companies take advantage of the functioning of task-based cognition and memory. I knew it was scummy in 2003 with Xbox Live. Even worse, Microsoft required that you call and speak directly to a customer-service representative over the phone in order to cancel the auto-renewal. Until around 2009, there was no way to do it yourself!

@Chibi_Manny I'm not sure if you fully understand, but this is an intentional financial tactic designed to take advantage of take-based memory functioning. It is in no way limited to just parents or even mostly parents. It affects everyone. When you purchase a product, your task is completed. The memory for turning-off auto-renewal diminishes. In fact, even when folks deliberately remind themselves all to turn off auto-renewal right before purchases, many will still forget due to the nature of task-based memory. This is what companies have been betting on and succeeding.

You neglected some important distinctions. Microsoft did not allow customers to turn off Xbox Live autorenewal manually until after 2009. Customers were required to call and speak to Microsoft customer service directly and request autorenewal to be turned off. There were no instructions for this. The term 'autorenewal' did not even exist in Microsoft's end-user agreements. Instead, Microsoft called it 'cancellation,' discouraging customers from calling sooner or even calling at all, greatly increasing lapsing subscriptions.