Nintendo Switch Online Free 7-Day Trial Now Available (US)

Not a fan of these stacked costs. Pay to pay to rent? Pass.

Very kind of Nintendo allowing me to connect my own device that I have already purchased to the internet, that I have already paid my service provider for. They will allow this for "free", in affect allowing me to use my switch like most electronic devices, and yet only for seven days? But let's not forget the additional perks like playing, but not being allowed to buy, some really old games, effectively holding any gaming progress to ransom behind a rental paywall. Forgive me if I do not take ninty up on this generous offer.

And yet the "FrEE TriAL" won't allow you to unlock a few measly icon pieces unless you have an active paid subscription (and I suspect that you'll lose access to them should you choose not to renew).

@Moistnado : Your latter point is (among other reasons) why I think NSO is such an especially poor investment. Plus, we've had nearly 20 years of free online gaming on DS, Wii, 3DS, Wii U, and to a lesser extent, the first few months of the Switch. What changed? And what's perhaps even more annoying is that F2P games can be played without an NSO subscription, but games that you've paid US$60 are paywalled.

Now that I have a certain app on my phone, I can play whatever console classics I damn well please, back them up at my leisure, utilise cheats, and speed up the more sluggish games to a more tolerable pace (cough Gen IV Pokémon).

I would gladly give Nintendo my money if they made the classics available for purchase on Switch, but to merely rent decades-old ROMs? That's a hell naw from me, dawg. I also don't care enough to play with strangers online to want to pay for the privilege.

Now just give us the 4X coins offers for buying vouchers in the US.

You know I was using my 3DS the other day and that if nothing else just made me miss how I didn't have to rent those games or anything.

Their worse mistake was not allowing these things to transfer over from previous consoles. Its so crazy to me that we doing this whole retro library thing again after the Wii U, 3DS and Wii. You can't expect me to pay for decades old games a third time and still see as exciting.

......I don't even think a free trial is worth getting...they should be paying me to use this joke of a service. lol

Microsoft asks money for XBOX Live, only gives you a handful* of free games. Nobody cares.

Sony asks money for PSN. Only gives you a handful* of free games. Nobody cares.

Nintendo asks a small fee for NSO. Gives you a few amazing online games and full libraries* of old games. Everyone (on this site) complains.

WHY?

*) more if you buy the more expensive subscriptions.

...amazing online games...lmao.

@Joeynator3000 yes, Tetris 99 and F-Zero 99 are amazing. My favorite multiplayer games of this gen.

Yeah the 99 games are boring to me...not going to pay $20 to play that.

@sanderev Sony and Microsoft's online services are better than Nintendo's. Its not like the online is substantially different from the Wii U era, and we didn't pay anything back then.

And those old games can be played on practically anything, my phone can play 90% of those games and for me this is the 3rd time I'm being offered NES and SNES games, so I'm not impressed at this point.

For me its a moot point, since I barely play online games anymore outside of FFXIV, but there are many people that do play games online such as Splatoon and Smash and it sucks that their experience isn't better.

Not to mention, all the lag...and connection errors...only time I don't have those issues is with 3rd party games like Monster Hunter...but even then I just prefer to play those games alone.

So yes, as I've said multiple times throughout the years...NSO is a complete joke.

@Joeynator3000 Have you tried them? But sure to each their own. For me, at least, NSO is worth it. Even the expansion tier since it also gives some neat DLC and GBA/N64.

@ShonenJump121 You can't legally buy/rent NES / SNES / N64 / GB / GBC / GBA games on a phone. Nintendo doesn't release those games for phones. And only if you own the original game you can emulate them. For most people that's not really a solution. Also on Wii U / Wii / 3DS those games weren't free, and compared to the price Nintendo used to ask for VC games to what they ask for NSO.. I have paid more on VC games than I have this generation on NSO.

Also you did pay for online multiplayer on Wii U, but the price was included with the console and games. Game prices haven't gone up until only very recently. But inflation has been at a record high. Maybe take that in consideration.

Also if you don't play online, then don't buy a subscription. The Switch works perfectly without one.

I prefer to buy VC games and actually keep them, not pay for a subscription for a service that doesn't even work a lot of the time. So yeah, I'd rather just play those old games elsewhere, PC, Steam, my SNES Classic...better than wasting money on a crap service, lol

And yes, I played the 99 games...for like, 30 minutes before getting bored with them. The only one I liked was Mario 35 and Nintendo of course removed that game from existence.

Didn’t renew this year. Won’t sign up again just for the classic games access in the future.

@Joeynator3000 You're being overly dramatic.

Just looking to set up a Family Plan+ between a bunch of us. Works out to 79p a month each. Outrageous I know.

@Joeynator3000 : I pretty much agree with all of your points. The only circumstance in which I would consider subscribing is if I could split the family membership, but the single user membership cost is a joke considering that it's mostly comprised of features that were previously free (such as online play and manual save data back-up), while fortifying games that were previously purchasable outright behind a rental model. An upgrade offer similar to that for Wii U would have been ideal.

But on the topic of 99 games, I think a WarioWare 99 game would be the best use of the battle royale concept as far as Nintendo IPs are concerned, and maybe, just maybe I would consider subscribing for that alone, but nothing that is currently available is compelling enough to justify coughing up the goods.

Also comical is the fact that something Pokémon Home isn't included as part of an NSO membership, but that's in its own class of rip-off.

@Joeynator3000 Completely agree. I’m not going to pay indefinitely to rent retro games. I’ve seen so many folks argue that it’s “cheaper” than the VC service. While that’s technically true, most of the games on NSO I’m not going to play anyway. The cost is only less if people play most of the games on NSO. I’d rather pay $5-$7 for games I can keep and not worry about server closure eliminating my save files.

Can I use the free trial to order controllers?

I know, I said I'd never use switch online...

@sanderev Considering I only play around 10 games or so on the service, then yeah VC ended up being cheaper for me in the long run.

There's many games on the service, but I don't play on playing all of them since I don't have an interest in all of them. Really, Nintendo could of easily done it like they have it now, but have it so you can purchase individual games if you want for a fee. That's not even bringing up the drip-feed nature of the series, I mean its been 7 years and the library still seems lacking to me.

You can sub to NSO and get everything under the subscription or you can buy some individual games for whatever amount and have it locked to your account. You can buy classic PS1 or PS2 games on Sony's store and have it forever, its not like they're only locked to their sub service.

PC players do have online for free and they do not have to pay for it like we do still. So I guess they got the better deal here. There are many people that have experienced issues with online games during the Switch's lifespan so those people's issues are valid.

@sanderev you’re gonna have to name a LOT more than 2 games for your point to hold weight.

@iNintendo Why?

@Joeynator3000

"...amazing online games...lmao."

(question: "lmao")

Are people really complaining about free stuff now?