Nintendo Asks Switch Online Playtest Program Participants To "Not Discuss Or Disclose Content"

Yeah, that ain’t gonna work. Sorry Nintendo. It’ll be out there within seconds…and then dumped minutes later. (Of course, I expect the software will require some sort of online handshake to work properly, so whether those dumps will be of any use is to be seen)

If Nintendo doesn't announce what this is beforehand, it's pretty much guaranteed people will find out what this is through people leaking it.

Nintendo, do you even know how the Internet works?

Everyone knows that when Nintendo asks you to do something, you do it. Unless you want the Nintendo-ninjas to visit you family. 😵

I predict a lot of Nintendo NInja Ningastu.

Dang I tried to get in but unfortunately couldn't. Very curious as to what it is for.

What could it beeee? Miiverse 2? Matchmaking for the games on NSO? Nothing? I was too slow to get in

Unless Nintendo made an official NDA, they’re effectively going to have to deal with this being leaked. People didn’t listen to Toby Fox when he told them to not talk about Deltarune spoilers until a few days after chapter 1 launched. People aren’t going to listen to a mega corporation telling them not to talk about this test.

Not interested with Testplay as I still haven't renewed my Basic NSO $20.

This is something to keep eyes on.

@VoidofLight I think that they count on that. What better way to get free, effective publicity than telling people not to talk about something when it's a sure thing that they will, to get everyone's interest and just letting them do all the work? They might get have some contingency measures though, just in case that too much is shared or something.

Wow that sounds like Nintendo is setting a trap for people..

@Solomon_Rambling Oh you poor naive soul

Ahaaahahahahaaaahahaha! Oh, Nintendo. You make me laugh.

News on whatever this is are gonna get loose at like frame 1

Yeah, good luck with that, Nintendo. I wouldn't have bothered trying to participate anyway since I don't like just how vague all of this is. Part of me wants to hope it's GameCube NSO, or in my wildest fantasy, something like Miiverse, but I won't go THAT far.

It's a marketing strategy

It's meant another article about it here, generating interest, distracting from Switch 2, they aren't actually expecting people not to speak about it

This is going to be interesting.

I tried to register the exact minute it went up and I was still too late

Nintendo this is impossible. I’m pretty sure you can offer 1000$ to people for not leaking what’s going on and they’ll still leak it.

@AnonyQ
Yes it’s absolutely a marketing strategy, it’s why they announced it after the alarm clock they know a lot of eyes are gonna be glued on this.

Yeah, you’re being a bit naive if you think no one’s gonna blab about it

Absolutely nobody will actually keep quiet, but good try I guess.

More interesting would be to know if sites like this are willing to share the info the second it becomes available...or if they will wait until Nintendo gives the green light.

On one hand, they could excuse themselves with some logic ("Nintendo asked participants to keep quiet... but we didn't participate so we are not guilty to share the info") but on the other hand, while Nintendo can't keep tabs on all the internet, they can keep tabs on big sites like this one.

I'm trying to decide if their handling of this is clever or just silly. Inviting thousands of avid fans to take part in a secretive trial program and asking them nicely not to talk about it is kind of like leaving a bunch of five year olds alone with a tray of hot cookies they're not allowed to eat.

As others are saying, this is some brilliant marketing tactics from Nintendo; they absolutely know they have people at the edge of their seats for Switch 2, and anything teased at this point rides on that hype.

Yeah right. I give it 1 minute before the leaks burst forward.

The first rule of Playtest is 'Don"t talk about Playtest.'

@Yomerodes This is a good point. @NintendoLife tell us now! What has Nintendo told you??

Laughable they’d say this in a world of blabbermouths.. lol. Even the “switch successor” has been fully leaked at this point and they thought that was their best kept secret 😆

@Kiyata Yeah, I’ve been let in that the playtest is actually for VIRTUAL BOY GAMES ON NSO.

No, that’s not a joke.

Yeah this is not going to work.

INTERNET, SERIOUS BUSINESS!!

I hope no one is too bummed when it's just another 99 BR game with one of their IP. Don't have a lot of hope for Nintendo for this

Yeah... unless there's an actual NDA, somebody is gonna snitch.

I must know what it is, Nintendo can't contain the leaks because leakers gotta leak & the big N has two plumbers that can't even do their jobs properly.

Please let it be GameCube or some kind of music-related thing...

This is more than likely a really dull and pointless addition to the service. But by asking testers not to discuss it, Nintendo has made everyone interested.

I call that genius marketing.

Sweet of Nintendo to bank on goodwill when so many people under actual NDAs are allegedly willing to risk career blacklists for the ever beckoning status of a Credible Source.😅

Someone will leak it the picosecond it becomes available lol.

What could possibly go wrong?

@Yomerodes To be fair, if outlets did that I'd feel confident that Nintendo would blacklist for a good while and I don't think the likes of NL want to alienate the one company that they have to keep in good graces with if they rely on review copies and being invited to events. Moreso, I don't think they'd want to dismiss any colleague who would break that rule

I'm sure everyone will listen and nothing will get leaked, just like everyone listened when they asked them to not leak anything from the Nintendo Switch Sports Online Playtest...
oh wait...

Sadly, I didn’t realise all this was going on.

However I can proudly say that if I was selected I would’ve been in the very small minority of people who would’ve not leaked anything.

I think the ones who had a NSO + Expansion Pass from day one when the service first launched should’ve been contacted with a special link to register 24 hours in advance would’ve been better.

Obviously I would love to k ow what I missed out on but if I were to guess I would say either Pokemon GB trading system or GC Titles

Blimey, makes me think it might actually be really good! Thankfully my son and I both registered so we can discuss it. Does this mean though my wife and daughter can never know and we have to stop them looking at the TV! The pressure.

I'm sure we'll read all about it when NL publish many articles once the leaks start.

@betterthanvegas I would be happy with that. I'm a big fan of Tetris and F-Zero 99.

Are they really that naive or just stupid? Either way, good luck lmao

All requirements indicate a cloud streaming service, especially the wish for wired LAN internet connection. So there are three main questions remaining for me:

1) System(s) and games available at the test: This will tell you X within minutes after the service went live.

2) Technical quality of the stream, i.e. latency, frame consistency and picture compression: This is harder to assess by YouTube videos made by average people. And more professional streamers will not ruin their careers with this stuff.

3) Future systems and games: Will you stream Switch 2 games on your current Switch? This could shift digital Switch 2 games while the hardware is hard to get. Later when you got one, you could proceed your games on your local system.

Things will get leaked immediately and this will get shut down shortly after.

That’s my prediction anyway. Bleak as it may be.

Personally I’d rather just wait for the final finished product, but good luck to those excited to get in!

It's marketing. They are aware that this is going to get leaked.
"Don't you talk about the secret wink wink"

Perhaps they're doing away with peer-to-peer matchmaking?

Alarmo online mode spotted XD

@Max_the_German the file size is too big for it to be related to streaming, all streaming apps are less than half a gigabyte, just look up the cloud games available on Switch

It’s easy.. the “new Switch” will be just a game streaming like Pass. 🙃

So if going by the rumors of this already, it's GC games on Switch Online.

@Max_the_German

That would make a LOT of sense, actually. Stress testing a streaming app/service in a controlled environment with existing Switch games, in preparation for potential plans to stream Switch 2 games to existing Switch hardware.

I'm not in a big hurry to get the Switch successor when it arrives, but my streaming experience on the Xbox One X to play games the hardware can't handle were generally very positive with a wired connection. Games that were either borderline unplayable when installed on the One X so I streamed them instead, or are only able to be installed on Series consoles (with streaming as the only option for playing them on the One X). I still never actually picked up a Series console, but have played several Series games this way. So if Nintendo does something similar with Switch 2 games, I might get a foot into the door and join the new game ecosystem in some capacity sooner rather than later.

If it isn't something they're currently planning, this is a good idea they should look into.

@OorWullie If it is a 99 game I'd guess Zelda or Metroid. Those 2 would mesh well with that idea. And with my point I wanted to say with everything I've seen here like a Switchverse or the like, Nintendo has been very slow with Switch 2 things so maybe let's not get our hopes up here. A 99 game or something like that seems more plausible.

@wolvesboy I wouldn't leak it either, I was raised right and with morals.

Tried to sign up, but said I wasn't applicable. Maybe because I tried to do it whilst I'm in Estonia??

I managed to get into the program and I’ll be one of the few users to not leak it, I have SOME standards you know.

@Bunkerneath That and sign-ups were closed after 15-20 seconds of being open. You basically needed to be there, to use theme park-speak, when the rope dropped to have a chance of successfully applying.

@ZebZed : so, what is it?

lol, yeah, um, good luck with that, Nintendo.

Nintendo must be so naive, in not expecting someone to reveal what this playtest program is.

This is going to be the most underwhelming thing ever, I can already tell lol. You gotta manufacture hype with all this rigmarole? Naaaaah.

@wolvesboy @Arkay @ZebZed
You're the first people they're gonna let into heaven.

They just request. It's not that you can't, based on the verbiage here. I think they know people are gonna talk or else there would be a bigger deal made about this in an explicit NDA

This is quite likely an advertising strategy disguised as a "top secret game testers" program. Nintendo probably not only anticipates detaios to leak, but also actively wants them to. This would hardly be the first time a big tech company pursued this type of publicity stunt.

This reminds me of that scene in Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low where the police bring in a big group of reporters and tell them what’s going on. Then they ask them to publish a false story to help them out and they all agree. The modern audience chuckles at such a quaint idea.

OK NINTENDO🤞😅🤞 I PWOMISS

On the other hand, absolutely brilliant if this is a sly means to get all the free viral marketing possible when all the smug gamers run screaming to every social media channel the moment they get access, thinking they're doing the naughty thing. And nothing draws in viewers and clicks like advertising a supposed forbidden topic.

If they really cared about keeping this tight it would have a legit NDA and wouldn't have had an open invite which is what they've done in the past.

I'm guessing DS is coming to NSO, or maybe 64 DD. DS more likely as that would need more testing for the two-into-one solutions. Can't see GameCube/Wii happening until the Switch's successor, and also because those games are an easier option for premium ports/remasters/remakes.

I fully expect this to be leaked immediately and that this is an actual marketing ploy.