Switch Online's Expansion Pack Promises "Excitement" In 2025

NSO Expansion Pack Pro DX, $99.99, includes 5 GCN games before it ends when the Switch 2 comes out.

Maybe some GameCube releases??

I'll believe it when I see it... I'm sorry but this service and the eShop have been incredibly disappointing for quite a while now. I am sure I am far from being the only one who feels this way.

Being in a family group where I don't have to pay nearly as much individually, I'd say the service has been mostly worth it for me so far, though I can't say I'm a big fan of locking things behind different levels of paywalls regardless. Still, I'm looking forward to see what they're cooking up. I can't really imagine it really being that big honestly.

I'm subscribed to online expansion, but with family plan so it's way cheaper compared to even the original $20 subs.

I would be very happy if it was just GC Wind Waker.

I’ve been satisfied with the expansion, played a good amount of GBA games. But man, where those Sega Genesis games at?

Nintendo: Expansion pack for Alarmo!
Me:

@Joeynator3000 This is going to sound kind of dumb if it turns out the service will continue expanding on the Switch 2 rather than start from scratch.

Wow they’re going to have to come with something at least as good as PS+ if they’re going to hype it like this.

@BrazillianCara This is Nintendo we're talking about....they start over every single time...it's kinda annoying, they'll do the same here and we will only get NES and SNES at the start once again.

Excite Bike 64 DLC hype!

To answer your question, I tried the expansion pack and it sucks. N64 games aren't great anymore and are often problematic without the original controller. I don't care about Sega and DLC is only "free" as long as you permanently hold a subscription.

The biggest insult was sliding GBA games, which are commensurate to SNES games, into that tier, which saw me rage-cancel my renewal altogether.

I boycotted the online for almost 2 years, returning to the basic pack only for F-Zero 99. That subscription is already set not to renew.

I can't imagine Nintendo offering anything worthwhile to get the expansion pack again.

PS: Please, no one start the argument it's only $50 a year or whatever. Not interested. It's a tired argument and the issue here is one of principle.

@Joeynator3000 Honestly, even if it turns out to be the case, saying so with such certainty based simply on an assumption rubs me the wrong way.

I think that the NSO+Expansion Pack family plan is a total value for me. We split it 8 ways so it's only $10 a year and it's pretty much a means of me trying out a lot of legendary games I've never touched, legally and pretty cost effective as well, to help me decide if I want to pick em up physically.

Without it I'd never have tried earthbound, the Donkey Kong Country games, gun star heroes, Beyond Oasis, Star Fox on SNES, Pilot Wings, Demons Crest, Shinobi, Contra, and thats all just in SNES and Genesis!

I also am not in love with N64 and already have the Zelda games on GameCube and 3DS so this is just a nice addition for me to try stuff out.

I hated NSO at first but once I got the family plan and reframed my mindset I've loved it, I wouldn't want to go back to buying the classics every console generation again.

Don't get me wrong if they'd offer it, I'm faithful to a fault and would totally buy Majora's Mask and Super Metroid and the like, and I would love more megamans and castvanias but with what we have I'm pretty pleased.

I'm excited for whatever they are planning to add, I'm not sure they are teasing anything crazy but I'm still looking forward to it.

Please bring back Virtual Console, I want to give you money and buy all the games: MUSHA, Crusader of Centy, EarthBound Beginnings, Demon's Crest, Breath of Fire II, etc., please don't let these stay as rental. I need these in my life.

The $50 has been more than worth it for me, but I was a late 90’s/early 2000’s kid with older siblings… so I have A LOT of nostalgia for the N64 and GBA. The extra $30 has been more than worth it for me, but I can see it being pretty steep still for others that didn’t grow up in a similar scenario.

I’ve also used the free access to the Booster Course Pass quite a lot. Wiggler is my main now and I play the new tracks in time trials quite a lot.

All that said, I’m hoping we get some more big games next year. There are still some heavy hitters for N64 missing, like Smash Bros, DK64, Conker, Banjo Tooie, Diddy Kong Racing, among others. And the GBA library has a lot more, with the obvious omissions being the Pokemon titles.

GameCube and DS (if the new system supports dual-screen somehow) would be awesome too, but I’d imagine that would create yet another price tier lol

I'm betting (desperately hoping) on a gamepass sort of thing where they will let us have some indies or older switch games for free if subscribed to the expansion pack

Yeah I worth the extra money get to play games I never owned the consoles and this day and age the games are expensive physically

I'll say the same thing I always say when this subject comes up.

Diddy..........Kong......... Racing........ Please!!!!!

At this point, Nintendo needs to boost the release cadence and offer something unique to make NSO still worth it for me.

I was all about the NSO and Expansion Pass, even for the games I own but couldn’t play portably on modern hardware. But between the emulation issues, Nintendo refusing to put big games on NSO, and lack of features, I turned towards emulation on Steamdeck. I got sick of waiting for games like Diddy Kong Racing and decided to just play them now. There I can have retro achievements, better emulation and resolution boosts, mods to upgrade the textures, and a richer feature set anyway.

Now if Nintendo could add something unique and/or easier to use, like online multiplayer for games like Mario Kart 64, that would be fascinating.

But I don’t know if I’m eager to keep paying money to rent a collection that only updates a few times a year — often with games people aren’t clamoring for — and doesn’t bring anything new or unique to the table.

I want that ubiquitous Nintendo innovation to be applied to NSO.

I did think the Expansion Pack had value when my dad got the sub for everyone, but I I only felt that way only because I never played a lot of the retro games on there, and I was pretty easy to please with the stuff on there, though I will admit I only wanted it for Banjo-Kazooie.

I think the main issue for the service at the time for me was how slow they were with adding games and the releases sometimes being inconsistent, and some of the legacy game services on there are still missing obvious choices. To this day I’m still waiting for Diddy Kong Racing since they haven’t released that in any modern form and it being so hard to play on the emulator I have. They do appear to have a more consistent schedule for the Game Boy Advance games and that’s good, and they did have a somewhat consistent schedule going for the N64 games for a bit, but they went back to inconsistent releases for that one, and I don’t even remember the last time they updated the Sega Genesis library.

Although I don’t have the service anymore, I am hoping that this new update they are teasing for next year does have some significance or is a SUPER big update that improves the service a lot. Inconsistent release schedules for the games was my biggest issue with the Expansion Pack service when I used to play it.

I honestly really liked NSO mainly because I got to play game I probably never would play mainly because I wasn’t around during the 80’s and 90’s. Earthbound is honestly a really great game
And I would love to see them add more games to the service and add a feature to allow people to buy the games so they can play them even if their subscription expires. Also add GCN games please.

"Excitement" would be better online infrastructure, rollback netcode for the games that could support it, and the higher tier not being at a ripoff price point.

Super Mario Kart online , remastered in the same way as F-Zero 99 but without the 99 part. That would be superb.

@Joeynator3000 @BrazillianCara
Eh, I get both of you but I'm siding with Joey on this one.

I remember the days of 120 dollar n64 games and God knows how much for a controller that would self destruct (N64.)

And if you've been here since the Wii days you won't be optimistic after being drip fed the same F-ing games for more than a decade...some of which we're still waiting on to come back btw! 😂

But I'm also hopefully they don't want us all to cut the service. And they've added waayy higher quality and quantity of games this cycle, and porting NSO seems easier too.

So fingers crossed, but we definitely have a reason to eye this company suspiciously from the corner of our eyes!

Woooooow, Nintendo must REALLY be feeling confident about this! Kit and Krysta have talked multiple times about how at Nintendo, words like "excitement" and "surprise" were considered dirty words because they didn't want to set unreasonable expectations among the fans. This has really gotten me floored even more than the GameCube controller packaging data and other recent developments did already. Please just announce this soon, because you're literally killing me right now!

People can say what they want about NSO, but I think it's a great value, whether you're in the basic or the Expansion Pass tier. People have scoffed that Nintendo is probably going to announce a third tier at a higher price point like $100/year or something, but for GameCube games, I would have zero problem paying for that.

The best case scenario would be Gamecube, Dreamcast/Saturn added to the service on the Switch successor.

And perhaps a "free game per month" deal like Sony does, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I have zero interest in gaming rental service.
I only subscribed Basic NSO $20 just for Online play feature, but I haven't renewed my Basic NSO subscription since last year due to not really into online play at the moment.

I would love to see Gamecube games but obviously Nintendo can make much more money releasing them again with better graphics.

More free DLC added for Nintendo Switch games would be nice.

My money's on a trophy system but with stickers, and this app is like a sticker album where you see which ones you've collected for each game. Well, that's what I'm hoping it is anyway.

Worst case scenario, it's some crap streaming app.

Well there's definitely room for improvement. One of my pet peeves is that they are remastering GBA games, but not releasing the originals on NSO. Games like Mario VS Donkey Kong and the Advance Wars games for instance.

Personally, I'd love if they added more DLC to the subscription. I could do with the DLC for Fire Emblem Engage, for instance.

Trophies would be great too, giving people a different way to play the games. I've been getting into Retro Achievements, but they only work with emulation. And since it's based on what the community creates some achievement sets are horribly difficult to pull off for casual players, which sucks out some of the fun of it for me.

There's so many things they could do to increase the value for money. GameCube games on NSO would be my biggest wish.

Maybe they will be adding Virtual Boy, DS and 64DD titles.

Though my monies on Gamecube with that test yoke and the leak about them doing something
with Gamecube controllers.

Be interested to see if can work out how to do DS games with one screen. Maybe a way to link to switchs together with a huge joycon.

I have the basic NSO sub, and just for the cloud save data I consider it worth it.
I have played a bunch of old NES and SNES games and loved having that option. And I'm not done yet.

Regarding the Expansion tier, I feel like the games on there have aged badly, and would require at least a filter or some sort of light/automatic remastering to catch my interest. But even then, I wouldn't have the time to play them, with all the new games sitting in my backlog, and the games I've already played on Switch and really want to play through at least one more time.

I'm actually very curious about what this tease could bring (like others mentioned, seems that Nintendo are pretty confident this will be very worth it considering the wording they're using this time), but pretty sure I'm not the target audience.
Unlocking all these games from the sub, would actually give me more confidence to find the time to play them.

It's gonna be Zelda: 99 Sword Adventures.

It better either be Gamecube or killing son Goku or else, no deal!

I had the expansion pass for one year, played a bit of Pilotwings 64 and Minish Cap, but after that I found a lot of the games to have aged badly beyond stuff that had already been re-released. I just couldn’t justify paying for it again.

I still like the NSO, it's relatively cheap and I play the retro games a lot more than I was anything I had acces to when I subscribed to PS Plus, which I dropped when Sony increased the price. Be good if there was an option to buy individual games. Be interested to see what this is.

Not a massive fan of NSO but I do like the updated controllers, looking forward to new GCN controllers🤞

@HalBailman I would love the N64 games if they could make them playable in handheld. There are no easy button mapping options and it is infuriating.

I hope they announce the return of virtual console.

@Joeynator3000 an returns in the 3rd year of Switch 2 for more money

Switch 2 is actually a cloud streaming service to your OG Switch Jokes aside, very curious what their test this month is and the apparent recommendation you should use TV mode and ethernet - guessing this test is related to 2025 features

Just remove those disgusting grey gradient borders and allow simple black bars. And some kind of control customisation. I’ll literally pay double for those two incredibly basic features lol. But seeing as Nintendo can’t do that, I’ll keep my Steam Deck for all emulation needs 😂

I think they're following in the footsteps of Nintendo world championship NES edition and adding bite-size challenges to various games

Nintendo won't do achievements but they'll do "get the mushroom in under five seconds" etc

@Serpenterror I hate that they took away the virtual console. So much potential for improvement was lost. Now its let us drip feed you 2 or 3 games when we feel like it. Honestly this subscription craze is starting to wear on me more on more. Can't wait for next gen when every game is rental only. I'm being hyperbolic here but it feels like that's where we are headed.

@NintendoLife you missed out Sega Mega Drive games !

I can hardly contain my disinterest.

I wouldn’t mind if the gaps between releases were a bit longer, because it’s hard for me to keep up with this pace and therefor the games are starting to pile up.

I realize I’m a bit old fashioned in that regard, because I like to give every title a chance and try to finish it completely before moving on.

I’m still torn over whether this is GameCube NSO, some new feature that greatly improves online play, or even both. I’m definitely not expecting a Miiverse successor. It’s reasonable that this should be announced soon if it’s just NSO related and not new console related, for now.

If Nintendo Switch Online is set to continue onto the next console, surely that means that the 'Switch 2' will definitely have the word Switch in its name? I can't see them rebranding NSO after this announcement.

Oooo excitement! So maybe more than 3-4 games every quarter then?
Besides the obvious inclusion of GC games, I would really like to see the back catlaogue fill up some more. Also, some UI improvements to get rid, or alter the borders and to see the back of the stupid user icon in the top left hand corner.

Summon Night Swordcraft Story series confirmed, with third game localized at long last.🍻

I really hope it's GameCube, and there's certainly evidence to back it up, but if it's not I still hope it's a cool new feature!

It will bring zero excitement for me as I own all the best games from their past physically and don't want to pay them yearly for a temporary chance to play them lol

I gave up on NSO a long time ago. I've gone rogue and ha e been buying the physical games I want to play instead.

Analogue Pocket has been fantastic this past year and I now have a collection of 150 games across Gameboy, Color, Advance, Game Gear, Atari Lynx, Turbografx and Neo Geo Pocket. Whilst there are a few factors that have led me down this path, one of them is certainly how poor NSO has been.

One decision from Nintendo that has really irked me is the fact that whilst we still await a new Donkey Kong game, after coming up to ELEVEN years, they still haven't given us DK64 on NSO. I've now bought a physical copy of it and I am ready to preorder the Analogue 3D (just as soon as they announce it... whenever that may be...)

The Switch era will rightly be remembered as a period of huge success for Nintendo, but it is no exaggeration to say that it is also a period where they have massively dropped the ball in regards to Retro gaming.

I know for a fact I am not alone in my spending habits with retro. So much money Nintendo have left on the table (and, let's be honest, the stubborn 3rd party fools that would rather make nothing than something from their decades old games).

I hope it’s GameCube, because F-Zero GX would be sweet!

I Would Like To See Diddy Kong Racing,
Saturn/Dreamcast And Gamecube Games Please.

Nintendo: "What excitement will the next year bring for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack members? Stay tuned to find out!"

Presumably, it'll be more stability. We could always use more of that 'round these parts.

"The next year" doesn't necessarily mean talking specifically about 2025. As they're saying in context of Expansion Pack turning 3 years old, it may very well be about year 4 (October 25th 2024 - October 24th 2025).

I'll be very disappointed if it's just cloud streaming 😂 my broadband is poor

They will come up with a big surprise for everyone, a nice price increase.

Gamecube+Dreamcast would be my dream.

@BrazillianCara Parceiro, unfortunately many people think this way: "Sony's exclusives drop in price over time, Nintendo should do the same" or "Nintendo did this two generations ago, of course they'll do the same again"
That's because they're not actually thinking it through. To them, it's as of context doesn't matter, which is why they extrapolate such things and are so sure about.
Me incomoda pra caramba tbm.

Gamecube, 3DS and Wii games incoming

I have liked the overall NSO project so far. I think the effort they've put into adding more Japan-only games to the NA service is great. I also like that they've included more obscure titles, and not just the A-listers.

In terms of what I'd hope to see for improvements would be additional historical information on the titles (not just the synopsis), and the ability to buy titles outright. I'd also like to see a deeper dive into more obscure consoles, but I can see why that wouldn't be possible.

Obviously Gamecube would be very welcome. No idea how Wiigames would translate to it all, maybe with a separately available Wii Remote and Sensorbar? And yeah, MORE SEGA STUFF please!

I'm perfectly fine with Mega Drive, but would gladly take Dreamcast/Saturn too!

i mean for me the most "exciting" thing would be the ability to actually buy and keep the legacy games they offer though i can say with as close to 100% certainty its not going to be that.

Hopefully they add a way to purchase individual titles for non subscribers or for those who only want basic online play to purchase those from the expansion as well.

The trial program, the controller rumors, and now this? Maybe we really are finally getting the GameCube library on Switch. If they give me a way to play Melee, Double Dash, and Wave Race Blue Storm on modern hardware, they might actually get me to pay for the expansion pack.

In addition to new console games added, I hope the excitement means Mother 3, Pokemon Gen 1-3, ability to purchase games and 64DD games.

Excitebike 99

I'm still impressed how Nintendo managed to make eShop flat simple UI laggy in XXI century.

I'm lucky to just play the games in my current order & backlog, I don't really have the time to play other games. So the basic Tier is more than enough for me.

That being said, I'm hype as anything for GC on NSO! My favorite console library (after the Switch). I never had a GC device growing up but my friends did and I eventually got a Wii.

@RasandeRose Never even thought of it, but you're right; now that Nintendo has opened the box with Atari, it's possible they could follow up with Dreamcast!

@Pillowpants I don't think they would avoid releasing the originals on NSO. I mean both Link's Awakening DX and Super Punch-Out had port/remake on Switch yet the originals are on NSO. Same for Wild Guns, Fighter's History, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. My guess is they choose not to offer those titles yet as to not take away the thunder from the port/remake.

I've said this many times and I'll say it again: fans love unique retro games on NSO, like F-Zero 99, Mario 99, etc., and gamers also talk about how fun de-makes would be! So Nintendo should branch out and make retro de-makes of their Switch lineup on NSO!

• Fire Emblem Three Houses de-make for GBA NSO
• Xenoblade de-make for SNES (resembling Chrono Trigger)
• BOTW de-make for SNES (the prototype footage!)
• Pokemon Sword/Shield de-make for GBA
• Animal Crossing New Horizons de-make for N64
• Metroid Dread de-make for GBA/SNES/etc
• Mario Wonder de-make for SNES

And the list goes on and on! The possibilities are endless, and de-makes would add so much unique value to NSO.

I'm excited. But I'm also only paying $10 a year, so it doesn't take much lol

@BrazillianCara oh you mean how Nintendo continued the Virtual Console? Oh... Wait... 🤣

The biggest feature I actually use with NSO has to be the cloud saves, I take my Oled on the go and leave my base switch in the dock.

But I'm still subbed to the expansion pack just in case I ever want to play an F-Zero game and for the Mario Kart DLC as well, and now I'm part of the playtest in a few days so I've got that perk as well.

Honestly I'm thinking they might let people pick a first party Nintendo game to keep for free if you sub to the expansion pack, with a list of options like Mario U Deluxe, DK Tropical Freeze, Arms, maybe Astral Chain? Some of the earlier games that are still good but have "better" alternatives or sequels at this point.

@Ulysses That's nice kinda what Capcom did with Street Fighter Alpha 1 and Resident Evil 1 back in the day. They did demake the first SFA1 and RE1 for GBC though they never really officially release RE1 but SFA1 was fantastic.

@acmiguens I can understand mistrusting Nintendo to not repeat certain mistakes to a certain extent, but people have no reason to sound so smug about it.

Online + of course, it’s not enough that I’m paying for a family plan already…. I’m not giving more money for rentals, they will take all those games away at some point

Its all fun and games right up until they pull the plug on the servers. Ask the PS Vita, Gamecube, and 3DS crowd about that.

Physical media is the ONLY way to actually own games and not just rent them.

This is a REALLY interesting development. Based on them doing HD remakes of so many Gamecube games the last few years (TP, TTYD, Pikmin 1/2, WW) I would have assumed they would keep milking the HD remake cow. Unless they want to use a Gamecube emulator for some of their more niche GC titles like Battalion Wars and 1080 Avalanche? not a bad idea. The Gamecube had enough of those for NSO to add several years to their content roadmap.

Pretty interested to see what this ends up being. It might even get me to upgrade my online subscription to the Expansion Pack. We'll see.

Sorry, but this seems like the most benign message to be getting excited over. I want more fun stuff just as much as anyone else, I'd wager, but they could literally just be trying to keep people engaged and subscribed with a throwaway message like, "stay tuned." If nothing else, that could just mean, "We have more games we'll continue to release on the service, so please look forward to them."

That being said, I hope it is teasing new additions to the platform.
I also just thought: what if the playtest they're running is for matchmaking on NSO?? That would be awesome!

can't wait for more crappy NES games I will never touch

I just want to see more games I actually want on the service. I realise this is a specific request, but I feel like why have we got three F-Zero GBA games when we still don't have GBA Mario Golf and Tennis? Yes I know people love F-Zero, but do we really need three of them, basically the same, instead of a more diverse range of games?

@CupidStunt Yeah at the very least they should let us map controls in the main app menu. I know you can do it on the Switch menu itself, but that doesn't work if using the Hori split pad, only the joycons.

Is there any hope of a purchase option being added? I really want to have permanent access to some of the retro games.

The exclusive opportunity to buy a £1,000 clock that physically kicks you out of the door on your way to school/work.

What I really want to see is Phantasy Star Online episodes 1 + 2 for GC NSO. I would even pay a separate sub for PSO Online

@Don It's cheaper and easier to buy them physically.

can't wait for more crappy NES games I will never touch

I make it a commitment to play every game at least ten minutes. Even the crappy NES games.

It's cheaper and easier to buy them physically.

It’s really not. Checking out the costs of buying the original cartridge of some games is horrifying now how expensive they are. Paying for NSO and buying collections really is the way to go. Works out cheaper.

I didnt buy any online subsribe execpt the Free Trial 7 day multiple times

@Dazman
Not all of them. Earthbound for example on the virtual console was much cheaper than the cartridge that was sold second hand. Although it’s great to have access to a huge library of retro games on the subscription but when the service ends at some point the games will be taken off.

Holographic NSO that interacts with you like an AI. Think Cortana in Halo

If you've payed for expansion pack for at least a year, you'll be allowed to purchace titles that you have also had on the Wii shop, for only 19.99$ per title. And you'll be able to own it until Switch 2 comes, and then 6 months.
Now, that's what we call excitement!

Let's get some 64DD content!

The family plan is super worth it if you split it with a few friends. Honestly, as someone who owns the original hardware, I still find NSO to be the more convenient option. No issues with the service.

@Pastellioli June 2023 was the last Genesis update. Pretty lame.

So... The expansion pack carries over to the next Switch and will feature Gamecube games. That's exciting enough.

I am not expecting Gamecube or Wii games before Switch 2, because NSO's games are installed on Switch, but CD/DVD games like Gamecube's ones require much more memory to be stocked.

I heard they are testing gamecube games to be added next year