Nintendo has announced the details of its upcoming online service, slated to come to the Nintendo Switch this September. While not as robust as offerings from Sony and Microsoft, it also comes in at a much lower price of just $19.99 per year. So what will subscribers to Nintendo’s online services receive?
Online Play
For games that require Nintendo Switch Online, this service will allow for online competitive or cooperative play for titles like Splatoon 2, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and more. Future games like Smash Bros will inevitably require this service to play them online with friends or random gamers.
Switch online app
This app is designed to offer enhanced features for compatible games, like accessing your stats, interacting with the game while away from your Switch and more. It also comes with the “Online Lounge”, which connects you to your friends to coordinate invites and other social activities.
Nintendo Entertainment System
Subscribers will gain access to a small library of NES games, with added online play included with your subscription. The service will be launching with 20 titles, with the following games announced so far:
- Soccer
- Tennis
- Donkey Kong
- Mario Bros.
- Super Mario Bros.
- Balloon Fight
- Ice Climber
- Dr. Mario
- The Legend of Zelda
- Super Mario Bros. 3
Cloud saves
Save your games to the cloud, which protects you in the event that your Switch console is lost, stolen or broken.
Special Offers
Subscribers will also gain access to special offers and discounts. No information is available yet, but I suspect it will likely be offers like special sales and free DLC.
In addition to the $19.99 individual subscription, a family option is also available for $34.99 which lets up to 8 people share the same subscription.
My thoughts
While I was hoping for more from this service, at only $20 a year I think it delivers a basic online service. While the inclusion of NES games is great, we’ve already seen these games bundled into lots of stores and re-releases many times. SNES/N64 and especially Gamecube games would have been much more exciting compared to getting Super Mario Bros. and Tennis again.
At this point Nintendo still has more to reveal about the free games, the cloud saves and the rest of the service, so we’ll need to get closer to September before we can make a final judgement on this service. Who knows, maybe Nintendo is testing the waters since they’ve never done a service like PSN or Xbox Live, so they’re getting their toes wet before expanding it to a more robust service.
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Images: Nintendo