Is Nintendo Ready to Tackle Online?

Is the company prepared to handle a massive online operation successfully?

[Tetsujin]

The idea of using a smartphone to chat with people is definitely something I question. As a company, you have to assume not everyone has a smartphone (I do know people who refuse to purchase one for personal reasons, others are having a hard time affording a decent one); second, unless there's a "use me" feature for the app no one will use it; third, it's not uncommon for people to already use a 3rd party app for communication in case a game/service goes down.

The online side, outside Mario Kart, I honestly don't care to play online much on a Nintendo console. Paying $ to maybe play a couple of tracks online to me isn't worth the investment. Even if they release something like a Pokemon MMO, I'd still be on the fence about it, simply because I wouldn't get my moneys worth out of it. Even if they provide "demos" per month for older games I still don't see the benefit, especially since I have a device to play older games for free. Nintendo has a lot of convincing to accomplish before a lot of gamers decide to buy one. This "the pre-orders are sold out" I'm not buying into because it's the same usual BS - Scalpers, die hards, and optimistic fans who are buying them up first.

I'm not going on the "doom and gloom" side, just listing concerns as an avid gamer.

[gangsta_red]

I have to think that the decision to use a smart phone to chat was Nintendo's way of protecting children and staying family friendly. I guess they figured only late teens and adults have smartphones.

Even though I have seen pre teens with them also.

[maybelovehate]

lol, no. I mean even if it were true it would still be hilarious. You put parental controls in, you don't force them to use a phone lol

[InTheLab]

Protecting children......

My kids play online and parental controls lock out all games about E10 and they are only connected to people we actually know. They are only allowed online when I allow them online via parental locks.

This is Nintendo being lazy and or greedy

[rocketpanda]

Which would be a silly assumption on Nintendos part if that's the reason. I used to teach elementary and junior high kids in Japan and in junior high, students ranging from 11 - 14, 90% would have a smartphones. Surely it would be easier to create a family account on a system with parents settings than an app.

I just think Nintendo primarily doesn't care about certain online functionality. They value their hardware and software over anything else. Their presentation clearly showed it. They just don't get what online gaming is for sometime now. The only thing they adopted is paying for online.

[Knushwood Butt]

Have Nintendo said these apps are free downloads?

[Moonman]

That Parental Control app for Switch video with Bowser they released was pretty impressive if every kids nightmare. Gives me hope Switch online is advanced.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[Relientk77]

No, but they're gonna try

[dead_pixels]

I'd say online already tackled Nintendo.

[FallenAngel1984]

And it was super effective

[Big_Game_Hunters]

Considering its not even Nintendo handling their online but DeNa i think it should be fine from a technical point. HOWEVER the methods seem questionable.

[LOL_WUT]

Agreed. That's why I expect them to do the right thing and price the online subscription accordingly ;)

[Moonman]

I just wish they would go ahead and explain it to calm nerves or excite them even more. Mario Kart is the game I play the most online. I'm probably going to end up buying Deluxe cause it's krack but c'mon Nintendo, let it be just as good if not miles better than Wii U.

[FallenAngel1984]

Nintendo hasn't been ready to tackle online since the start of the 21st century

[Moonman]

To be honest, DS was not bad online lol. It had Wi Fi which was before many devices. My first online gaming outside PC. But it's 2017. I just hope they get this right. The "Switch community" has all year to blast if it's worth paying for by this fall. I will do my part in helping them because I won't pay if it's not worth it.

[FallenAngel1984]

You saying Friend Codes for every game wasn't that bad? Lmao

[Moonman]

Not at THAT time but it's ridiculous since 2006.

[FallenAngel1984]

It was that bad at the time

People only gave it a pass cuz it was free, which also explains why people tolerated most of Nintendo's online efforts for the past decade

[originaljohn]

Friends codes are gone now, so that's evidence that they're listening and improving their online features.

[FallenAngel1984]

The fact that you need to use a phone app just to voice chat and set up lobbies is proof Nintendo ignores much of the gaming community in order to be seen as being "different"

[Summons75]

It's going to be interesting to see if they improved their online and made it worth the price they are asking in the fall but this first step is pretty wobbly. The best thing at this point is to do a direct about the online NOW instead of E3 where I assume they would talk about the pricing in the fall.

[XXanderXX]

Hope so cause my switch will be ready to go

[blackblades]

No, they should of started long time ago same for other things. Then they could of been improved over the years. Sony has the phone app which is nice but nintendo they really haven't mess with online like that they should of added it later.

[originaljohn]

DeNA are building the online infrastructure for Nintendo Switch, they've been building online networks for years in the mobile space. It's disappointing we don't have more information about the online services but I'm expecting a massive overall from previous online services. What's also interesting is they're adding online play to NES & SNES games possibly to stress test the network as much as possible to gauge max load etc.