Gamers Deserve To Be Upset Over Nintendo Switch Online

The Nintendo Switch Online service launched two days ago, but you don’t have to look at Nintendo’s official Twitter account to see how ill received the service has been. No, the mixed to negative reception really started picking up steam with the September 13th Nintendo Direct.

[Neonridr]

I was actually pleased when I looked at some of the games in the NES library. Double Dragon, Gradius, Ghost n' Goblins, River City Ransom, Ice Climbers... not to mention Ice Hockey (one of my favs as a kid). Many good memories from those games. Sure it's not 1000 to start, and there are no other systems yet, but give it time.

[Sm00thNinja]

They had a year. How long does give it time actually mean? Will we ever get SNES or N64 titles? Ashame this is the state of online Nintendo is content with launching.

[Neonridr]

and that's your opinion, nobody says you are wrong. Give it time means give it at least a day post launch. I didn't know we expected the entire VC to be avaialble on day one.

[Sm00thNinja]

It's just hard for me to believe anyone is content with the launch of Nintendo Online. Sure it will get better, but a year delay and THIS is what we got? You should expect more from Nintendo, but I'll respect your opinion. Some of the NES titles I'm excited about as well hopefully we receive SNES titles in the future

[Azurite]

Probably licensing issues as usual, they can't just add any game they want.

[Mithan]

I am sure they will dump a lot of games quickly. It is a gold mine.

[Uken12]

Well if Wii and Wii U are any indicators, then it will probably trickle out games slowly. Which is really annoying. It should have the complete VC library of Wii and Wii U, even 3DS. Honestly with is wrong with them. It's free money.

It's stupid and should have a more robust library. Especially since 2018 has been terrible so far for the Switch. Indie games are ok but no actual titles worth buying. They could have done well with a decent VC library or at least the same as Wii U and we can actually transfer our account purchases, because Wii U is useless now. But nope, trash internet service.

I am a Nintendo fan, but this is pretty awful. Og XboxLive was waaaay better. 17 years ago.... there isn't really an excuse.
VC has technically been out since 2006 and honestly all NES, SNES, N64 titles should have been released by now. I get licensing issues but really. Nintendo doesn't want free money I guess.

[zombiewombie]

Give it time isnt a valid excuse especially when they delayed it by a whole year in order to "improve" it.

[conanlifts]

It's not for me, but the outrage is interesting. The nes classic launched for $60 and was in huge demand. This launches for $19.99 per year and will have games added each month, plus new features, and somehow it is bad. Not really sure of the logic there.

[Sm00thNinja]

Alone. Sure fine it's a great deal but in comparison tothe other offerings out there it's severely lacking. You have to acknowledge that fact. Or be blind to it which most people are going with and using the price point excuse

[Neonridr]

@Sm00thNinja - no it's not as good as PSN or XBL. But this is Nintendo's first attempt at a subscription model. How long did it take Sony to catch up to MS in terms of quality and what they offered?

Rome wasn't built in a day, much to the surprise of many people here. Is it perfect? No, far from it. Will it get better? I have to believe so.

[Sm00thNinja]

@Neondir OG PS NETWORK launch day NOVEMBER 2006 LAUNCHED WITH MORE FEATURES THOUGH. That's what people are upset about. Who cares if it isn't Xbox Live or PSN.

[PhoenixUp]

It got delayed and it’s still underwhelming

[rainslacker]

I'm not really upset about it, because I never consider Nintendo for online gaming.

Sucks you need it to play online I guess, but I'll live if I don't subscribe to it.

I consider it a subpar service not worth subscribing to, so I simply don't subscribe to it.

[conanlifts]

I would never game online with my switch primarily due to their chat feature. It's the most ridiculous thing in gaming.

[Neonridr]

man.. so many great MP games though. MK8, Arms, Splatoon 2, Smash? I mean that's your choice.. but you are limiting your experiences heavily by missing out on some of those games.

[Uken12]

@Conanlifts

I agree with you to a point. But you don't really need Voice Chat for games like Smash or Mario Kart. Unless you want to hear racial slurs from kids.

Other games like Fortnite and FPS games suffer severely because of the stupid voice chat mess.

[rainslacker]

@Neon

I remember when Nintendo was all about delivering the experience to everyone, forgoing things like trophies because they thought it distracted from the game.

So, it's actually Nintendo limiting our experiences unless we want to pay for their online service.

And before someone mentions it, yes, MS and Sony do the same thing.

I subscribe to PS+ for the free games and I had a couple years built up when they made it a MP paywall. I was close to cancelling the sub when they weren't offering very compelling games for a long while. Since they started offering compelling games again, I find it kind of worth it, since I ended up or will end up playing a lot of the games they are offering now. GWG would be the same way for the most part, but for this gen, I haven't really felt like I've lost anything I couldn't get if I wanted it so I'm not fussed about it. Nintendo's service doesn't offer compelling content like that, so even though it's cheap, I still don't care to spend money on it.

[blawren4]

I find it surprisingly OK. The app isn't that cumbersome to use. Some sort of invite system would be nice though.

[SuperSonic91]

At least this gaming site has the balls to critique Nintendo.
That is kick ass not kiss ass.

Keep on Chooglin'

[RizBiz]

I had very low expectations and the service turned out to be even worse than that. $20/year to play a tiny selection of games I can play on my RetroPie, and cloud saves which get instantly deleted the moment you stop paying. Ridiculous and embarrassing.

[conanlifts]

Wait the cloud saves get deleted if you stop paying? If so that is the second most ridiculous thing in gaming after voice chat on the switch.

[ninsigma]

No not instantly deleted but they aren't gaurunteed to be preserved if you're not paying.

[conanlifts]

@ninsigma. Hopefully it is just something in the terms and conditions. Sony have a similarly random thing from memory where they can delete your account if inactive for 2 years. Don't think they act on it though.

[ninsigma]

Yeah it'll probably be unlikely and you'd be super unlucky for it to happen.

[Neonridr]

Sony gives you 6 months. Nintendo didn't specify an exact date, so people around here like to assume that means they will delete them the moment you stop paying. Par for the course.

[blawren4]

I believe the uproar about this detail is worse. Nintendo is vague on the time before deletion, nothing has been confirmed. A feature you pay for stops working if you stop paying. Seems reasonable to me. The cloud is just backup of the local save. if you re up your sub service, you can backup again to the cloud. zero issues. If someone breaks their switch while lapsed on the sub service, that's just rotten luck.

The voice chat on app is not that bad or cumbersome. Just takes some getting used to. I actually like it.

[Neonridr]

they don't get instantly deleted. They say they can't guarantee them beyond a certain date. Jesus, let's just make up information and call it facts ok?

[davand114]

Sony does the same thing don't they? I think after six months they delete your cloud saved if you don't subscribe again.

[LgbtWarrior]

Its 20 bucks. Shut up.

[TKCMuzzer]

Lol.........oh your serious. So it's ok to accept mediocrity if something is cheap? That's your Christmas card from Nintendo sorted.

[LgbtWarrior]

Whiny complaining is all I here. Y'all spend more than that in mountain dew, weed and cigarettes. Ugh.

[JEECE]

Yeah. Not getting why people were expecting PSN/Xbox Live level functionality for less than half the price from the game company least associated with online play.

[cooperdnizzle]

They are the ones who made the service thus they are trying to associate themselves with online play, and they did a piss poor job. 20 bucks is still 20 bucks, they need to earn that 20 just like everybody has to.

[ninsigma]

I think people are just unhappy with the state of the service and what it offers and price doesn't come into it. I imagine people would be happy to pay more money for a service that's more akin to psn and xbl because those are the kind of online services they want and 20 dollars is irrelevant when doesn't offer what they expect as standard.

[Neonridr]

was PSN as good as XBL when it launched? Or did it grow and evolve?

[ninsigma]

It wasn't drastically behind xbl is far as I'm aware but come one this isn't even close here. You're talking about the difference between two services when such a thing hadn't properly existed on consoles before. Nintendo has two fully established networks to draw information from to work out what their competitors did right, what they did wrong and what is gelling with gamers positively and they failed.

[Neonridr]

@ninsigma - yep, Nintendo has a lot of catching up to do.

[Benjaminkno]

Yea at around a $1.50 a month, everyone should boycott such outrageousness

[badz149]

Nintendo is not even trying to make a proper baseline funtioning online service! no native voice chat and messaging in 2018? WTF?

what they are really trying very hard to do with their service is not to at least match PS+ or XBL Gold basic features but finding ways to enslave you to this "just $20" service by allowing only cloud backup of your saves that you need to pay for and erase it once your subscription lapse and not even every game gets cloud support too?! they are also mandating online connection for non-primary console and you can't play the item you bought simultaneously and worst of all, forcing you to voice chat and send messages through phone app!

but hey...you get old as fvck games that now can be played online woohoo! /s

they restrict cloud saves for certain games to prevent cheating but in less than a day, their "just $20" service is already hacked! how can you even trust them to secure your data and prevent hackers and cheaters from joining the online sessions?

hey...it's just $20, right? /s

[King_Noctis]

“their "just $20" service is already hacked!“

Do you even know what have exactly been hacked?

[badz149]

the NES games, right? it's only possible with hacked Switch but that means, hacked Switch can go online! people are able to add their own ROMs and play online with it on Nintendo's PAID service! it's Nintendo's fault for cutting corners by using a custom NES emulator so many people are already very familiar with.

[Neonridr]

someone was able to put up another rom to play. Hacked is hardly the term I would use to describe that.

Even the person who did that highly suggests against doing it. Being online, Nintendo can easily see that you modified something = ban. Too risky.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

I'm not, I have a Switch, do not care about their online crap. I play multiplayer on PC only, Switch for Nintendo exclusives and a some other games I like.

[Elda]

LOL!

[tigertron]

I really can't understand how Nintendo's online service is getting defended. Does the fact that it's cheaper than a PSN/XBL subscription justify the crapness? really? no online voice chat and having to use your own phone is completely ridiculous in 2018. The more you defend Nintendo, the more lazy and complacent they will be when it comes to online gaming.

[blawren4]

I'm just not pissed about it. That isn't defense. My opinions: I literally do not care what other companies offer. $20 is a fair price for what I am getting FROM Nintendo. Voice chat in app is fine, good even, but I'm not a voice chat veteran, to there is that. the NES titles are fun and we have been promised more in the future. Cool. The cloud save system works well and I fully expect that if I stop paying, Nintendo has no obligation to keep the backup. Nothing will be lost as my local save is still intact. Not sure why anyone would be upset about this. I'll use the service as it was intended to give it a fair shake and provide feedback to Nintendo, as a consumer, for anything I think could be improved.

My alternate users on my system no longer work, because they are now tied to nintendo account, so I'll have to create another one if I want to have japanese eshop or something, or want to start over on Zelda without losing my original. not a big deal.

[MeteorPanda]

everyones talking about games for their online service..l just want to know if their online service is actually fucking stable? Playing mh gen ultimate was cancer when you got dc'd randomly left and right. First mh game l couldnt bother with online

[Tross]

Thank you. I get chewed out for saying I would prefer VC by Nintendo fanboys, but the fact remains I'd rather have access to a lot more retro titles and be able to purchase them instead of have them tied to a service. I don't personally care about the extra features Nintendo is boasting with the titles on this service and to top it off, the Switch's hardware is perfect for emulating games from a variety of consoles and handhelds and would make for a fantastic legacy system. Decisions like the one Nintendo made in regards to retro titles and the Switch are why I have a love/hate relationship with them. They can sometimes be pretty great, but then they do baffling stuff like this.

[FinalomegaS]

i look a it as a online MP service only. they are charging 20$ a year for that..ok. but if you were getting it really for the retro gaming.. i only need to ask you one thing.. WHAT?

[blawren4]

You can be upset all you want, but let the opposite be true that I don't have to be upset. This outrage is ridiculous and just as ridiculous is the outrage that I'm not outraged.

[Segata]

I'm only paying by the month as $4 isn't too bad. I do like to play online and it's been fun to play Tecmo Bowl again. PSN is a better service but I also pay $60 a year for it. Still, a couple minor things NSO had PSN does not. Ability to change my name to one. My NSO account works on my Japanese account as well. Not that way on PS4.