Nintendo Online Discussion

Gamer Bhoy 89

Official Source

Releasing in September
Prices are;

1 Month: €3.99
3 Months: €7.99
12 Months: €19.99

Subscribers will have exclusive access to;

Online Play (Non-Members get a free trial until Sept.)
Official App (Non-Members getba free trial until Sept.)
Select Classic Nintendo Games (such as Super Mario Bros. 3, Balloon Fight and Dr. Mario)
Member-Only Price Promotions (I can only assume this is discounts on games)

---

I am astounded at the price TBH, I thought it was going to be €40 a year for some reason.

And the only minor gripe I have is there is still no mention of the VC coming into this so I can only assume the classic games promotion will be replacing it?

Either way I'm happy with it, especially for that price.

Mr E

Yeah, can't fault the value at all.

Banjo

Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »

12 Months: €19.99[/B]

Subscribers will have exclusive access to;

Online Play (Non-Members get a free trial until Sept.)
Official App (Non-Members getba free trial until Sept.)
Select Classic Nintendo Games (such as Super Mario Bros. 3, Balloon Fight and Dr. Mario)
Member-Only Price Promotions (I can only assume this is discounts on games)

On the one hand, it's competitively priced versus the PS and XB offerings, being what - about a 1/3 of the XBox one and half the playstation one.

On the other, you get very little for your money. And it's worse when you consider what you already have.
Online play - Currently have it for free. And it's very bare bones. I would not pay for the service as-is.
Official App - Currently have it for free. I don't use it, as it has very little practical use. I would not pay for this service.
Members-only Price Promotions - Currently have this for free and in exchange for Gold and Silver coins earned through My Nintendo. I have never used these discounts because they barely offset the overpricing, they're not competitive with buying physical, and I'm just letting the points expire from a lack of anything to do with them. I would not pay for this service.
Select Classic Nintendo Games - OK, I'd pay for this. But I already did. For €120 euro I have a large selection of the quintessential classic Nintendo games on SNES and NES mini (before you look at other methods for expanding the selection). I imagine I'm not alone in having those. It's a nice bonus having them on the Switch, sure. But it's not a big draw when you consider the age of the games they're talking about offering.

The XB and PS offerings may cost more, but they tend to give out older Current Gen games to subscribers rather than emulations of 20 year old games that you may have already bought multiple licenses for. They have well structured online infrastructure for communicating and co-ordinating online play. They have additional ancillary services accessed through the network that add value.

At this point I'd rather pay more and get a current-gen online service than pay less and get a service that most find pretty unacceptable when it's free.

chrislad

The price points have been around for a while, so good to see those are unchanged. I'm just interested in the VC side of things. Let's be honest, at this stage, we should be getting the entire NES library, at least. It's 30+ years old. This is the best way of monetizing it at this stage.

CiDeRmAn

PS+ subscribers are about to get Rime for their sub, along with the other titles this month, not to mention the other 11 months.
Prior to PS+ Playstation 3 owners got online for free too, though the online service was pretty awful, particularly in comparison to the 360 online service, which was always paid for.
It is true that, as it stands, paying for an online service with little improvement over the current free situation is a little mean, but we shall have to see how it develops.
It is a cheap service though, it's a conflict I guess, we'll see what the VC eventually looks like, though that should be independent of an online sub.

Tom Mann Centuria

20 quid a year official channels isn't bad at all. Maybe might be able to get it elsewhere a bit cheaper too. Unfortunately I think they'll close up the online shop region hopping at the same time though.

Andrew76

I'm of a similar opinion to Banjo on this. It's not like they could charge a similar price to the Sony or MS offerings - what Nintendo are offering here, initially at least, is way less.

I don't play online so I'm not too bothered unless the Classic Game Selection turns out to be good - "members will have ongoing access" sounds awfully vague - wasn't there mention that the 1 game you get per month only lasts for that 1 month? Hopefully that has changed.

Presumably you won't need this paid service to access the VC whenever it shows up?

Mr E

If I recall correctly, they have decided to move away from one free game a month (which they had planned to take back at the end of the month).

If they offered a "Netflix" of classic games (subscribers could play any games they wanted from a big library), that would be amazing value.

"I feel like playing SMB3", run some sort of app on Switch, browse, run Super Mario Bros 3 and away you go. Save games/Save states are stored locally on the device so you can go back to it at any time, exactly where you left off.

Best case scenario, and I don't think it's such a wild idea either...

Mr.Saturn

The member discounts give me little hope that we're to see the Switch section o MyNintendo open up anytime soon.

It is a quality Nintendo move, though. I buy stuff on their latest system to get discounts on systems they're not longer supporting/are on their way out.

CiDeRmAn

A Netflix of classic titles via subscription would be insane, but it'd cost more than €20 a year, no?
I mean, for access to a reasonable cross section of Nintendo Gaming Goodness across their formats I'd probably pay a lot more than that tbh.

Mr E

Shush. Spoilsport.

AOWAO.de

I am happy to pay €20 a year to play online. A Virtual Console with some of the Classic games would be great but I doubt that they give them all away just for free. A free indie game every month or so would be nice as well.

Nintendo Switch Club Ireland

CiDeRmAn

Mr E wrote: »

Shush. Spoilsport.

I pay a tenner a month for Netflix, or thereabouts.

If I got complete access to a broad selection of pre-Wii titles on the Switch, I'd happily pay similar money, or even a little more, to access them.
Eternal Darkness, Luigi's Mansion, Batman Returns, Super Mario Kart, WaveRace 64, Pilotwings 64, the list is almost endless.

Mr E

AOWAO.de wrote: »

I am happy to pay €20 a year to play online. A Virtual Console with some of the Classic games would be great but I doubt that they give them all away just for free.

Put it another way. If people weren't online gamers and weren't interested in getting the Online Pass, a good VC library would be a great value add.

14m Switch users spending €20/$20 is a over quarter of a billion a year in easy revenue.

CiDeRmAn

Mr E wrote: »

Put it another way. If people weren't online gamers and weren't interested in getting the Online Pass, a good VC library would be a great value add.

14m Switch users spending €20/$20 is a over quarter of a billion a year in easy revenue.

TitianGerm

Banjo wrote: »

On the one hand, it's competitively priced versus the PS and XB offerings, being what - about a 1/3 of the XBox one and half the playstation one.

I haven't paid over €40 for Live in 6 years, it's usually around €35. Plus went up recently so I think that's €60 but not available cheaper that often.

um7y1h83ge06nx

I love my Switch but please implement cloud storage for saves Nintendo. It's 2018!

Corholio

More details released about the online service:

- Cloud saves.
- 20 NES Games included at the start with multiplayer.
- Family plan subscription for up to 7 users ($34.99 in the US)

https://www.nintendo.com/switch/online-service/

Nothing too spectacular, but good to have cloud saves.

sligeach

While we were sleeping, Nintendo the sneaky gits have just revealed their Switch Online details.

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/993660710080069633

https://www.nintendo.com/switch/online-service/

blockfighter

All in all it seems like a good deal. Cloud saves, tick. NES library of 20 titles with more to come, tick. Voice chat, tick.
Sign me up.

GhostInTheRuins

blockfighter wrote: »

All in all it seems like a good deal. Cloud saves, tick. NES library of 20 titles with more to come, tick. Voice chat, tick.
Sign me up.

You must be mad, this is a very bad deal. Cloud saves is the only good thing about this, but the fact that you have to pay to backup your saves is ridiculous.

NES games that we’ve all played to death doesn’t sound like value to me, SNES or later, possibly, but not 30 year old games.

Voice chat is still through the phone app! You may as well use Skype or FaceTime.

Also, unlike PS4 (I can’t speak for Xbox) if one person on the system buys the online subscription everyone else that uses that PS4 can use online services. Nintendo want you to pay per account, or you pay double for a ‘family pass’ if other people use the console. What a joke.

No thanks Nintendo.

Mr E

I'd pay €20 for cloud saves and online multiplayer. The rest is just a bonus.

I hope SNES comes sooner rather than later though.

€35 for family pass is STILL cheaper than the other two main consoles.

jester77

Corholio wrote: »

More details released about the online service:

- Cloud saves.
- 20 NES Games included at the start with multiplayer.
- Family plan subscription for up to 7 users ($34.99 in the US)

https://www.nintendo.com/switch/online-service/

Nothing too spectacular, but good to have cloud saves.

That is poor, having to pay to backup your saves is crazy. They should at the very least have some way to save offline. 20 games that have been played to death by most, are they the same 20 as the nes classic? Where are the SNES games or are they afraid of damaging SNES classics?

TitianGerm

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

You must be mad, this is a very bad deal. Cloud saves is the only good thing about this, but the fact that you have to pay to backup your saves is ridiculous.

NES games that we’ve all played to death doesn’t sound like value to me, SNES or later, possibly, but not 30 year old games.

Voice chat is still through the phone app! You may as well use Skype or FaceTime.

Also, unlike PS4 (I can’t speak for Xbox) if one person on the system buys the online subscription everyone else that uses that PS4 can use online services. Nintendo want you to pay per account, or you pay double for a ‘family pass’ if other people use the console. What a joke.

No thanks Nintendo.

You need to pay for cloud saves on PS4.

geotrig

so now they have offered cloud saves and people still arent happy :rolleyes:

The family plan has me slighty confused does it included multiple consoles ? thats what I'm taking from it.

Inviere

jester77 wrote: »

That is poor, having to pay to backup your saves is crazy.

Poor isn't the word. Given online play has been free for the past year, you'd think someone at Nintendo would try to incentivise the service a little better than by offering cloud saves & 20 NES roms.

ERG89

I can't believe the Nintendo smartphone app is still a thing

ThunbergsAreGo

geotrig wrote: »

so now they have offered asked people to pay for cloud saves and people still arent happy :rolleyes:

The family plan has me slighty confused does it included multiple consoles ? thats what I'm taking from it.

Paying for Cloud Saves is ridiculous

TitianGerm

naughtb4 wrote: »

Paying for Cloud Saves is ridiculous

Microsoft is the only console that offers free cloud saves. With Sony you need a PS+ subscription.

GhostInTheRuins

TitianGerm wrote: »

You need to pay for cloud saves on PS4.

Yeah that’s true, but you can back up your saves anytime you like to a usb stick without having to pay.

geotrig

Inviere wrote: »

Poor isn't the word. Given online play has been free for the past year, you'd think someone at Nintendo would try to incentivise the service a little better than by offering cloud saves & 20 NES roms.

20 quid seems to be the incentive ! also it has been said all along, that online was going to be payed for so people cant really complain that they got a 1 1/2 years free !.All in all this is no different really to what the others have done

nairy hipples

I really wish they would get rid of that stupid app for voice chat!! It's completely ridiculous. Although I don't see how Nintendo can backtrack on it as the Switch controllers don't have an audio in/out jack for headsets....

TitianGerm

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

Yeah that’s true, but you can back up your saves anytime you like to a usb stick without having to pay.

You specifically mentioned cloud saves though?

CiDeRmAn

This is a cheap online product compared to the others on the market.
I pay for the services on both the PS series as well as my Xbox consoles, and o pay considerably more than Nintendo are looking for.
As I've purchases across three accounts I'll have to get the family pack but it's still cheap.
Since folk will be offended regardless, NES games to stay with are great, let's see where it goes from here.
And, of you own a Switch and don't want the service don't pay, just like on the PS4 and XB1.

CastorTroy

2 things i would like clarified: do you have access to all those NES games, netflix style, or you choose 1 or 2 a month? And what do they mean when they say the cloud saves are for some games? Is it like how you couldn't copy Mario Kart saves on the Wii?

CiDeRmAn

TitianGerm wrote: »

You specifically mentioned cloud saves though?

Nintendo Critic: Stamping of feet "Why no cloud saves?"

Nintendo: Here's cloud saves.

Nintendo Critic: (Sounds of goal posts being moved)

Mr E

CastorTroy wrote: »

2 things i would like clarified: do you have access to all those NES games, netflix style, or you choose 1 or 2 a month? And what do they mean when they say the cloud saves are for some games? Is it like how you couldn't copy Mario Kart saves on the Wii?

My understanding is a Netflix style library.

Not enough is known about what games support cloud saving and which ones don't - too early to say.

sligeach

Theoretically, I wonder if you could bandy together as it says you can "invite up to 7 others to join a family group", not necessarily being related and therefore reducing the price for a year to a little less than €4.50 per person.

Bob24

sligeach wrote: »

Theoretically, I wonder if you could bandy together as it says you can "invite up to 7 others to join a family group", not necessarily being related and therefore reducing the price for a year to a little less than €4.50 per person.

Lets wait for the details, but if I was them I’d probably do it the Apple way. I.e. all accounts which are part of the family can make purchases on the eShop with the credit card of the master account which pays for the family subscription, and cannot use their own card. It might not guarantee you only get genuine families but since it requires a strong level of trust between group members it does greatly limit people artificially registering as families.

Corholio

It is a pretty basic service for anyone been using online services in the last while. The silly app will continue to be a problem if it is fully continued with. Hopefully the NES games is just the very start of that particular service, and I'm sure it will be. At €20 it's probably at enough of a sweet price point that it will still have a huge take up, especially with Smash and Pokemon on the horizon.

Also, all the details of it may not have been shared yet.

https://twitter.com/TW_PhantomLord/status/993758154591801344

TitianGerm

sligeach wrote: »

Theoretically, I wonder if you could bandy together as it says you can "invite up to 7 others to join a family group", not necessarily being related and therefore reducing the price for a year to a little less than €4.50 per person.

I do this with a few friends for Spotify and Netflix. It's very handy.

madmoe

sligeach wrote: »

Theoretically, I wonder if you could bandy together as it says you can "invite up to 7 others to join a family group", not necessarily being related and therefore reducing the price for a year to a little less than €4.50 per person.

Good thinking ;-)

Banjo

Cloud saves is a nice-to-have but I'd feel better paying for it if I had a local save option (which should be possible if they convolute the data with the unique license each title has based on the eShop/card used to prevent people creating crazy buffer-overflow exploits from save editing and save sharing. As such it feels like Cloud Save is an opt-out rather than opt-in for anyone who carries their switch around in the big bad world, risking data loss due to damage or theft.

So, if you have multiple profiles set up on the same switch is that a single sub or family sub? and if those 4 accounts are aligned to Rus, Jap, US and Za respectively, are they still considered family? I wonder if this might be the start of a wider Family service, like for example Google Play or Steam, where you can have a unified software library that you can check titles in and out of for family members.

Rocket League isn't on the list of games that require the sub for online play. So that's one less gun to my head.

NES titles is not much of an incentive. They shudda stuck Mario Sunshine or Luigi's Mansion (or that awesome Star Wars GC game) on there, give us something new and shiney.

Bob24

Banjo wrote: »

So, if you have multiple profiles set up on the same switch is that a single sub or family sub? and if those 4 accounts are aligned to Rus, Jap, US and Za respectively, are they still considered family? I wonder if this might be the start of a wider Family service, like for example Google Play or Steam, where you can have a unified software library that you can check titles in and out of for family members.

We’ll only know for sure when Nintendo tells us, but I would expect that family accounts need to be at least in the same region and probably in the same country, so all 4 accounts might each require an individual subscription if they are all to access the online service. *but* in practice your probably only need one of them to access it and the other ones are likely just used to download games from other regions?

GhostInTheRuins

TitianGerm wrote: »

You specifically mentioned cloud saves though?

No I didn’t. I said it was ridiculous that you have to pay to back up your saves. I’ve no problem paying to back up to the cloud, but the fact that that is your only option is what I have a problem with. There’s no unpaid backup.

jimmytwotimes 2013

Excuse my ignorance. Will this be in place of Virtual Console or is that coming at a separate date?

ERG89

CiDeRmAn wrote:

This is a cheap online product compared to the others on the market. I pay for the services on both the PS series as well as my Xbox consoles, and o pay considerably more than Nintendo are looking for.

Yeah but the "free" games, overall quality of the ecosystem & sales on those consoles are worth the price difference.
Cloud saves are nice considering many switches have been damaged that used 3rd party docks but not being able to move your saves to a SD card is confusing, I expected it to be patched in but after cloud saves being made available I don't.

blockfighter

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

You must be mad, this is a very bad deal. Cloud saves is the only good thing about this, but the fact that you have to pay to backup your saves is ridiculous.

NES games that we’ve all played to death doesn’t sound like value to me, SNES or later, possibly, but not 30 year old games.

Voice chat is still through the phone app! You may as well use Skype or FaceTime.

Also, unlike PS4 (I can’t speak for Xbox) if one person on the system buys the online subscription everyone else that uses that PS4 can use online services. Nintendo want you to pay per account, or you pay double for a ‘family pass’ if other people use the console. What a joke.

No thanks Nintendo.

Don't buy it so.

Corholio

jimmytwotimes 2013 wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance. Will this be in place of Virtual Console or is that coming at a separate date?

Virtual Console, or the form it was in on past Nintendo systems, won't be coming. It will be a different way of doing it, as yet pretty much unknown.

Chardee MacDennis

Corholio wrote: »

Virtual Console, or the form it was in on past Nintendo systems, won't be coming.

Wait, what? When did they say that?
If that's the case, roll on custom firmware and emulators...

Corholio

Chardee MacDennis wrote: »

Wait, what? When did they say that?
If that's the case, roll on custom firmware and emulators...

It won't be in the same form as previous Virtual Console, that's been sort of obvious for a while now. It remains to be seen if it will be a 'Netflix' type service under a 'Classics' banner etc.