Nintendo Switch to Require Fee to Play Online

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  • Nintendo Switch to Require Fee to Play Online

    [ATTACH=CONFIG]10316[/ATTACH]
    After a brief free trial period, Nintendo Switch users will have to pay a recurring fee in order to play games online with their friends. The free trial for the Nintendo Switch Online Service will begin in March and end in Fall 2017.

    At that time, you will need to pay in order to play online, similar to what Sony has with PlayStation Plus and Microsoft with Xbox Live Gold. Nintendo did also announce that paying subscribers will get access to free games.
    March
    Online Play on Nintendo Switch
    You’ll be able to play compatible co-op and competitive games online by signing in with your Nintendo Account. Online play will be free for Nintendo Account holders until our paid online service launches in fall 2017.

    Fall 2017
    Online lobby and voice chat
    Our new dedicated smart device app will connect to Nintendo Switch and let you invite friends to play online, set play appointments, and chat with friends during online matches in compatible games─all from your smart device.

    A free, limited version of this app will be available for download in summer 2017.

    Monthly game download
    Subscribers will get to download and play a Nintendo Entertainment System™ (NES) or Super Nintendo Entertainment System™ (Super NES) game (with newly-added online play) for free for a month.

    Exclusive deals
    Special offers for subscribers may include discounts on select digital games and content.

    There doesn't seem to be anything that indicates just how much this fee will be yet.

    • cikame
      #1
      cikame commented
      Editing a comment
      People warmed up to the idea of paying for online with the 360 because the party systems were really good, you were paying for a quality service (when the console wasn't breaking), Sony definately couldn't have done that for the PS3, at a system level it felt jury rigged, it got better with the PS4 so now they are also charging. Nintendo have a hell of a lot to prove if they're also going to start charging, their online services have been very basic, it felt like the reason for this on the multiplayer side was to keep it a more child friendly console, away from the COD maniacs on the Xbox, so if they're jumping into a similar system with the Switch they'd better be bringing all the right system level support.

    • Shawn Zipay
      #2
      Shawn Zipay commented
      Editing a comment
      So the latest about this subscription fee is this: You get one free NES or SNES game per month while subscribed. Unlike PS+ and XBL, you do not get to keep those games after the month is over. You will have to pay for those games if you want to keep them after the month.

      I haven't seen this verified by Nintendo yet but a lot of people have been saying this today.

    • K-16
      #3
      K-16 commented
      Editing a comment
      Chris Kohler is claiming to have confirmation from NOA.



      While still not explicit confirmation, I can see Nintendo thinking this would be a good idea. Constant rotating of games for subscribers so they will always have something to play for free, while making sales of previous ones, all while saving bandwidth as not as many people will keep/redownload past games. And it's only one per month versus several for the other competitors.

      Another neat feature they have is the voice chat. You use your smart phone for voice chat. That's awesome! Reminds me of the days of the Wii where you need to plug in the Wii Remote to the Wii Classic Pro Controller because it doesn't work on its own! Practical!

      Oh yeah, unless you're using external memory, Zelda: Breath of the Wild will use 13.4 GB of space, so that'll be nice for the Switch's 32 GB of internal memory, with no idea on how much of it is reserved for the system.
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