Nintendo Switch Chat Thread Too

[Jazzem]

To be fair, plenty have voiced their distaste for the Switch online, just check the likes/dislikes ratio on the official video. Heck, it's probably a safe bet that they changed the initial plan of 1-2 NES or SNES games you keep for a month due to backlash

Does anybody know how often Sony & Microsoft check for subscription status for PS Plus and Xbox Live?

I get the sentiment that Nintendo have the audacity to do this bad thing, but they need to check and if you have a Switch realistically you have an internet connection. We’re almost a generation on from the Xbone reveal DRM PR disaster; internet access in the West is ubiquitous. Maybe Nintendo could improve on this by checking every two weeks in case you travel on a 2 week holiday to a place with no internet access and require access to their shitty NES games.

Yeah it's in select cases like that in which the seven day check could be a nuisance, also for those who don't keep their Switches docked. Most do so for the most part it shouldn't be too much of a pain. Do wish it was two weeks though aye

[Choclet-Milk]

tbf it probably does need to periodically check you are still subscribed.

Pretty sure it isn't needed on Xbox or PS4 to play your games. I may be wrong, but I don't think I am.

The PS4 doesn't periodically check in as such, but it does have expiration dates on PS+ games, which auto-renew so long as your subscription in still going.

[Fisher]

its luigi mansion 3 coming to switch next year.

[Octoroc]

I dunno, there was an uproar when MS were gonna do this with the Xbone and with that it had the benefit of sharing games across 10 family members even on different consoles. Yet people are like 'hey, it's cool, it's needed' when Nintendo do it. I just don't get it.

Yeah its pretty gooseberry fool.

I totally understand why Nintendo are doing this. Imagine the hordes of people that will be queuing up to rip off those awesome NES games from 30 odd years ago.

Taking inflation into account those NES games are worth around £200 each now.

It is most definitely the right thing to do.

[HSH28]

I dunno, there was an uproar when MS were gonna do this with the Xbone and with that it had the benefit of sharing games across 10 family members even on different consoles. Yet people are like 'hey, it's cool, it's needed' when Nintendo do it. I just don't get it.

This is just the 'free' NES games they are talking about, not all Switch games. It's not really the same thing at all.

[jawafour]

I *think* Eurogamer's report was slightly misleading; most people seem to think that, yeah, you lose access to the NES games if you haven't accessed the internet for seven days... but you re-gain access to the games once you do connect up. The wording had kind of suggested that you'd lose access to the games "forever", which can't be the case.

[Poser]

It's bullshit, tbh. I was weighing up whether to take the plunge but can't see the value at all at the moment.

[Tomous]

Don’t get me wrong, I think the online offering is very poor but to be honest, I don’t see any issue with the NES game requiring a check in after a week to confirm you’re still subbed. Don’t services like Netflix operate the same way with downloaded content? Seems like an industry standard to me.

[Sandy]

It's basically to make sure you don't download all the games then just take your machine offline and cancel your subscription. I imagine the number of people that would bother to do this would be negligible though, so it's standard corporate panic about what if scenarios.

That said you're going to have a tough time convincing me to get annoyed about and online service making you go online.

[ITSMILNER]

It’s still a poor service all round though to be honest. Expecting people to pay to play online when they have not had to do so in 18 months plus the fact your not getting any better of a service that what you have had currently.

I do wonder how this will turn out for them, seems a shame as you could see MK Monday’s being decimated now depending on who is willing to pay to play.

[jawafour]

...Expecting people to pay to play online when they have not had to do so in 18 months plus the fact your not getting any better of a service that what you have had currently...

Yeah, I can see some folk thinking that way, IM. It wasn't great when you had to pay for online when the PS4 launched, but at least the plan was clear when the console launched and you had the choice of jumping aboard or not. Nintendo has faffed around and delivered an online system that isn't as slick as competitors, started it eighteen months after the console launched and when people have already purchased and played games online.

Personally, it isn't the £18 cost that frustrates me; it's how weak the offering is. The mobile app seems to be lousy - a good idea as an additional customer touch-point but hugely under-developed - and the lack of built-in console chat is odd.

Nintendo obviously knows what PlayStation and Microsoft are offering with their online services - generally, functionality and reliability - and it is quite baffling that they think it's okay to punt out a lesser offering.

Tl;dr The Nintendo Online service seems to be pretty unattractive.

[rinks]

Just to make paying even less attractive:

You don't need to pay to play Fortnite on Nintendo Switch - even after Nintendo's new online subscription service comes in next week.

The £17.99-a-year Nintendo Switch online paid membership service launches on 19th September. It provides access to online play, a library of NES games with added online play and cloud saves.

You need to pay to play games such as Splatoon 2, Arms, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But, according to a Nintendo FAQ on the subject, you do not need to pay to play all games online - and there's a special note about Epic's free-to-download battle royale phenomenon.

"Some games, such as Fortnite, can be played online without a Nintendo Switch membership," reads the FAQ.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018 ... ite-online

[jawafour]

Just to make paying even less attractive...

Yeah, free-to-play games don"t require a Nintendo Online membership.

It occasionally happens on other systems; Final Fantasy XIV doesn't require PS Plus, for example. But Fortnite does. It's all quite odd!

[Monkey Man]

Just to make paying even less attractive...

Yeah, free-to-play games don"t require a Nintendo Online membership.

It occasionally happens on other systems; Final Fantasy XIV doesn't require PS Plus, for example. But Fortnite does. It's all quite odd!

Fortnite doesn't require PS Plus.

[Poser]

It's basically to make sure you don't download all the games then just take your machine offline and cancel your subscription. I imagine the number of people that would bother to do this would be negligible though, so it's standard corporate panic about what if scenarios.

That said you're going to have a tough time convincing me to get annoyed about and online service making you go online.

While you're right, it's still mental. I mean... Does Nintendo those ROMs are SO easy to find and use if you really want them? Anyone who was of a mind to do that you've described has almost certainly already done it.

Madness.

[jawafour]

Just to make paying even less attractive...

Yeah, free-to-play games don"t require a Nintendo Online membership.

It occasionally happens on other systems; Final Fantasy XIV doesn't require PS Plus, for example. But Fortnite does. It's all quite odd!

Fortnite doesn't require PS Plus.

Oops - yeah, Fortnite doesn't need a paid online subscription to play on PS4 but it does on XBO.

[Pedz]

They aren't as easy now Nintendo have had Emuparadise shut.

[DarkRula]

I know Microsoft were already on the ball with online stuff pretty much from the start, but the amount of stuff that has slowly been added all makes for a very good package overall. Everything is interconnected and all under one account.

Nintendo never made online a focus, treating is as just an extra. And now they're paying for it. Their current online offering is implemented badly as a package. And still feels as though it's being treating as nothing but an extra - but now with the unfortunate bonus of being charged for that extra. It takes time to build up to something as great as Microsoft's offering with Xbox Live, but when you think about it - Nintendo have technically already had that time but chose not to use it and as above, they're now paying for it.
Even had the Nintendo Network ID of the WiiU been the starting point, they'd have still had five years to constantly be making improvements and building up to a level of interconnectivity and usefulness seen with Xbox Live. Instead it's reinvent the wheel and start over again - which absolutely should never happen with any online service.

It's a good offering to start with, but... unless the subscriber offers turn out to be really good, people just aren't going to keep it around like most other online services. At most I can see a month or two a year being used by those who really want to make a point, or even not at all. We'll just have to see what happens. But what happens to this service if it isn't as successful?

[jawafour]

(Lots of good points)

I gotta agree with you, Rula. Online services evolve over time, and Nintendo is trying to recover from a slow start compared to competitors. Even so, it's frustrating as they must have known they'd have to step up a bit with the launch of Online for Switch and yet they've implemented a pretty half-baked solution.

[Victor Mildew]

They aren't as easy now Nintendo have had Emuparadise shut.

Still works fine for me https://m.emuparadise.me