Making Switch its biggest partner, Nintendo offer for the first time in its history a paid online service. The CEO of the Big N has recently revealed some details about it.This service is only for Nintendo Switch. It does not affect Wii U or Nintendo 3DS systems or online play.
After Microsoft and Playstation, it's now the turn to Nintendo to make its online service paid. For the Switch, it's obligatory to subscribe annually so you get access to multi player games, communicate with friends orally or benefit from special offers in some games. To mention, as Playstation 4 and Xbox One, this subscription will provide downloading free games every month. After this period of time, they won't be playable even after the previous download. Furthermore, these offered games will exclusively be games from NES and Super NES and not recent games.
That's to say that this announcement from Nintendo didn't excite the fans,despite the free one month trial on March, the release of Switch.
In order to calm down criticisms, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima said that the service would cost between 2,000 yen and 3,000 yen per year, putting it in the $17–$26 range. On their side, Playstation and Xbox online subscription cost $60 per year, but the games downloaded remain playable lifelong.
The price difference, less than half of what competitors are charging, is in Nintendo's favor given that it's both a necessary information for info buyers and it serves as a selling point.
It’s also worth noting that with the Switch, Nintendo is relegating many features that are typical of an online gaming service — voice chat, online lobbies and other social elements — to a dedicated mobile app. Those features will not be accessible directly on the console, and the company’s existing social network, Miiverse on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, also will not be available on the Switch.
These issues may conspire to make some believe that even at a discounted rate, online for the Switch may not be worth paying for.
Sometimes, as was the case with the Wii, it's the decision to be Nintendo-y that pays off in the end. But the Wii was a decade ago, and Nintendo’s had plenty of failures in between then and now – maybe it’s time for a different strategy?
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