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Helmsly

Nintendo Switch paid online coming 2018

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10 hours ago, Helmsly said:

If they care enough to charge for it, then they should be offering something comparable to the standards the other consoles have been doing over a decade.

Be interesting to see what PS+ would look like if it was selling for one third of the cost Sony are charging now, ie. the Nintendo Online price. My guess is no free games, and just the (great) online component. Until the services are similar in price you can't compare them.

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10 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Be interesting to see what PS+ would look like if it was selling for one third of the cost Sony are charging now, ie. the Nintendo Online price. My guess is no free games, and just the (great) online component. Until the services are similar in price you can't compare them.

Even if it was it would still be a much better online experience. What do you mean we can't compare them, they're both online services are they not? You keep going back to the price and that is not the problem here it's the missing features.

This thread is just going around in circles now..

 

 

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We could compare systems that had free online gaming in both the PS3 to the Switch. The PS3, which was released in 2006, allowed for voice chat, online play, instant messaging and game invites. The Switch only allows for online gaming. 

22 minutes ago, Nintendo Fan said:

that is not the problem here, it's the missing features.

When it comes to Nintendo and online setup that's what it has always been about for me. If you look at both Xbox and PlayStation systems both have built upon and improved their online services and setup with every generation, whereas Nintendo just don't seem to care, despite it being a HUGE part of today's gaming landscape. I mean, just look at 3 of their biggest franchises, Mario Kart, Smash Bros and Splatoon, all of which have big online components to them. It makes their whole attitude to playing and communicating with friends seem really weird.

It still baffles me this service was delayed for a year and, despite this, it's still seems like a bit of a mess. Shame. I long for the day when Nintendo's own online setup has the same features as their competitors. 

36 minutes ago, Nintendo Fan said:

This thread is just going around in circles now..

To be fair, this forum (as do many others) just goes round in circles when it comes to Nintendo and online. I imagine if we dug up posts from the Wii and Wii U eras that we would all be pretty much complaining about the same things. :D 

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1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

Be interesting to see what PS+ would look like if it was selling for one third of the cost Sony are charging now, ie. the Nintendo Online price. My guess is no free games, and just the (great) online component. Until the services are similar in price you can't compare them.

Well Sony were giving away the online service on PS3 for free (which eventually was reasonably comparable to XBL in terms of features after a long teething period), as are Steam (still to this day)...so I don't see why we should assume that they couldn't offer this service plus lesser games if they only charged a third of what they currently do. I think almost certainly the 40 quid tag of these annual subscriptions is there to make them money, rather than it just about covering the cost of the services provided.

As I've said before, you can compare Nintendo's services to the more expensive ones because they are both being sold for money. We make these comparisons all the time - for instance if I was to buy broadband, I would still compare a cheaper package with a more expensive one in terms of features and speed for the money, etc. If a broadband package was half the price of the other but the max speed was only a fifth (apt comparison here), I would not consider that a particularly good saving.

If one online sub costs half of the other services, you'd expect it to have at least the fundamental components for a decent modern online service (messaging, voice chat) with less of the bells an whistles (i.e. big retail games). An online sub should at least get the basics right before adding cherries on top.

Edited by Sheikah
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In an attempt to bring something new to the table to discuss, to those who are signing up ( i'm still back and forth ), what NES games are you looking forward to playing online?

Mario & Yoshi (they better call it that over here on their service and not just Yoshi!) was a big favourite of mine as a youngster. Me and my friends often had 2 player battles on it and I would love to be able to play it online with friends and random people. It has a great pick up and play feel to it and I think it will suit the online service well.

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56 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

We could compare systems that had free online gaming in both the PS3 to the Switch. The PS3, which was released in 2006, allowed for voice chat, online play, instant messaging and game invites. The Switch only allows for online gaming. 

Thanks for pointing that out I forgot the PS3 online was free and included all of that. Then you have Nintendo that can't even get the basics right in 2018. The most frustrating thing is the Nintendo fan base being split, on one camp you have people asking for basic online features which are the standards of today and the other camp justifying Nintendo's actions.

24 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

In an attempt to bring something new to the table to discuss, to those who are signing up ( i'm still back and forth ), what NES games are you looking forward to playing online?

Mario Bros 3 and Double Dragon looking forward to most, nostalgia is strong on those. Despite owning Mario Bros 3 on multiple systems I've never finished the game ever. Shameful I know. :(

Edited by Nintendo Fan

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3 hours ago, Nintendo Fan said:

Even if it was it would still be a much better online experience. What do you mean we can't compare them, they're both online services are they not? You keep going back to the price and that is not the problem here it's the missing features.

This thread is just going around in circles now..

 

 

Missing features tends to happen when you have a product that's three times cheaper than the competition. 

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So, this free week of online. Does that mean we get a free week of the totally awesome NES games as well? Or are they not included in that bit?

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1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

In an attempt to bring something new to the table to discuss, to those who are signing up ( i'm still back and forth ), what NES games are you looking forward to playing online?

Mario & Yoshi (they better call it that over here on their service and not just Yoshi!) was a big favourite of mine as a youngster. Me and my friends often had 2 player battles on it and I would love to be able to play it online with friends and random people. It has a great pick up and play feel to it and I think it will suit the online service well.

It's quite an obscure one but I'm really excited to dive into Soloman's Key when they add it in October. I played a ton of that game growing up. I really suspect the level design will hold up today too. 

Data miners have uncovered SNES games are on the way apparently. Super Mario Kart with added online sounds fun. If nothing else just to see if they're going to recreate the games menus to fit the online stuff in. 

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57 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Data miners have uncovered SNES games are on the way apparently. Super Mario Kart with added online sounds fun. If nothing else just to see if they're going to recreate the games menus to fit the online stuff in. 

You mean like Nintendo said since the first announcement of these NES games?

Why would anyone have doubted it?

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14 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

You mean like Nintendo said since the first announcement of these NES games?

Why would anyone have doubted it?

I guess because they've only ever spoken about free NES games since then. And it feels like a long time ago since they mentioned SNES. 

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I don't think there will be any in game change in terms of menus etc. to enable online. I think essentially you will connect to an opponent/friend before entering the software, and one of you will essentially be controller 2 and play multilayer as if you were local. 

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2 hours ago, Mr-Paul said:

I don't think there will be any in game change in terms of menus etc. to enable online. I think essentially you will connect to an opponent/friend before entering the software, and one of you will essentially be controller 2 and play multilayer as if you were local. 

That would suck. It would basically you can't play with random people, wouldn't it? Unless I'm not understanding it correctly

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I think @Mr-Paul has it right, I don't remember Nintendo ever mentioning that you'll be able to play against random people. Maybe there will be lobbies within the main menu of the NES launcher which will show you random people who are looking for a game of something but I can't imagine that you'll be able to search for matches within the games themselves.

Do we know exactly when the service goes live? I'm assuming it goes up at the same time across all time zones and considering the US gets it today does that mean we'll get it in the early hours?

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14 minutes ago, drahkon said:

That would suck. It would basically you can't play with random people, wouldn't it? Unless I'm not understanding it correctly

They probably wouldn't let you voice chat with them anyway, so there wouldn't be much point in playing most things two player with randoms! 

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Just a heads up, CDKeys are selling subscriptions for a discount, 1 year is £16.49. You can also get another 5% off using their Facebook discount code. And 1% Quidco cashback.

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17 minutes ago, Sméagol said:

I suspect 04:00 UK / 05:00 CEST, after the maintenance.

Gah, I was hoping it'd be a couple of hours sooner. Guess I'll just have to try it out tomorrow.

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For those who are buying it, you can get it for £15.67 here.
 
Edit: Ike just beat me to it.
That's only £1.31 a month!
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Read a good point in that HUKD link that isn't being mentioned much in terms of the price (correct me if it's wrong!)

Nintendo's £17.99 (or £15.67 or whatever if you get that discount code) is for one singular user account. If you want several accounts on the same Switch to be able to play online, you need to pay for the family plan - £34.99.

On the PS4, all user accounts on a PS4 can share the benefits of playing online if one account has PS Plus. 12 months PS Plus on CD Keys is £37.99.

So, to get somewhat equivalent in terms of allowing all users of your console to be able to play online, the price of Switch Online and PS Plus are only a few pounds different - but Nintendo are providing a far, far worse service for that price.

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3 minutes ago, Mr-Paul said:

Read a good point in that HUKD link that isn't being mentioned much in terms of the price (correct me if it's wrong!)

Nintendo's £17.99 (or £15.67 or whatever if you get that discount code) is for one singular user account. If you want several accounts on the same Switch to be able to play online, you need to pay for the family plan - £34.99.

On the PS4, all user accounts on a PS4 can share the benefits of playing online if one account has PS Plus. 12 months PS Plus on CD Keys is £37.99.

So, to get somewhat equivalent in terms of allowing all users of your console to be able to play online, the price of Switch Online and PS Plus are only a few pounds different - but Nintendo are providing a far, far worse service for that price.

Switch Online Family account works with accounts on other consoles though so it depends on your situation.

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4 minutes ago, Ike said:

Switch Online Family account works with accounts on other consoles though so it depends on your situation.

Oh absolutely, the family plan is quite 'good' in terms of that. If I sign up, I would be tempted to ask a bunch of people on here if they want to be a 'family' and go cheap that way.

But it shows that the £18 package that's being touted as cheap has yet another drawback compared to other online services.

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43 minutes ago, Ike said:

Switch Online Family account works with accounts on other consoles though so it depends on your situation.

Yep was just about to say that. I'm actually quite surprised they're allowing that, seems too good to be true.

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57 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Yep was just about to say that. I'm actually quite surprised they're allowing that, seems too good to be true.

Yeah, I’ve got to agree, the family subscription is very good value. I have to imagine that they’ll cycle it back at some point when they realise that a lot of people are taking advantage of the family subscription, especially when SNES games hopefully get added to their classics library down the line.

I still think that there’s got to be something going on that they aren’t letting us in on yet with regards to how things are being handled, because I would imagine that they would want to keep the subscription price the same, at least within the next two or three years, and it just doesn’t make financial sense for Nintendo to let us have access to everything first party from the NES to the N64 (I think anything put out on the GameCube and beyond are probably best suited for HD remasters or some sort of Virtual Console-esque, straight-to-eShop kind of thing) for such a low price per year once games from other consoles are (supposedly) added down the line. I’d have to imagine that some sort of change in plan, or some currently unmentioned quirk, is why they’ve been mum about SNES games coming to the library since it was first revealed that they were coming on the Online page last year. 

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