Nintendo Switch paid online coming 2018

[Julius]

Nintendo has clarified their policy regarding cloud saves granted by an Online subscription to IGN, revealing that:

Quote

If a Nintendo Switch Online membership expires, users won’t be able to access their Save Data Cloud backups. However, Nintendo will allow users who resubscribe within 180 days to access their previous Save Data Cloud backups.

Good news, but why they didn’t just come out and say this to begin with... 

[Ashley]

I genuinely image nobody thought it would be of interest to anyone. I could see them thinking that.

[ArtMediocre]

Or maybe they altered the terms in light of the recent complaints online?

[Ronnie]

Good news

[Ashley]

23 hours ago, ArtMediocre said:

Or maybe they altered the terms in light of the recent complaints online?

They take two years to implement an online service and then change a feature in days...?

[Dufniall]

It's weird, I activated my trial last week on Wednesday. But if I check, it expires only the 28th (Friday). Meaning I got a 9 day trial?

[Helmsly]

11 minutes ago, Vileplume2000 said:

It's weird, I activated my trial last week on Wednesday. But if I check, it expires only the 28th (Friday). Meaning I got a 9 day trial?

The exact same thing happened to me. I guess it was extended?

[Glen-i]

11 hours ago, Vileplume2000 said:

It's weird, I activated my trial last week on Wednesday. But if I check, it expires only the 28th (Friday). Meaning I got a 9 day trial?

 

11 hours ago, Helmsly said:

The exact same thing happened to me. I guess it was extended?

Maybe it's 7 working days?

[Hero-of-Time]

The latest Nintendo Q&A is out and their online service was brought up. The whole Q&A is a good read but I wanted to specifically look at this question.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2018/181109e.pdf

Quote

Question: You explained during the presentation that over half of all people who purchased subscriptions to the Nintendo Switch Online service opted for a 12-month Family or Individual Membership. Could you give us more details about things like the number of subscribers at launch, or region and age range information about these subscribers?

Answer: We think Nintendo Switch Online had a good launch, but the service has only just begun, so we have no plans to disclose any current subscriber ratios or number of subscribers at this time. Our objective for launching the service is to bring “More Games. More Features. More Fun.” to Nintendo Switch. Our focus at this point is on boosting the appeal of the service. We need to further enhance the content of the service for the subscriber base to reach a certain size, so that is what we’re working on, with the understanding that the time it will take to do so will be measured in years.
As for the kind of service this will develop into in the future, Nintendo Switch Online is essentially a digital service, but we are also offering controllers specifically for use with
Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online exclusively to subscribers of the service. We see the need to develop the service beyond being merely digital, in ways play to our strengths as a company that operates an integrated hardware and software business.

The online service has been out a couple of months now and there's still no mention of the special offers that subscribers are supposed to be receiving. I think a lot of us were expecting discounts on games, like what Xbox Gold and PS+ offer to subscribers, but there's still nothing to report on that front.

Despite having to now pay to play online, the games that do have online play haven't been improved at all. Things like tick rate tests were done on Splatoon 2 before and after the service launched and it remained the same. In the Mario Party thread I spoke about just how laggy and broken the online play was in that game and it's the same for many other gamers. When it was free you can put up with this kind of thing but when you are having to pay for it you expect a better service.

The Nintendo app is still woefully underutilised, with only Splatoon 2 offering any real kind of content. Things like ARMS, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and even collaborations like Pokken could easily have features added to the app to make it more appealing.

Fururkawa has stated that enhancing the system could take a while but I fail to see how or why they have completely stumbled out of the gate with this one. I don't think saying such a thing should be excused either. They've now had countless generations to see what the competition was doing, look at what has become the standard and then implement it into their own systems, while at the same time putting their own spin on it, like stat tracking of games on their app.  

I know a lot of these arguments and points have been brought up countless times before but I find it frustrating that they delayed the service, launched it a year later in what I think is an unfinished state and now Furukawa is still asking for more time. If they had have launched their online service as a robust system with the features and stability that we've come to expect from console gaming I think service would speak for itself and there would be no need to boost it's appeal.

It's still early days but given their attitude towards the service so far i'm not hopeful that they will make any significant changes to make it more appealing to myself.

[Glen-i]

53 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The Nintendo app is still woefully underutilised, with only Splatoon 2 offering any real kind of content. Things like ARMS, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and even collaborations like Pokken could easily have features added to the app to make it more appealing.

I can only guess that it's because those games are already out. We know that Smash Ultimate is getting some app functionality with the whole replay/screenshot thing though. So my guess is that future games will take advantage of it.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just now, Glen-i said:

I can only guess that it's because those games are already out. We know that Smash Ultimate is getting some app functionality with the whole replay/screenshot thing though. So my guess is that future games will take advantage of it.

This is true but we will in an age of updates and patches. Surely they could have pushed some for these games, especially something like Mario Kart. It would be hilarious to see stats like how many times you were hit by a red shell or slipped on a banana peel.  

[Glen-i]

25 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

This is true but we will in an age of updates and patches. Surely they could have pushed some for these games, especially something like Mario Kart.

I mean, they kinda did? It uses the recently added automatic chat room feature when you're in a room with friends.

Edited November 9, 2018 by Glen-i

[Hero-of-Time]

2 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

I mean, they kinda did? It uses the recently added automatic chat room feature when you're in a room with friends.

Indeed but I was expecting some Splatoon type stat tracking stuff. It makes it even more weird that they would add the chat function but nothing else. 

Did they also add the chat to ARMS or did they just leave that alone? I have booted that up in ages so I have no idea. 

Edited November 9, 2018 by Hero-of-Time

[Glen-i]

8 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Did they also add the chat to ARMS or did they just leave that alone? I have booted that up in ages so I have no idea. 

I don't really play ARMS, so I couldn't tell you.

[Hero-of-Time]

1 minute ago, Glen-i said:

I don't really play ARMS, so I couldn't tell you.

I don't think anyone does anymore.   

[Ronnie]

I wouldn't read into the taking years to improve the service comment too much. PSN and Xbox Live took years to get to where they are now as well.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just now, Ronnie said:

I wouldn't read into the taking years to improve the service comment too much. PSN and Xbox Live took years to get to where they are now as well.

The point is that both of those services have already done the leg work and it should have been easy for Nintendo to essentially copy what they were doing and implement it into the Switch. The PS3's online was a mess but Sony seen what Microsoft were doing with the 360, learned from that and then incorporated what was learnt into their next console. Microsoft have progressed amazingly well with their online setup and you can see the foundations that were made with the original Xbox being built upon with every new generation. There's no such progression with Nintendo and if anything they gone backwards with certain online things on the Switch. It may not take years to get up to scratch but the fact is that it should already be far better now than what we have.

[Julius]

2 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

I wouldn't read into the taking years to improve the service comment too much. PSN and Xbox Live took years to get to where they are now as well.

Sure, but they weren’t introduced mid-generation alongside two competitors’ other wildly successful online services. I think that’s why there’s that expectation for Nintendo to be delivering much more relative to what Sony and Microsoft had to offer in the early days of PSN/+ and XBL.

Is it particularly fair to do so? Perhaps; perhaps not. But then again, Nintendo have had plenty of time to form a plan for this service — Xbox Live has been around in some form or another for over 15 years, and PlayStation Network for over 10 — and if anything, having that time and the opportunity to look at how others have gone about it should (hypothetically) be advantageous to their efforts in constructing a worthy online service. 

[Ronnie]

I guess I can't get too riled up about it because I don't play online much. I paid £12 for a year subscription (thanks to the excellent gold points loyalty scheme) and it suits me fine, but appreciate it isn't great for others. They're working on it though and they know they need to add value to it, so let's see what they come up with. 25 pages in this thread and we could use something new to talk about.

[Helmsly]

19 minutes ago, Julius said:

Sure, but they weren’t introduced mid-generation alongside two competitors’ other wildly successful online services. I think that’s why there’s that expectation for Nintendo to be delivering much more relative to what Sony and Microsoft had to offer in the early days of PSN/+ and XBL.

Is it particularly fair to do so? Perhaps; perhaps not. But then again, Nintendo have had plenty of time to form a plan for this service — Xbox Live has been around in some form or another for over 15 years, and PlayStation Network for over 10 — and if anything, having that time and the opportunity to look at how others have gone about it should (hypothetically) be advantageous to their efforts in constructing a worthy online service. 

To add to this, its not as if the Switch is their first foray into Online gaming. They have had online on their systems since the original DS in 2005. So looking at how they have improved their offering for playing games online in all that time, i don't think they have gotten very far and in some ways have gone backwards. I wouldn't mind so much if they were not charging for it now.

[Hero-of-Time]

17 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

I guess I can't get too riled up about it because I don't play online much. I paid £12 for a year subscription (thanks to the excellent gold points loyalty scheme) and it suits me fine, but appreciate it isn't great for others. They're working on it though and they know they need to add value to it, so let's see what they come up with. 25 pages in this thread and we could use something new to talk about.

That's nothing. We've been moaning about Nintendo's lack of online presence since the Gamecube days, so about 15-16 years now.  

[Kav]

*grumble grumble grumble*

[DuD]

I don't understand how they made the decision not to make all games require a subscription and yet then decide Splatoon 2 (P2P) requires the subscription? The service literally provides nothing. They haven't even implemented anti-cheat systems. Just decided that you must pay now for your switch to connect with someone else's with no server in the middle?

[Sméagol]

3 hours ago, DuD said:

I don't understand how they made the decision not to make all games require a subscription and yet then decide Splatoon 2 (P2P) requires the subscription? The service literally provides nothing. They haven't even implemented anti-cheat systems. Just decided that you must pay now for your switch to connect with someone else's with no server in the middle?

That's easy. The game that are exempt from requiring the service.. It would ruin their business model if they were not.

[DuD]

I can see the business logic... It's the worth they're providing to customers that I'm missing.

There is no actual cost for them but they're charging anyway? One guy hacked the system to be top of all 4 leaderboards, changing his username so it read "please add anti cheat". Nintendo's response.. ban the guy proving a point.

I just think it should be done properly or not at all. Regardless of price. Would you choose to have the brakes on your car fixed on the cheap knowing they'd make an half arsed effort?

I'll pick the service up eventually when it has some worth to me, but at the moment I see it as an additional paywall, which whilst inexpensive, I choose not to support.

Edited November 11, 2018 by DuD