Obviously the main focus of Nintendo’s Switch reveal last night was on games like Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2. And if not that, then the hardware itself, from the portability to the ice-cube rattling Joy-Con controllers.
But one announcement was rushed through rather quickly, the reveal that Nintendo would be charging for online gameplay for the first time, starting this fall. After a trial period for the online service starting with the console’s launch March, after a few months, players will be asked to pay an unspecified monthly amount to keep going.
The initial problem with this is obvious: Nintendo has always had terrible online services in almost every way. Their one redeeming quality was that online play was free, and it was arguably a major advantage over Sony and Microsoft, even if their services were fundamentally better.
But now? No longer. Perhaps the idea is that with an actual revenue stream, Nintendo will be able to improve their online capabilities. But with that said, there are already more than a few weird aspects to this that seem to indicate that Nintendo still doesn’t quite know what it’s doing in this regard. Ones that weren’t talked about on stage, but have since been posted online.
First, there’s this:
“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.”
While Microsoft and Sony offer free games through their premium online plans, Nintendo is offering a mere Virtual Console game instead, and only for a given month. That’s about as half-hearted a bonus as I could imagine, especially given how vast the VC roster is. It shows that Nintendo doesn’t appear to be getting less stingy any time soon.
And then there’s this:
“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.”
Excuse me?
While Sony and Microsoft may have some work to do streamlining their voice chat and party systems, having a smartphone app as a core component of online play seems misguided. Hopefully these features are available through the Switch itself as well, but that's certainly not made clear here.
Already fans are asking why on earth they would use an app like this on their phones when they could use something like Skype for voice chat instead. Granted, this may be slightly less goofy than it appears, but without more details it’s hard to be sure. If this really is a lynchpin of online play for Nintendo, it sounds more than a little ridiculous and cumbersome.
The biggest unknown in all of this is the price, but it will probably be in the $50-60 a year range like XBL and PS Plus, I’d imagine. But out of everything shown off last night, this is one aspect of the Switch reveal that players are having a hard time wrapping their heads around, given both Nintendo’s past online failures, and these weird new features and “bonuses” listed on the site. Hopefully this ends up being less crazy than it sounds, but for now, it’s a red flag for many.
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