StarTopic Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack |ST| New 2024 Poll Up

[Mekanos]

lol I should have watched the video. Someone mentioned that rewinds were gone on N64 and I thought that meant save states were gone too. Thank god those are there, replaying Banjo with no save states and notes that aren't permanent would be a huge pain in the ass.

I managed to wrangle a different group of people who might want to upgrade together but I have a question: what happens to people canceling an NSO plan and joining a family? Are they charged for the months they don't play? I know I kinda asked a related question but I'm curious.

 

[ArcaneStar_]

50 bucks is fucking ridiculous

glad I can get into a family plan, I wouldn't sub otherwise

 

[Miraj]

You do realize the family plan is just a means of splitting the cost to multiple users with no downside, right? Why is this the one that earned more surprise?

I pay $10 a year as my share of the family plan.

Even so it's more than double what the original plan was. That's a huge increase.

I think a lot of people are justified in thinking this is asking for a lot... especially with Nintendo's NSO drip feed over the past few years. It doesn't engender trust in them maintaining a lot since it's based on giving you access to a select few games from 30 years ago, and some paid DLC whenever they feel like doing it. They haven't exactly earned a lot of faith to double their price on this.

 

[Look over there]

...woof, I expected a noticeable price hike to get Sega on board, but seeing that proportional jump from 20$ to 50$? The sticker shock is real.
Still, I trust in the value proposition improving over time.

 

[Rooster]

This is some real bullshit.

Guess no NSO expansion for me for the foreseeable future. Not more than doubling how much I'm paying for games from five gens ago. Hope Nintendo bites it on this one just enough to make the price more reasonable, like with the 3DS.

 

[Timefire]

Still dont't get it. I am not a Nintendo fanboy or a anything, but what I see is reasonable and still 90% of people here is against it.

50$ for two rompacks and DLC for a game I don't play anymore is a really bad deal.

For 10 bucks more you can sub to PS+ or XBL Gold and get three modern games each month, better online infrastructure (you don't need a stupid app to voice chat, imagine that) AND exclusive discounts on digital games.

I was ok with NSO being kinda bad before because it was so cheap but now that it's in the same pricing range as the other two, things look pretty bad for Nintendo.

 

[shoptroll]

I was definitely prepared for the expansion pack to double in price, but a 150% increase over the base seems a tad high. On the other hand, the value proposition should get better with time as they incorporate additional DLC offerings (I wouldn't be surprised if BotW 2 or Splatoon 3 is included) and hopefully they add additional systems. Especially if this is the tier where something like GBA or maybe other company systems like TG16 would land. I don't see myself moving to the new tier at launch but I'll be monitoring it fairly closely.

Ultimately though, I think they're going to phase out the base tier in a year or two. That's usually how these things go, as other subscription services have demonstrated in the past.

 

[Deleted member 1141]

Still dont't get it. I am not a Nintendo fanboy or a anything, but what I see is reasonable and still 90% of people here is against it.

No monthly plan from what we can tell, which would be generally easier for me as a whole, lack of ability to purchase titles individually (which should co-exist with this), also Nintendo's Online services still have issues despite investing in paid online and we're still not seeing the benefits of them charging for online for online play changes. Plenty of games that are handled directly through Nintendo still have issues.

Speaking of which, I had issues playing even just the Nintendo Online NES and SNES titles. While the low-latency mode works a bit better, it still has issues and I'm a little scared how the N64 titles will be handled, given there's more information it has to keep track of.

Also, I figured with also getting money for the Online services, would also invest in better webstore that doesn't chug and continue to be difficult to find stuff (in fact, I feel finding things is worse than the Wii, Wii U, and to some degree, 3DS eShops).

There's more I could bring up, but that's what comes to mind immediately and there's a lot of problems I have with this. I want Nintendo to do better. This is coming from a good place on my part. Please understand why people are reacting this way.

 

[OldSkOoL]

The price itself isn’t the issue for me, rather the value of what I’m getting and right now at the start it’s quite bare bones. It’s around $60 AUD per year which equates to $5 a month for me, which is not buying a cup of coffee for one day a week.

The AC expansion would probably equate to 35-40 AUD on its own

 

[totofogo]

Also, I figured with also getting money for the Online services, would also invest in better webstore that doesn't chug and continue to be difficult to find stuff (in fact, I feel finding things is worse than the Wii, Wii U, and to some degree, 3DS eShops).

Use their actual webstore, solves all those problems and lets you send direct to console for download.

 

[Deleted member 1141]

Use their actual webstore, solves all those problems and lets you send direct to console for download.

This completely disregards what I said, as the systems on the Nintendo Switch are broken and should actually be fixed. Majority of people are going to purchase the games through the system shop and we should not have to do a work around. While I have access to both a proper computer and browser, many people do not, as many people use Cellphones and Tablets to access the internet, which makes using the webpage a bit more difficult as a result.

Either way, it's an issue that DOES need to be fixed. Please do not say stuff like that, as it excuses an undesirable situation.

 

[Fuffelpups]

Use their actual webstore, solves all those problems and lets you send direct to console for download.

Or Deku Deals: https://www.dekudeals.com/

 

[2B]

If this price permanently included the ACNH DLC it might be worth it for AC fans, but sounds like you're just renting the DLC too.

 

[Rooster]

The price itself isn’t the issue for me, rather the value of what I’m getting and right now at the start it’s quite bare bones. It’s around $60 AUD per year which equates to $5 a month for me, which is not buying a cup of coffee for one day a week.

The AC expansion would probably equate to 35-40 AUD on its own

If this price permanently included the ACNH DLC it might be worth it for AC fans, but sounds like you're just renting the DLC too.

Yeah if they start chucking enough DLC for games into the package it could start turning around, but, as said, if people don't actually play those games, it will remain a dubious offer regardless.

There needs to be more offered in the expansion which isn't contingent on owning something else.

 

[Sailor Moon]

Not interested in DLC rentals or games I can already play elsewhere in better versions for this much of a price increase. Hard pass.

 

[totofogo]

If this price permanently included the ACNH DLC it might be worth it for AC fans, but sounds like you're just renting the DLC too.

as long as it never gets removed from the package, it doesn't make any difference to me

 

[Klois]

them licensing fees must be killer i guess?

 

[totofogo]

This completely disregards what I said, as the systems on the Nintendo Switch are broken and should actually be fixed. Majority of people are going to purchase the games through the system shop and we should not have to do a work around. While I have access to both a proper computer and browser, many people do not, as many people use Cellphones and Tablets to access the internet, which makes using the webpage a bit more difficult as a result.

Either way, it's an issue that DOES need to be fixed. Please do not say stuff like that, as it excuses an undesirable situation.

I didn't intend to disregard what you said, as you said: I offered a direct alternative to the issue you noted. Though, I don't disagree with you that it needs to be fixed. And while we're making requests, similarly core online functionality such as voice chat shouldn't be separated out to a mobile app that no one uses. Unfortunately that's all unlikely to change on the current gen since Ninty settled on giving the OS functions an extremely minimal amount of resources.

EDIT: Also I use the web store entirely from my phone, it's perfectly responsive and I don't find it "more difficult".

 

[Timefire]

I'll throw in my hat and say DLC rentals are absotely something I'd be interested in. I still haven't bought 3H's, BOTW, Splatoon 2 or the Fighters Pass 2 and getting access to any of those would be a great way to entice me to upgrade.

Not all at once, of course. But I'd be way happier than just AC, specially considering those passes never go on sale

 

[Lord Azrael]

Uhhh, that pricing is ridiculous. And I'm not sure how I feel yet about bundling expansions with this.

 

[Vito]

Guess I'm not playing N64 games on Switch.

 

[Rhisiart]

Nintendo as I leave checkout when I fly to upgrade my subscription on the 5th because I'm a sucker.

 

[Beard]

Uhhh, that pricing is ridiculous. And I'm not sure how I feel yet about bundling expansions with this.

The expansion is available separately for $25, fortunately.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

SEGA was also reportedly a bit mad that the ESRB leaked a few of the games early, according to the gigaleak.

A publisher must obtain a rating for a game specific to each platform. If a publisher is requesting a rating for an existing game just on a new platform (e.g. old SNES game now being submitted for Wii console), there are 2 options:

1. publisher can ask ESRB to re-issue the rating on a new certificate for US$250. This provides ESRB with the option of withholding rating information from going into the ESRB web site database if the publisher requests that ESRB delay public release of the rating until a later date. Note that the publisher must make this request or else the rating will be released by ESRB.

2. publisher can ask ESRB to add the Wii platform to an existing rating certificate for free BUT then the title and the association of the title with the Wii console will appear automatically on ESRB's web site.
As a favor to Nintendo, ESRB is going to do as much as they can to watch for Wii game submissions and try to bring these options to the publisher's attention. If NCL can also notify the licensees to work closely with ESRB to prevent leaking the titles we are hopeful that between the licensees and ESRB's help that the rest of the titles will remain secret until whenever the announcements occur.

Nintendo even had to send them one of the submission documents on hand, to remind them that yes, you can tell the ESRB to keep titles a secret.

 

[Deleted member 1141]

I didn't intend to disregard what you said, as you said: I offered a direct alternative to the issue you noted. Though, I don't disagree with you that it needs to be fixed. And while we're making requests, similarly core online functionality such as voice chat shouldn't be separated out to a mobile app that no one uses. Unfortunately that's all unlikely to change on the current gen since Ninty settled on giving the OS functions an extremely minimal amount of resources.

EDIT: Also I use the web store entirely from my phone, it's perfectly responsive and I don't find it "more difficult".

Apologies if I got snippy, definitely wasn't my intent either. Just a really frustrating issue and I really hope they can resolve it. I get why you said it in hindsight to suggest it, just I initially took it the wrong way on my end. Apologies again there.

As for mobile store fronts, it might be a disability issue on my side, but I've always struggled to use app-based touch web-browsing. That's been my experience on that, but that's not a Nintendo specific issue and a general web-wide issue on store fronts using the mobile apps, for what it's worth.

 

[Mandos]

So I’d say we have good odds of monthly updates this year at least especially since: there’s always a December/Christmas update for for the consoles and that just leaves November which shouldn’t be impossible either

 

[rickyson33]

the $50 price tag pushes me firmly into "needs to have the pokemon stadium games for me to even consider getting it" territory

 

[Haziqonfire]

My Nintendo Switch Online subscription lapsed a year ago. I was tempted to re-subscribe for the N64/Genesis games if the price increase was ~$10, but there’s no way I’m paying more than double the original price.

I’m hoping there’s a month-to-month option available for this tier at the very least, so that I can just subscribe for a month at a time to play whatever I really want to on the service instead.

 

[nenned]

For what it's worth, Nintendo is licensing third party Genesis games from Capcom, Konami.

• Castlevania: Bloodlines (Konami)
• Contra Hard Corps (Konami)
• I even heard Mega Man: The Wily Wars (Capcom) may eventually come too.

Third party genesis games also add to NSO's licensing cost

There really isn't much from Capcom for Genesis other than Mega Man and Street Fighter 2 ports. Other than those, there is The Punisher (most likely not coming due to the license), Great Circus Mystery (again- most like a no go due to the Mickey license), and Saturday Night Slam Masters. That's it.

At least Konami has Castlevania, Contra, Rocket Knight Adventures, and Sparkster. Also some Batman and TMNT games most likely not coming over due to the licence. The majority of the most popular Genesis games are from Sega (internal or Treasure)

If they are licensing 3rd parties, get Konami, Capcom, and Square-Enix to put their stuff on the NES and SNES app.

 

[KC Hazel]

I don't get it. My family group gets it like a 8,75€ each for year. And we get Animal Crossing dlc on top of that. I think it even would be worth the 40€ for individual sub for myself. I really don't get the hate. You always can go cheaper if you just want online.

I think a big part is reality vs expectations. NSO was so cheap and in my opinion, such a good value (but people still complained non stop about that too) that I was expecting this to be much cheaper. More than double the price was not at all what I had in mind for just adding N64 and Genesis.

I think it's a good value taken out of that context of what I was paying for NSO prior.

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

I think games like Jelly Boy, Claymates, and Tuff-E-Nuff add negative value to the service and I hope they're removed for Premium NSO. Preferably to be replaced with more Prehistorik Man games and other Titus classics.

 

[Amishpriest]

I hope this pricing means that a lot more content is coming and the game additions aren’t drip-fed.

 

[xghost777]

My low guess was $40 and my high end guess was $60 so I’m not surprised at the still disappointing $50 price. I could justify it to myself if I wanted, like N64 games were $10 on Wii / Wii U so three games per year equals the price. I don’t think I’m jumping in though, I have all of those games elsewhere on hardware that still works between Wii U and Xbox. Genesis games and access to the Animal Crossing expansion don’t speak to me at all as major perks. If you owned the AC expansion by having the membership, I’d probably get it at least for a year and they’d probably have me at that point. If they sold the N64 games separately at $10 I’d probably buy a good chunk of them again. Not actually owning things sucks.

Guess I’ll hope they add GBA games to the $50, I’d probably jump in then. Very bold to charge $50 up front given the painful trickle of additions NES and SNES get which is still missing Super Mario RPG and Earthbound.

 

[Jersh]

I was ok with NSO being kinda bad before because it was so cheap but now that it's in the same pricing range as the other two, things look pretty bad for Nintendo.

Wording like this confuses me; it's like you think the normal plan is going away.

 

[Timefire]

Wording like this confuses me; it's like you think the normal plan is going away.

Hmm, I don't. But if I want to experience everything NSO has to offer, I have to pay 50$. And If I want to experience everything the other services have to offer, it's 60$ for a way better service. Does that make more sense?

I guess being tiered is actually something positive about NSO actually, so props to Nintendo for that instead of just raising the price

 

[KC Hazel]

Hmm, I don't. But if I want to experience everything NSO has to offer, I have to pay 50$. And If I want to experience everything the other services have to offer, it's 60$ for a way better service. Does that make more sense?

I guess tiered is actually something positive about NSO, so props to Nintendo for that instead of just raising the price

Not really, because you're getting online plus Nintendo's streaming service. If you wanted the equivalent on PS5 you'd need PSN and PSNow.

Whether or not the value is comparable is surely up for debate.

 

[Jersh]

Not really, because you're getting online plus Nintendo's streaming service. If you wanted the equivalent on PS5 you'd need PSN and PSNow.

Whether or not the value is comparable is surely up for debate.

I know what you're saying, but NSO console apps aren't streaming services.

 

[Timefire]

Not really, because you're getting online plus Nintendo's streaming service. If you wanted the equivalent on PS5 you'd need PSN and PSNow.

Whether or not the value is comparable is surely up for debate.

I disagree. I compare the NES and SNES apps as the equivalent to the free plus/GwG games. PS Now is a different service

 

[KC Hazel]

I know what you're saying, but NSO console apps aren't streaming services.

True that. I should say game subscription service.

I disagree. I compare the NES and SNES apps as the equivalent to the free plus/GwG games. PS Now is a different service

I think the apps are much closer to gamepass/PSNow because you have access to all the games anytime you sub. If I subbed for the first time today I would still have access to all the games added up to this point.

The base tier is for playing online, the expansion pack is purely a game subscription service.

 

[Jersh]

I think the apps are much closer to gamepass/PSNow because you have access to all the games anytime you sub. If I subbed for the first time today I would still have access to all the games added up to this point.

I'm much more a fan of this as well. When you subscribe to Netflix or Disney+, you don't have less content than people who've been subscribing for years.

The downside to this is that because Nintendo doesn't seem willing to remove titles at all (which is good!), adding new content (which is necessary to retain subscriptions) at the same price becomes unsustainable - especially third party software. That led to what we got today.

Was such a dramatic increase in price necessary? No, and neither was this extent of third party content. It's an interesting direction for Nintendo to be taking that gets more interesting the more I dwell on it.

 

[totofogo]

Apologies if I got snippy, definitely wasn't my intent either. Just a really frustrating issue and I really hope they can resolve it. I get why you said it in hindsight to suggest it, just I initially took it the wrong way on my end. Apologies again there.

As for mobile store fronts, it might be a disability issue on my side, but I've always struggled to use app-based touch web-browsing. That's been my experience on that, but that's not a Nintendo specific issue and a general web-wide issue on store fronts using the mobile apps, for what it's worth.

Ah I see, and no sweat! I see your side completely as well. The Switch eshop is still a piece of junk.

 

[Dark Cloud]

This will succeed in the end.

 

[Timefire]

True that. I should say game subscription service.


I think the apps are much closer to gamepass/PSNow because you have access to all the games anytime you sub. If I subbed for the first time today I would still have access to all the games added up to this point.

The base tier is for playing online, the expansion pack is purely a game subscription service.

Hmm yeah, even though it still feels like the NES/SNES games are the equivalent to the free games for me, that way makes sense too.

Although I still don't think it's a good look for Nintendo if we're comparing it against Now and Gamepass. (Specially gamepass) The only thing it has going for it against those two is price.
and Nintendo games obviously lol

 

[2B]

They should release a new base tier for just internet access!

 

[KC Hazel]

I'm much more a fan of this as well. When you subscribe to Netflix or Disney+, you don't have less content than people who've been subscribing for years.

The downside to this is that because Nintendo doesn't seem willing to remove titles at all (which is good!), adding new content (which is necessary to retain subscriptions) at the same price becomes unsustainable - especially third party software. That led to what we got today.

Was such a dramatic increase in price necessary? No, and neither was this extent of third party content. It's an interesting direction for Nintendo to be taking that gets more interesting the more I dwell on it.

I kind of feel like the big price increase was in part to future proof the service. I don't think Nintendo wants to keep adding tiers every time they add consoles so I think we're paying for not just N64 and Genesis, but whatever other systems they plan to add in the future. Since those aren't on the service yet they threw in the Animal Crossing DLC to make it more acceptable.

This is a big increase, and while I'm personally fine with it, it's a lot for just N64 and Genesis. But if Nintendo adds GB/GBA and anything else down the road without a price increase, that would make it seem much more acceptable.

Hmm yeah, even though it still feels like the NES/SNES games are the equivalent to the free games for me, that way makes sense too.

Although I still don't think it's a good look for Nintendo if we're comparing it against Now and Gamepass. (Specially gamepass) The only thing it has going for it against those two is price.
and Nintendo games obviously lol

Yeah I wasn't saying it's a great deal or anything. If I liked all the companies equally, Gamepass + XBL would easily beat this in value.

 

[Dark Cloud]

I wished they didn’t go for Sega Genesis. Couldn’t give a crap about it. Should’ve had GB/GGBC and N64 for $40 the most.

 

[Forkball]

I like how even the most skeptical people thought it would be $40. Nintendo rolled out and said “Watch this.”

Maybe confusing at first, but I think having three tiers would be better for what people want.

Base NSO: $20
With Expansion Pack: $30
With DLC: $50

If some were willing to upgrade just to play N64 games, I can only imagine they feel burned by the extra features. Also they could’ve maybe included more DLC like Octo.

But eh, I’ll upgrade. I get more use out of the retro titles than I do PS Plus offerings to be honest.

 

[uncleoptimus]

Reflecting strictly on the Family Plan, of which I am a customer and just got renewed last week, before this pricing announcement I was expecting something like $35 => $60. And I probably would have splashed w/o comment.

I thought "maaaaybe I could stretch out for $70."

Felt pretty blurgh when I saw the actual number. Its not the absolute dollar amount to be clear, its just the perception of value, and in particular how it feels like the Animal Crossing DLC is "foisted" upon me. It would have been cool to have an unbundled option.

I agree with others here that probably there is more to come besides adding to the N64 and Genesis libraries. If indeed this is so, they might want to add some "And more to be announced " type of messaging on the info site.

As it is, this is a likely No-Go for my group.

... that said, if WaveRace 64 comes with like rumble enabled and smoothed performance

 

[enempi]

Well I definitely agree it is a bit steep. Hopefully this means there will be more content coming or at least a steady stream of N64 games. I’m not really interested in the AC DLC but it would cool if other DLC packs get included.

That being said…I’m sure I’ll cave at some point when there’s an N64 game I want to play. I can stomach $30 over 12 months, hell I probably spend 20x that on coffee. Nintendo owns me and I’m not going to pretend otherwise

 

[karmitt]

So I felt like the $55AUD / Year I play for the Family Plan was fair. Myself, my wife and a few friends all benefit from it for online play.

$110AUD just doesn't feel worth it tho. My wife is very interested in the AC DLC, but she could just buy it outright for less. They could really turn this around with promises of other DLC being included; Like this higher tier was going to give us DLC for a lot of first party games moving forward that would actually be very solid - a first-party DLC Game Pass

As is however, $85 AUD would have probably been the sweet spot to get me to have a sustained sub.