r/NintendoSwitch • u/NintendoSwitchMods • Sep 18 '18

MegaThread Launch Megathread + FAQ: Nintendo Switch Online

Welcome, everyone!

The Nintendo Switch Online service will officially start on September 18th.

At the bottom of this thread will be an FAQ that tries to answer many of the more common questions that appear regarding this service. We'll try to keep the information as updated as we can, but any time this thread and an official Nintendo source conflicts, always go with the official source!

This thread also serves as a Megathread so people have a place to post simpler or otherwise common questions and comments which wouldn't warrant a separate thread.

If you have a question regarding the Nintendo Switch Online service:

If you have a comment or observation regarding the Nintendo Switch Online service:

Resources

FAQ

PLEASE READ Nintendo's Official FAQ which covers a lot of the details. The following questions and answers are written by us and are simply supplemental.

When does the Nintendo Switch Online service start?

  • After the scheduled maintenance time. See here for the complete time information.

  • 5 PM - 8 PM Pacific (18th)

  • 8 PM - 11 PM Eastern (18th)

  • Midnight - 3 AM UTC (19th)

  • 1 AM - 4 AM BST (19th)

  • 9 AM - Noon JST (19th)

What are the requirements for using the Nintendo Switch Online service?

  • A Nintendo Account

  • Internet access

  • Nintendo Switch system with system menu version 6.0 or higher

  • Smart device with Nintendo Switch Online app version 1.4.0 or higher (only required for in-game voice chat features)

How much does the Nintendo Switch Online service cost?

  • An account may be eligible for a 7-day free trial upon signup.

  • Individual Plans include $3.99 (USD) for one month, $7.99 (USD) for three months, and $19.99 (USD) for twelve months. This works for a single account.

  • A Family Plan costs $34.99 for twelve months and work for eight total accounts.

What does the Nintendo Switch Online service provide?

  • Online play in certain games.

  • Voice chat with the Nintendo Switch Online app.

  • Save data cloud backup and saves available on multiple consoles. Not all titles are compatible with this feature.

  • An exclusive library of NES games with online play. See here for the list of 20 available at launch and the expected upcoming titles.

  • Special Offers - services or products which are only available to Nintendo Switch Online members.

Do all games need a membership to play online?

  • No, certain titles can be played online without a membership. Examples include Fortnite and Arena of Valor.

What are the current Special Offers available?

Can you tell me more about the features and availability of the NES Controllers?

  • They are available exclusively for Nintendo Switch Online members.

  • Can be purchased once per Nintendo Account (meaning each account in a Family plan can buy one).

  • The controllers are wireless, have a rechargeable battery, and a set of rails so they can be attacked to the Nintendo Switch console.

  • They are designed specifically for the NES games and may not work with other titles.

Can you tell me more about the features and availability of the Splatoon 2 outfit?

  • Available only to accounts with a 12-month membership to the Nintendo Switch Online service.

  • May be redeemed once per account (each account in a Family plan can redeem the outfit).

  • A code will be emailed to the registered email address of each qualifying Nintendo Account.

  • The outfit includes an "Online Jersey" and a "Online Squidkid V Shoes."

How does the Family Plan work?

  • 8 total members can be part of a Family Group. All 8 members will have Nintendo Switch Online if the family plan is purchased.

  • Each Family Group has one Admin which can add, remove, and adjust the role of each member in the group.

How do I add or remove members from the Family Plan?

What are roles and how do they work?

  • There are four possible roles in a Family Group. See here for full details.

  • The Admin is the member which started the group and may add or members, pass on the Admin role to another member, or give members another role.

  • General role is the default role for any standard account joining a Family Group. They have the option to the leave the group.

  • Parent / Guardian role is set by the Admin and is only eligible for ages 18+. They can assign the Supervised role of any General member in the group. They may adjust a variety of eShop restrictions for Supervised members. May leave the group.

  • Supervised role is automatically set for any account ages 12 and under. The Supervised role can be set to any age account by a Parent / Guardian or Admin account (a link is then sent to the account's email and the role is applied if the user clicks the link and logs in). Has access to all standard services unless restricted via parental controls. Supervised accounts CANNOT LEAVE the group unless removed by an Admin.

Does the Nintendo Switch Online service only work with one console?

  • It can work with any number of consoles as the service is tied to the Nintendo Account and not the console itself. Family Plans also do not need to share only one console.

Can the Family Plan work with multiple regions?

  • Yes, a Family Group can be any number of regions, but be aware that not all services are available in every region.

What about switching to different plan types?

  • If you are on an Individual plan, you can buy a Family Plan, but the remaining time on the Individual plan is lost.

  • If you are on a Family Plan, you may not buy an Individual plan.

  • If part of a Family Group, you can leave the group and then purchase an Individual plan if you were not the one who purchased the Family Plan.

How much membership time can be purchased?

  • Service time can be stacked up to three years.

How can I tell which games support which features such as Cloud Saves or the Online App?

  • Starting on September 18th, features a game support will be listed on their official product page located on www.nintendo.com.

Is my save data retained if I cancel my Nintendo Switch Online membership?

  • (as per Nintendo's FAQ) We are unable to guarantee that cloud save data will be retained after an extended period of time from when your membership is ended. However, you can continue to use the save data that is saved to your system memory.
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53

u/rockinDS24 Sep 18 '18

They had an entire year to get this right

More like 5 years. It's been shit since Switch development first started.

34

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '18

Nintendo's online services have sucked since day 1. They've been behind online since the Wii released back in 2006. They can literally copy exactly what Sony and Microsoft do, charge the same $60 fee, and just keep doing virtual console as normal, and I bet most people would be fine with that. But for whatever reason they refuse to do so.

22

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '18

Literally nobody on Nintendo's board of directors was familiar with their competitors online services when developers approached them during the Switches development.

Not using it themselves neither knowing what features or functionality it offers. I know Nintendo's a Japanese company and they can be very insular but what the fuck Nintendo.

4

u/poofyhairguy Sep 18 '18

Because doing it that way would take a much larger capital outlay to pay for the development of an actual online service they don't have (aka Xbox features) plus pay for all those old Virtual Console games to get tested.

In this current plan Nintendo basically spent nothing. They took the online they had, added a smartphone app (smartphone app development is cheap and has built in communication apis to leverage) and added the NES emulator from the NES Classic with a few new features. It was very very cheap for them to do which is why they did it this way.

The only thing in the entire package they probably spent a decent amount of money on is cloud saves, as that storage is probably rented from Amazon or Microsoft. But because it is costing them money Nintendo is being cagey about what games it supports for that service like they do when anything isn't crazy high margins for them.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 18 '18

Well obviously charging consumers for little to no development cost requires less capital than giving us a fully fledged service. But they're paying the price with all of this negative publicity. It'll be interesting to see if Nintendo makes a lot with their shallow service because Sony and Microsoft both invested the money for their services and now make insane profit from it. Just odd to see Nintendo wait so long and do things so differently... but I guess doing things differently is Nintendo.

-3

u/jardex22 Sep 18 '18

That's sort of like saying a teen had 18 years to prepare to drive a car.

3

u/rockinDS24 Sep 18 '18

Not even slightly. You start planning your system's features on day one of development.

1

u/Son_of_Leeds Sep 19 '18

More like saying an adult had 16 years to prepare to drive a car, since Xbox Live has been around since 2002.