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Nintendo Switch Online: everything you want to know about the online service

Nintendo Switch Online is the new online service from Nintendo that allows you to play online on your Nintendo Switch. You can not do that without this subscription.
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Nintendo Switch Online is the new online service from Nintendo that allows you to play online on your Nintendo Switch. You can not do that without this subscription. The subscription is not very expensive and also lets you play several NES games.

Nintendo Switch Online – the new Nintendo service

Since the release of the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS, it is also officially online for Nintendo fans to play. Previous Nintendo systems already had a kind of online service, but they never really got off the ground (especially in Europe). With the Wii and DS Nintendo did a lot better, although you sometimes had to jump through different hoops (who remembered the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector?), But with the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS it was all painless and – more importantly – still free.

Since the release of the Nintendo Switch it is already possible to play free online games with games like Mario 8 Deluxe, Arms and of course Splatoon 2. Eighteen months later, in mid-September 2018, however, comes to an end here. We already knew this when the console was first sold; but only now is the Nintendo Switch Online service launched. You will need this subscription from now on to be able to play online, but unfortunately no longer succeeds. Fortunately, the service is not very expensive and you get a few extras.

Until about a week before the launch of the service, a lot was not yet clear about Nintendo Switch Online. Fortunately, Nintendo has now clarified a few things about the subscription. In this article we will discuss the most important aspects with you, look at parts that do not pay much attention and you know exactly what it all has to cost. What about the cloud saves, for example, when your subscription expires? And is the subscription renewed automatically?

Incidentally, not all games need the Nintendo Switch Online service for their online gameplay. Games that you can download and play for free, such as Fortnite, which is still popular, do not need the subscription – even without the service you can still take it against your friends. These are free-to-play games, games that really need to be ‘free to play’. So if you have downloaded a game for free and you want to keep playing it, you are not obliged to take out a subscription.

Nintendo Switch Online – the prices

The Nintendo Switch Online member service is EUR 3.99 per month cost. A period of three months costs you 7.99 euros, while a full year is considerably cheaper with an amount of 19.99 euros. There will also be a family membership for 34.99 euros, where eight Nintendo accounts can take online activities for a year. If you go for the last subscription, then you pay effectively less than four and a half euros for a full year subscription. No, it is not free, but it is very cheap.

Nintendo Switch Online – save save games in the cloud

What Sony and especially Microsoft do very well is to keep your save games (storage files of your games ). At Microsoft you do not have to pay anything for storing and backing up your files online, while you need PlayStation Plus on a Sony console. In both cases you can also save the files to an external hard drive and thus back up. Unfortunately, the Nintendo Switch does not support external hard drives, which means that this option is lost and so, especially for your backup, you rely on the cloud.

Now it is of course nice that Nintendo also (finally) offers this possibility, but there is a giant viper underneath. If you do not extend your subscription on time, then you have lost those storage files in the cloud. It is of course possible to store your files locally (on the internal memory or a micro-sd card), after which you can upload them to the cloud again if you are a subscription again. It does not feel very logical; This is certainly something you should look out for.

Nintendo Switch Online – buy, extend and terminate subscription

The Nintendo Switch Online subscription is for sale in the Nintendo eShop. Before you buy, you get a trial period of seven days. At that time you can do everything that other members can, but it is not yet possible to use all special offers (more about that later). After those seven days you will get the option to keep your subscription by buying a subscription of your choice. Immediately set automatic renewal, then you automatically buy a monthly subscription of 7.99 euros.

It is also possible to purchase an annual subscription of course; then you have to disable the automatic grant in the first instance. If after about a year you already know for sure that you still want to have an annual subscription, you can immediately purchase one. The remaining time is then counted on top of the new year. For example, if you have 35 days left and you buy an annual subscription, then you have a total of four hundred online days. In total you can stack up to three years on subscriptions

If you have purchased an individual subscription and you actually want a Family subscription, then it is not possible to take the remaining time with you. You will then have to wait until the subscription expires before you start the other plan. If you still have both subscriptions on your name, your individual subscription will no longer be renewed automatically. It is also good to know that the subscription is linked to your Nintendo account and that you can play online on all Switch consoles.

The automatic renewal of your Nintendo Switch Online subscription works as follows. After the trial period of seven days you can choose different options (monthly, quarterly and annual subscription). The subscription you have chosen will automatically be renewed at the end of the period. If you have an annual subscription, it is automatically renewed after 365. The same applies to monthly and quarterly subscriptions. Nintendo uses your balance in the eShop, which you can link to PayPal’s payment service.

Stopping your Nintendo Switch Online subscription is simple. If you no longer pay for a new period, it will automatically be shut down. You can not stop earlier and get a refund, or something like that. Have you enabled automatic renewal? Do not forget to switch it off so that you do not accidentally continue to pay. You can do this within the Nintendo eShop and the Nintendo Account website. Actually you can arrange everything in the download shop.

Nintendo Switch Online – subscription for families

If you want to subscribe with several people, you can opt for the family- subscription. Up to eight people can then be registered. This subscription costs 34.99 euros per year. Everyone who is registered can then enjoy all online services; regardless of the Nintendo Switch console. All you have to do is make a group. Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to officially participate in this subscription, but Nintendo does not impose any restrictions.

Nintendo Switch Online – Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo Switch Online also gives you access to NES games. These games have new online functionalities and can be played as long as the console connects to an online network once every seven days. These NES games feature an HD resolution, save states (a means to quickly store your progress at a specific point) and filters (with which you can simulate a crt effect for example). You can also pause a game, end it and pick it up again later.

A second player can join a game by means of a special cursor (depends on the game). This cursor has the shape of a hand, with which players can, for example, point out things (such as hidden secrets). There can also be folded for encouragement. In addition, it is good to know that the storage files of these NES games also end up in the cloud and thus disappear when you stop that subscription. Of course it is possible to store the save games locally on your Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo Switch Online – voice chat

When you play online on your Nintendo Switch, you can also voice chat. On Xbox and PlayStation, this is done through a headset that you connect to the controller (or wirelessly with the console itself), but with Nintendo this is different. You need a special app that you use on your smartphone. You add your friends. This way you can be sure that you do not come into contact with Jan and everyone else, so you choose the people you want to voice with. You can also decide for yourself when you want to get out of the voice chat group.

Nintendo Switch Online – special promotions

In addition to the above-mentioned components, the Nintendo Switch Online service has another component: special promotions . Members of the subscription can order special items, such as NES controllers that can only be used with the NES games on the Nintendo Switch. But you can also think of special outfits for Splatoon characters. Furthermore, Nintendo has not announced much at the time of writing, so we have to wait and see what special promotions are added by the company.

For more details please visit Nitendo Switch Online Official Website