Nintendo has had a rough time trying to figure out something as simple as Online services, and their new Nintendo Switch Online service isn't the exception — or at least not for long, according to Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa.
During their latest financial briefing Q+A, Shuntaro Furukawa revealed that the company is currently planning on boosting the Nintendo Switch Online service's appeal on a yearly basis moving forward; something that, quite frankly, should've been done before the service was actually made available.
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We do think Nintendo Switch Online has had a good start coming out of the holiday season, helped in large part by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate", explained Furukawa by adding that users have recently opted to go for one-month memberships isntead of the other plans the controversial service offers.
"We are not disclosing details by each membership plan but among consumers who have purchased memberships, however, a growing percentage is now opting for shorter plans like the one-month membership. This is in contrast to the situation around the end of October of last year, when we reported that over half were opting for a 12-month family or individual membership."
The Nintendo Switch Online service was strategically made available in September of last year, a few months prior to
Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee! and
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's releases; keeping in mind that online play would be locked for players who don't pay for the service.
Furukawa also mentioned that the company is looking to "
build relationships with consumers and enrich the [service's] content", as well as "
planning ways to boost the appeal of the service on a yearly basis".
Users opting for one-month memberships as a good thing, as mentioned by Furukawa, is likely due to the lack of content the service has other than providing players with online gameplay. Costumers may be willing to pay for yearly subscriptions if they were given more incentives to do so — like adding more games to the service's lacking library of NES titles; even more so if they were to add other titles from consoles like the SNES, N64, and GameCube.
Nintendo Switch Online has been available for a bit over 4 months, and the service is still pretty lacking in content and not worth paying for a membership; no matter how cheap this may be. Hopefully Nintendo figures this out sooner than later because, as of now, the only redeeming quality their service has is that it allows users to play online; something that they were able to do for free.
With a Nintendo Switch Online* membership, you’ll get access to online play in compatible games, a growing catalog of classic NES™ titles with newly added online play, and cloud backup for your save data in compatible games.
Nintendo Switch Online is currently available.