After yesterday's, somewhat underwhelming, reveal of the
Nintendo Online Service, people were left wondering about the state of the Virtual Console - as it was nowhere to be seen -, and today we got confirmation from an official spokesperson that the Virtual Console is not among the company's plans.
The
Nintendo Switch Online Service is bringing a feature simply called
Nintendo Entertainment System, which very appropriately features classic
NES titles. The problem is that users were expecting something more akin to the
Virtual Console found on the
3DS and the
Wii U, which had a vast selection of titles from several Nintendo platforms like the
Game Boy,
Super Nintendo,
Nintendo 64, and
NES. So it is fair to say that the
Nintendo Entertainment System feature left fans disappointed when it only featured classic 8-bit era NES titles.
As reported by
Kotaku, who got an official email from a Nintendo spokesperson, the Virtual Console will not be making a comeback any time soon, if ever, as the email they got from Nintendo reads as follows:
"
There are currently no plans to bring classic games together under the Virtual Console banner as has been done on other Nintendo systems. There are a variety of ways in which classic games from Nintendo and other publishers are made available on Nintendo Switch, such as through Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo Switch Online, Nintendo eShop or as packaged collections.
Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo Switch Online will provide a fun new way to experience classic NES games that will be different from the Virtual Console service, thanks to enhancements such as added online play, voice chat via the Nintendo Switch Online app and the various play modes of Nintendo Switch."
This isn't necessarily bad news since they seem to be aiming for a similar service with the
Nintendo Entertainment System which, to be quite honest, sounds a lot better than
Virtual Console. The
Nintendo Entertainment System will even allow players to experience multiplayer games online, which is something the
Virtual Console always lacked. This will come especially handy given that no other online service has ever allowed a similar feature for classic games unless the games themselves has to be tweaked in order to allow online play.
To put it simple, the
Virtual Console is dead, at least as a brand, and the
Nintendo Entertainment System is its successor. The announcement is still pretty underwhelming given that the feature is only featuring NES titles when they could've added a few
Super Nintendo games to let people know that they won't only be focusing on 8-bit era games.
Don't get me wrong, though, the service in and of itself sounds very promising, but Nintendo better starts announcing more titles before the Online Service officially launches in
September, or customers won't be happy at all.