More Details Emerge about the Switch's Online Service

We spoke last week about the Nintendo Switch: namely, the fact that it had been revealed to the public properly, with a whole bunch of features, specs, and details we need to know before making our purchasing decision… which you can find, in full, right here. Now, I fully intend to make a more comprehensive write-up with my second first-impression of the system later this week, but for now, there was one dangling thread from the original presentation I feel obligated to address.

Namely, when the presentation actually happened, we were unsure about the nature of the “free game” you reportedly get when you sign up for Nintendo’s online service. As a refresher, Nintendo is “switching” things up this time around, and in order to play their games online, you now have to pay a monthly fee, like Sony and Microsoft, but the fee is around $5. To incentivize and bring value to their online service (since, historically, Nintendo’s never done a great job with online support) Nintendo announced you could get a free game every month if you do.

Here are the details you need to know, however: you can actually pick what game you want… they aren’t pre-selected for you, the way Sony and Microsoft do. That’s the good news.

And that’s also where the good news ends. Because Nintendo also clarified you can only pick games on their Virtual Console, which kind of sucks because the UI is crap and your choices are going to be very limited. What’s more, you don’t even get to keep the game… you’re more renting it for the duration, and you’ll have to pick a new free game at the start of another month.

Now, some virtual console games certainly won’t take a month to beat. But that’s still a pretty raw deal, especially coming from Nintendo, who’s going to have a hard enough time justifying a monthly fee anyway.

Bah, we’ll save that for later. For now, take it for what it is.