Nintendo Switch Upgrade Potentially Leaked

By Tyler Fischer

Nintendo may finally be making a long-overdue improvement to Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Online. The Nintendo Switch is on pace to be one of the best-selling video game consoles of all time. This is partially because of the novel nature of the hybrid machine and because of the exclusive software. What it's not because of are the bells and whistles of Nintendo Switch. Similarly, without access to NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, and N64 games, Nintendo Switch Online is a bare-bone service missing many key features. That said, it looks like Nintendo is going to slightly alleviate both of these problems with a new improvement. As for the improvement, it involves the friend code system. 

Over on Reset Era, a Nintendo fan has pointed out that a recent Splatoon 3 trailer seems to hint at a revamp of the Switch friend code system. Right now, the only way to add friends on Nintendo Switch is to punch in their numeric friend code, which is an archaic and inconvenient system. There are a few reasons why this system is in place, but one of the reasons is because Switch users can change their names on the fly. In other words, their account is attached not to a unique username, but to a unique code.

Interestingly, the aforementioned trailer shows players with a four-digit numeric code next to their username. If this method sounds familiar, it's because it's used by a variety of platforms, such as Discord. This allows users to add friends via their name plus the code. This wouldn't be a huge improvement for Switch and Switch Online, but it would be an improvement. 

It's unclear what these numbers could be indicative of if not this. The first two Splatoon games don't have any type of in-game friends system, and there's no reason to expect this to change. That said, this is the only other explanation we can think of for this. 

As always, we will keep you updated as the situation evolves. In the meantime, for more coverage on all things Nintendo and Nintendo Switch, specifically, click here.

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