Earlier this week, Nintendo finally revealed crucial details about the Nintendo Switch‘s mysterious paid online service. The bad news is Nintendo Switch Online won’t arrive until 2018, but, on the bright side, it will include a collection of classic NES games with online play and added features for the low price of $20 per year. Previously, Nintendo said subscribers would get a single SNES game per month with their online service subscription, but it seems the deal has been seriously upgraded:
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“Nintendo Switch Online subscribers will have ongoing access to a library of classic games with added online play. Users can play as many of the games as they want, as often as they like, as long as they have an active subscription. Nintendo Switch Online subscribers will be able to play a wide variety of classic games, including Super Mario Bros. 3, Balloon Fight and Dr. Mario. More games will be announced at a later date. At launch the classic game library will include NES games. Super NES games continue to be under consideration, but we have nothing further to announce at this time.”
In other words, Nintendo is finally coughing up the classic gaming Netflix fans have been wanting forever. We have no idea what the scope of this library of NES classics will be, it could literally be just the three games listed knowing Nintendo, but, in theory, this is very promising. But it also raises a big question – what about the Virtual Console? Nintendo has been dragging their feet badly on that, so is this library approach the replacement?
Apparently, not. Nintendo clarified in an interview with Japanese gaming mag Famitsu…
“Classic Games Selection (tentative name) is different from the Virtual Console. [The Virtual Console schedule] is still undecided.”
Nintendo has hinted strongly that games from more recent systems, like Gamecube and Wii, could be coming to Virtual Console, and they’re also said SNES games could be coming to Nintendo Switch Online’s Classic Games Collection. Could they be setting up for a situation where older NES/SNES games are accessed via subscription, and (relatively) newer games are bought individually via Virtual Console? It would make a certain amount of sense.
Nintendo says they’ll further detail their online service and the Classic Games Selection later this year. You can keep up with all the latest Nintendo Switch coverage by bookmarking this page, and catch up on WWG’s extensive back catalog of stories by clicking right here.
