[Bla1ze]

Playstation and XBox have built out pretty robust online offerings and now Nintendo is hopping into the mix with the Switch. What does Nintendo have to offer by way of online services to get you interested in it? They plan on charging for the service, so for me, it has to offer more than just the ability to play games with friends and family.

This is what will be available in March as a free trial:

Online Play on Nintendo Switch - You’ll be able to play compatible co-op and competitive games online by signing in with your Nintendo Account. Online play will be free for Nintendo Account holders until our paid online service launches in fall 2017.

This is what they currently have planned for 2017:

Online lobby and voice chat - Our new dedicated smart device app will connect to Nintendo Switch and let you invite friends to play online, set play appointments, and chat with friends during online matches in compatible games─all from your smart device. A free, limited version of this app will be available for download in summer 2017.

Monthly game download - Subscribers will get to download and play a Nintendo Entertainment System™ (NES) or Super Nintendo Entertainment System™ (Super NES) game (with newly-added online play) for free for a month.

Exclusive deals - Special offers for subscribers may include discounts on select digital games and content.

http://www.nintendo.com/switch/online-service/

[Speedygi]

Iam just hoping they offer a good digital distribution platform... and yes free games every month.

[Greek Geek]

Playstation and XBox have built out pretty robust online offerings and now Nintendo is hopping into the mix with the Switch. What does Nintendo have to offer by way of online services to get you interested in it? They plan on charging for the service, so for me, it has to offer more than just the ability to play games with friends and family.

This is what will be available in March as a free trial:

Online Play on Nintendo Switch - You’ll be able to play compatible co-op and competitive games online by signing in with your Nintendo Account. Online play will be free for Nintendo Account holders until our paid online service launches in fall 2017.

This is what they currently have planned for 2017:

Online lobby and voice chat - Our new dedicated smart device app will connect to Nintendo Switch and let you invite friends to play online, set play appointments, and chat with friends during online matches in compatible games─all from your smart device. A free, limited version of this app will be available for download in summer 2017.

Monthly game download - Subscribers will get to download and play a Nintendo Entertainment System™ (NES) or Super Nintendo Entertainment System™ (Super NES) game (with newly-added online play) for free for a month.

Exclusive deals - Special offers for subscribers may include discounts on select digital games and content.

Nintendo Switch online service – Nintendo Switch™ Official site – Online gaming, multiplayer, voice chat

Most of all I'd like to see cloud based game save data, so that no matter which console you're playing on, you can pick up from where you left off. This functionality already exists on Super Mario Run for iPhone, so is possible this might be where they're going anyway. )otherwise I can'tr really see much in in paying for the online services) but with this feature it would totally be worth it!

(I'd like to see this feature supported not just on regular games, but also to Virtual Console games aswell) I've bought so many of these for WiiU and 3DS, but I probably will not buy so many of them them all over again on Switch unless I can continue playing where I'm currently at. (or I'll simply lose all my progress). Without it I would have to just keep the old console with all my saves on to continue playing those, and not bother re-purchasing the titles again.

Now obviously, Nintendo want to be able to still sell Virtual Console games on every new console. Which is why they will probably be reluctant to do a straight system transfer of the game itself. However, the best way to solve this is to still charge for the game, but to just let our game save data be stored on the cloud, which would give us a good reason to want to re-download them again (even if we had to pay for the re-downloads again), as that would be a great way to keep all our gaming on the most recent console, without Nintendo having to lose any money in order to do it. (The subscription service would be totally worth the money if we could do this, but without it I'm struggling to see what I'd even need the subscription service for. Just monthly rentals of games doesn't really warrant the cost, but game progress data would be really useful and worth every penny!) Plus this would also be a great way to keep fans loyal to Nintendo, because we wouldn't want to give up our precious storage of our most beloved games.

Let's face it, most modern devices offer cloud storage anyway, so is really simple to set up. (all it is is essentially a cloud based hard drive for what you already do). If I was a Nintendo CEO or investor, I would also realize that this would provide Nintendo with a constant steady revenue stream (plus possibilities for storage upgrades if and when this starts to get large).

(Obviously, we'd always like everything to be free), but if they're going to be charging for Nintendo online services anyway, this is the feature that would make it worth it for me! (just monthly rentals of games just doesn't warrant the cost in my opinion, so I probably won't bother if that's all it is.

So Nintendo, if you're listening, CLOUD BASED GAME SAVE DATA is how you can earn my money for online services in a way that I'd do gladly!

[ry189]

I agree with all the above suggestions, these is my personal list:
- cloud save
- game "app" store (much like steam but for nintendo)
- multiplayer gaming, especially useful for mario kart type games where you play for a short time and more fun with friends or multiplayer
- social sharing (gameplay footage)
- achievements

Most of these are already available and mimic Xbox, Playstation, and Steam features. Would be cool if Nintendo built an entire new equivalent system for its own unique game base!

[justsuf]

Are cloud saves something that Nintendo is even considering? Is it because of piracy that Nintendo locked game saves to individual Switch consoles or did Nintendo do the quick and easy thing to meet the release date?

[Duvi]

I hope Nintendo copies Microsoft. I could care less for PlayStation and their online set up. Have both systems and only thing I loved better about the PS4 was the ability to use wireless headsets. Now that MS did away with that BS, that reason no longer exists.

The Xbox is really a social platform on its own. Robust party chat, Clubs, DVR recording (one button and you can short from a wide range of recording intervals as low as 15 seconds to as much as 5 minutes. It's speedy to, unlike the PS4.

[Greek Geek]

Are cloud saves something that Nintendo is even considering? Is it because of piracy that Nintendo locked game saves to individual Switch consoles or did Nintendo do the quick and easy thing to meet the release date?

Whether they're actually considering it or not is unknown, so anything anyone hears is mostly just speculative. I did see a GameXPlain video that claimed Reggie from Nintendo of America had hinted at it, but when I actually watched it, it didn't look any way at all like he actually is committing to the idea, and was more just a "watch this space" type of comment he gave in response to when a journalist asked him about it. However, clearly people do want it, so there is a thirst for it! Additionally, Super Mario Run on iPhone shows that they've already tried making something that does cloud saves, so that fact actually does give me reason to hope.

One thing I do know though, if we ever want to see it done, the worst thing we could ever do is keep quiet about it. Us showing public encouragement for the idea can only be a good thing in terms of them and their investors hearing actual customers make the right noises. (if it all goes quiet however, how will they know enough of us support the idea?) So being vocal about it on forums is a great way to make our desires publicly known.

[lightsandswirls]

That's a great idea - I'm all for re-paying to download my VC games again on the new system, as long as I can get my save states and don't have to start from scratch on them

[artsy006]

They should offer more online co-op titles and may be an online Final Fantasy game.

[angeleortiz]

I hope they offer Pikmin and Animal Crossing. These are my favorite Nintendo games along with Zelda!

[ToddHensley]

Any news on what the online service is likely to cost?

[slyder0244]

Yup totally gotta offer up some old school games for free. I would love to play some of the classics on the big screen for some nostalgia.

[artooro]

It just needs to be simple. Probably the opposite of Xbox and the Microsoft store built into it which doesn't work well with kids at all.

Game downloads should be for the device not for the signed in user.

[IvanKaramazov]

The free game per month is a big draw, but my understanding is that you don't actually get to keep the game, but only get to play it for the duration of that month. If true, it's a bit of a bummer. Would much rather pay for a program like the other major console players have, where a paid subscription nets you a game (or games) for keeps each month. However, with how slow Nintendo always is rolling out virtual console games each era, they're probably not likely to embrace such a model anyway.

[iHeartBretski]

Needs to have live voice chat and a messenger. That's all I want. OH and to make it affordable. ������

[cam12687]

I would like achievements, messaging and good quality online play. I don't play online games much, but would play Mario Kart, Smash Bros and Pokemon online. Nintendo has a lot of work ahead of them to get online play to the level that Xbox has. I believe they can do it, if they don't slack on it.

[TheGreatAstronomer]

I hope they offer the subscription based library they were talking about at E3 and that it is just more than NES games. Imagine having access to NES, SNES, GB and GBA, maybe N64 and GameCube games all on the Switch!

[GlassHasMass]

I would LOVE it if they'd offer Nintendo exclusives for PC using the online network!

Also set up a "App Store"(like what they have for smartphones) for the switch that is full of fun FREE games (make $$ off ads)!

[bubble100100]

Also set up a "App Store"(like what they have for smartphones) for the switch that is full of fun FREE games (make $$ off ads)!

Not for me, thanks. If I wanted free, ad-supported casual games I'd just play them on my phone. A full console is for fully featured, deep games like Zelda.

[splatune]

1) Dedicated servers for games instead of peer to peer networking.
2) Cloud based game saves just integrated automatically if you're paying for the online service.
3) Region selection: I want to be able to request that I only be paired with people in, in my case, North America. And if we could take this a bit further and request a max ping for games (at the risk of matchmaking taking a little longer), I'd like to be able to make that choice.
4) Hire someone else to do this because we all know Nintendo doesn't know how to offer a good online service