Nintendo has revealed details about the online service for the Switch console. Paid services are set to begin in 2018, although Nintendo is allowing people to use online play for free until then.
To be clear, this is only the ability to play games online. Matchmaking, voice chat, and access to the Classic Game Selection are all being held off until next year. However, the good news is that Nintendo is set to charge substantially less than PlayStation Plus or Xbox Gold.
The service is set to cost $3.99 per month, with discounts for renewing membership in three and 12 month blocks. That’s about RM17 per month to subscribe to the service. A steal considering that Nintendo is also promising additional e-Shop discounts for subscribing.
That said, it is beginning to look like Nintendo still has some way to go with figuring out how to make this online thing work. This is evident by the fact that the online lobby and voice chat functions will work from a smartphone app; not from the console itself. It feels like a horribly convoluted solution to something that shouldn’t be a problem.
[Source: Nintendo]
