Nintendo has provided new details about their upcoming online service for the Switch:
Online play will be free till the service finally launches in 2018. The service will cost $20 a year and is also available in monthly subscriptions, at $4 per month and $8 for 3 months.
Subscribers will also receive free retro games every month and will be able to keep them in their library and play them, as long as the subscription is active. Nintendo says that at launch, they will provide NES games to players (Super Mario Bros 3, Dr Mario and Balloon Fight will be included) while SNES games are still under consideration.
What do you think of Nintendo’s first steps towards a modern, subscription based online service? While there are still several questions left unanswered, such as how the Virtual Console would fare alongside this monthly-games model or the pretty odd decision of tethering voice chat and match making to a smartphone app instead of integrating it into the Switch itself, let’s hope the Big N manages to tie all ends together in due time.