Over the past few decades, Nintendo has amassed a library of exclusive games for its history of home consoles. Yet, when it comes to accessing these games, the library ofNintendo Switch Onlineexclusives includes little compared to its contemporaries in the industry.
Nintendo Switch Onlineis still under scrutiny by fans and critics alike due to Nintendo being years behind the times in terms of accessibility. PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold allow players to invest more money to access a vast library of free games on a monthly rotation. Nintendo has a similar pay-to-play online feature for Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) with a lower paywall, but it leaves much to be desired for players.
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Nintendo Switch Online Exclusives Running Thin
September 2018 marked the beginning of NSO, a full year after the console was released. NSO allows players to engage in online multiplayer, upload save games onto the Cloud, and comes with a smartphone application allowing for online communication. One feature that also came with the service later wasfree access to NESand SNES emulators, each with a vast selection of games for fans of retro-Nintendo titles. Save-state capability and rewind capability were also included.
Nintendo’s Outdated Business Practices
Recent sales statistics show that over 26 million people have subscriptions to NSO, a staggering number that proves fans are definitely interested in what Nintendo has to offer. Considering that NSO costs significantly less than its competitors' services, its popularity makes sense to an extent. Further, the NES andSNES have classic titlessuch asSuper Metroid,Link to the Past,andSuper Mario All-Stars,as well as many other lesser-known titles. These games do not rotate and are available at all times, and the fact that these games are all older and in digital format may contribute to the lower price point. However, the catalogs are wearing thin, with the most recent update receiving a staggering amount of dislikes from fans. While the classics that brought the company to the forefront of gaming history are great, there is still a much larger catalog that Nintendo is holding out on.
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Nintendo Switch Online Needs More Exclusives
The Switch OLEDis one of what will likely be many iterations of the Switch, and Nintendo seems to be using the new console to update its matchmaking capabilities with the addition of a LAN port. The most recent shareholder conference reports confirm that Nintendo wants to adjust NSO to make it more accessible as well, yet the words are too vague to get a solid answer as to what this change will entail. Fans want more than better matchmaking capabilities from Nintendo, though, with more emulators and a change to be more like contemporaries ranking near the top of many wish lists.
Both options wouldhelp Nintendo increase its catalog, yet one change would inevitably make NSO more expensive. If the games company decides to add a monthly rotation of games on a regular schedule, it would most likely drive up the cost of NSO due to newer games being more expensive to get clearance. However, Nintendo could keep the price low by adding new emulators for these NSO exclusives.
