Joelstinton14
Member
When Nintendo announced that the Switch will have a paid for online service, the last free console online service died with it. It is fair to say that this was to some degree expected, but the ambiguity about the service as left a lot of people frustrated, and understandably so. Although i do expect Nintendo to have a direct in the coming weeks to unveil their plans.
With many functions of a console designed around online functionality, I think it is also fair to say that money has to be invested into maintaining security, servers, and development of new features as well as general maintenance. On the flipside it could be seen as a cash grab - PSN alone made more money that nintendo did in the last FY and you can see why Nintendo would want a slice of that pie.
Nintendo have a lot of work to do to prove that their services are worth paying for. It is also an issue that could seriously derail the launch of the Switch and lose a lot of good will and customers. So i guess Nintendo have to play a balanced hand. I don't believe that they have announced all of their plans and foolishly only mentioned parts of it.
So what features do you want to see and what prices? What would you be happy paying, and if they did have £40 a year pricing what do you expect?
Personally I'm looking for flexibility in their online pricing. I think one of the biggest problems facing online charges is that i don't always play online, actually very rarely, but I appreciate that Sony offer 1 month subscription for £4.99. I like to see that to some degree, price depending on overall service. Also if you are not keen on a title you can effectively just decide when you want to jump in and play online.
For the longer term subscriber, if they were going to have basic online services- account, e-shop, discounts, 1 game a month etc, £20, or £15.99 seems about right, especially in context with PSN offering up to 4 games a month at times.
If they were going to the full haul, I like them to try something different, perhaps their game on service games - Mario kart or Splatoon - all dlc becomes free, but then again, maybe not all gamers like those titles , so the value may not be there for some. But it keeps user bases together which has its own advantages. But i think the obvious model they should have followed is making it optional. Like PS3 Psn. Allow users to decide whether they want to invest into it.
Much as been made of Nvidia Shield streaming services, and i wonder if Nintendo have something similar, and if you could get access to that in some form with a subscription, than the full £40 might be worth it, alongside standardised features that the others offer.
So what are you expecting Gaf?
With many functions of a console designed around online functionality, I think it is also fair to say that money has to be invested into maintaining security, servers, and development of new features as well as general maintenance. On the flipside it could be seen as a cash grab - PSN alone made more money that nintendo did in the last FY and you can see why Nintendo would want a slice of that pie.
Nintendo have a lot of work to do to prove that their services are worth paying for. It is also an issue that could seriously derail the launch of the Switch and lose a lot of good will and customers. So i guess Nintendo have to play a balanced hand. I don't believe that they have announced all of their plans and foolishly only mentioned parts of it.
So what features do you want to see and what prices? What would you be happy paying, and if they did have £40 a year pricing what do you expect?
Personally I'm looking for flexibility in their online pricing. I think one of the biggest problems facing online charges is that i don't always play online, actually very rarely, but I appreciate that Sony offer 1 month subscription for £4.99. I like to see that to some degree, price depending on overall service. Also if you are not keen on a title you can effectively just decide when you want to jump in and play online.
For the longer term subscriber, if they were going to have basic online services- account, e-shop, discounts, 1 game a month etc, £20, or £15.99 seems about right, especially in context with PSN offering up to 4 games a month at times.
If they were going to the full haul, I like them to try something different, perhaps their game on service games - Mario kart or Splatoon - all dlc becomes free, but then again, maybe not all gamers like those titles , so the value may not be there for some. But it keeps user bases together which has its own advantages. But i think the obvious model they should have followed is making it optional. Like PS3 Psn. Allow users to decide whether they want to invest into it.
Much as been made of Nvidia Shield streaming services, and i wonder if Nintendo have something similar, and if you could get access to that in some form with a subscription, than the full £40 might be worth it, alongside standardised features that the others offer.
So what are you expecting Gaf?