"Everyone else does it, so why shouldn't Nintendo?"
Hey there everyone, Happy Gamer here and Nintendo is finally joining Sony and Microsoft in the "pay for online" game. I'm sure I'm with the majority here when I say "Nintendo, this is NOT what we meant when we said 'you need to be more like your competitors'." Paying to play online is the largest scam in the gaming industry (well, one of the largest). By and large it doesn't add anything. The servers are hosted by the developers (they don't get any of the membership money) and the paid experience normally isn't enhanced at all compared to the free counterpart if there is one (see PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, and Wii U compared to XBOX, XBOX 360, XBOX ONE, and PS4). They now "give you a game or 10 with your subscription" (games with gold, ps plus, and now switch online), and you no longer NEED premium to use online apps (old 360 days), but it's still not really an excuse. I estimate that 99.99999% of gamers don't like paying a monthly fee to play online. I know I sure don't.
I have never paid for a console's premium online service, and I have no intention to start. First off, I don't really care for playing online. The only game I do that with is splatoon, but by and large I prefer to play single player. I know I'm the minority in today's internet connected and competitive gaming world, but I like to play by myself, because I'm generally a-social. I wouldn't go so far as to say "introverted" (I make goofy internet videos, wear florescent yellow as a normal staple of my wardrobe, and have worn a blue morph suit in public on various occasions), but when I want to relax, I like to do things by myself. But even if I did like online, I don't play videogames enough to justify the subscription. When I pay for something, I feel the need to use it. I subscribe to hulu plus, and I watch a lot of hulu on my devices as a result. I have amazon prime, and I made sure I bought enough things with free shipping to justify the subscription. If I were to subscribe to one of these premium online services, I don't think I would play enough to justify the subscription, and as such would stop subscribing, and would probably get into PC gaming since that's free.
"But Microsoft and Sony do it, why shouldn't Nintendo. If console gamers are willing to pay for online, then Nintendo is selling themselves short." That's a largely reasonable argument I've heard from defenders. They aren't exactly happy with it, but they argue that it's just smart business. And I would agree, if it wouldn't be a major selling point. See, Nintendo says "no, seriously, we're getting the 3rd party games this time around; the Nintendo Switch is going to be your one stop shop for videogames." There's a lot of speculation that the Switch isn't going to be as powerful as base XBOX ONE and PS4, and it's known that Nintendo is shipping it with only 32 gigs of internal storage (though with flash memory for the games I don't know how big of a problem that will be if data can be written to the games), and many people are still salty about the Wii U. However, if Nintendo offers free online, that's a major selling point.
"Hmm, the game looks nicer but I need to pay $10 a month to play online on PS4/XBOX, or the game looks worse but I can play FOR FREE on the Switch." Personally, I would go with free. That could be a major selling point. "Play for free on Nintendo Switch." That would make the decision to buy a Switch easier (or the decision to not buy a switch harder to make). Or if you have multiple consoles (like me), the option of buying for the Switch that much more appealing.
Hopefully Nintendo decides against pay for online. This has been Happy Gamer, signing off, and this could have been your slogan; "Play for free on the Switch, Nintendoes what the others don't."
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