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Should Nintendo be more ruthless and charge more for their Nintendo Switch Online service?

Bragr

Banned
Playstation and Xbox have leveraged their services into monsters and are cashing in on billions. Sony's financial success this generation has been heavily dependent on their subscription services and Xbox has put all their chips on Game Pass.

OF COURSE it would suck, we all know that. The service doesn't contain the free games or the libraries of Playstation Now, Playstation Plus, or Game Pass.

BUT.

From a pure business perspective, do you think Nintendo could get away with charging more? from a hardcore gamer perspective, we would obviously be angry and lash out at the lack of free games and proper voice chat, but would there be any significant problems on a larger scale? if they charged double and retained 60% or 70% of the subscriptions, they cash in on multiple millions. Are they dumb for not being more ruthless right now when people can't get enough Nintendo?

Switch
Nintendo Switch Online: $3.99

Playstation
Playstation Plus: $9.99
Playstation Now: $9.99

Xbox
Game Pass Ultimate: $14.99

NSO_EN_1080_040221_h264
 

Ludist210

Member
Absolutely not. It's not as robust as other platforms. Charging more for less would be stupid (and stupid me would still pay for it).
 

kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
No. The service is paltry by comparison. The online features are bare bones even compared to two generations ago when live and ps+ started to take off.

Barely worth it to have now even if you are a die hard fan.

I do like the family plan idea though and wish others would adopt that model.

It does include free games though, if you count 30 year old SNES and NES games. Also the 99 games are kinda fun.
 
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jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
No, I think its priced well for what it offers.

Could they get away with charging more? Absolutely.
 
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charge more? for what exactly? you cant even message someone! it doesnt even have the most basic features from over a decade ago! the current price is about right for what you get. give us a virtual console like how it was on the wii and than you can charge more.
 

Neff

Member
It's the only gaming subscription service which is actually worth it imo.

That said, I'd have second thoughts about paying more, unless they were willing to substantially improve the legacy games selection, and no, more NES/SNES games wouldn't cut it.
 

Fbh

Member
Should they?
No, their service is pretty crap

Could they?
Honestly, yeah. Specially now with Monster Hunter
 

engstra

Member
Playstation doesn't cost $10 per month does it? I swear a year subscription is usually £40-£60.

In terms of Nintendo's online service, I don't pay for it now as I don't find Nintendo games to be online multiplayer type games. The library of NES and SNES games is a really cool feature that has made me consider getting it. If they start offering N64 and Gamecube games on there I would probably have to pony up the cash.
 
Nintendos online service is super cheap and even then I ended up cancelling it. Its just not worth it.

Their games regularly drop, certain services you expect to come with an online subscription service arnt there.....it's barebones. And the only thing they give away are 25 year old Nes/Snes games.

I only subbed when I was playing splatoon 2 and smash ultimate but can't really justify it for 2 games.
 

Derktron

Banned
Who the hell comes up with these threads, imagine the backlash over them raising up the prices when the service doesn't even offer what both PlayStation or Xbox offer.
 

Bragr

Banned
I knew none of you would understand. I am not saying I personally, or anyone else here, want a higher price, jesus christ.

I am talking business wise, not what you want. What makes sense economically.

PS Plus could cost a lot less but still be profitable, but they sustain the highest price possible for profit, as does Xbox.

Nintendo does not do that. The question is, what price could they be looking at and still retain growth, its certainly more than the current price.
 

radewagon

Member
A few days ago, I noticed by looking at my profile or some other such thing that my Switch Online service had been expired for months. I wonder how long it would have taken me to find out if I hadn't just accidentally found out. Nintendo Online seems to be the gym membership of the gaming subscription services. They make money by charging people for things they don't use.

So, ummm... long story short, no, they shouldn't charge more.
 

TexMex

Member
They'll loose a good chunk of their subs and financially end up in the same place so I assume they'd rather have more people in their eco system.

I'd entertain a price hike if more came with it. Not exactly a ton of must play multiplayer on the Switch and the free games they offer are all NES/SNES games which they add 2 games to once every three months. Not sure about eshop discounts. So nothing even remotely close to what you get for subbing to PS Plus or Xbox.
 

MathUser1

Neo Member
I like the free nes and snes games. They need to add a lot more if they want people to subscribe to. And more systems.
 

Bragr

Banned
When you are up in business, you take advantage. I don't see why Nintendo shouldn't increase the price. Use the money to produce more games, save for a rainy day.
You don't keep the price down to be nice, you have to use your day in the sun.
 
No? shouldnt be paying for the service as is, its no good putting old games on there many of us have played/loved and bought many times before.
 

Bragr

Banned
They'll loose a good chunk of their subs and financially end up in the same place so I assume they'd rather have more people in their eco system.

I'd entertain a price hike if more came with it. Not exactly a ton of must play multiplayer on the Switch and the free games they offer are all NES/SNES games which they add 2 games to once every three months. Not sure about eshop discounts. So nothing even remotely close to what you get for subbing to PS Plus or Xbox.
If they increase just 2 bucks they could afford to lose some subs and still earn a lot more money. Majority does not care about the bonus additions, they would throw their money at it either way.

Look, when sony rakes in billions from plus and now, Nintendo are behind the 8 ball by not doing the same. Add something that doesnt sell a lot anymore like Arms in the service and hike the price up 2 bucks. Huge earnings increase.
 
I would pay 100$ a year if they did a legit gamepass like system with retro games. GB, GBA, NES, SNES, N64, GameCube and Wii games.

The SNES and NES apps are cool in practice, but this console has been out for 4 years and it still doesn't have jack shit in terms of 3rd party classics.
 

MrSarcastic

Banned
Well, people buy their overprice fisher-price toys, their overrated nostalgia-driven lack of innovation games. So, YES. They should increase the price of their online service; people would pay for it anyway.
 

Bragr

Banned
the service is so bad that I already dropped it a few months ago, and I'm a HUGE nintendo fan.
But imagine you are Nintendo and need to maximise profits to help the company long term. If people are willing to pay more, why would you not jump on that? Its not about what it offers per say, but what sort of roof their subscrptions have. I think they are operating at a lower price than they need to and are losing millions.
 

Sidesalad

Member
Is this a joke? I'd rather buy an expired Xbox live card on ebay and relish in the nostalgia of the good old days than pay even a cent for Nintendo's garbage service.
 

Zeroing

Banned
Nintendo operates on their own rules and terms. They are cautious with what they do. one can argue they should push harder, it always seems they always hold back in everything they do.
We have the other 2 console makers pushing trends that sometimes are not even good for us gamers. I rather they focus on what is really really important - games. Because right now PlayStation and Xbox are becoming so similar that I am glad Nintendo is different.
 

graywolf323

Member
if I hadn't been able to get 3 years of the family membership for $20 a pop at Target's Black Friday sale I wouldn't even be subbed right now so hell no

and even then the only person who joined my family membership was my sister
 
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