Opinion about paid Online for the Nintendo Switch
- Thread starter Dehnus
- Start date
The problem is paid online often cannibalizes couch MP.
. I mean look at Halo, they removed splitscreen completely.
The problem is paid online often cannibalizes couch MP.
60fps removed split screen, its already rendering the game twice, just in a different way. Online fee has been present since 2002 and Gears, Forza and every other Halo has supported local co op, even more so than Sony when their online was free.
Halo 6 might have a 30fps mode to bring it back.
It seems to be one of two camps:
1. Nintendo are lazy asses
2. Nintendo doesn't want to bog down the system's specs and OS with online party/voice stuff. Their gimped system will be a touch less gimped if they make gamers offload all the party stuff to their own phone
Personally, I think it's #2. I have a hard time believing that in 2017, a large company doesn't have enough foresight and planning to make a big splash with a new console and were simply to lazy or didn't have enough time to add it...... when every other console in history (current and older) has never needed to use a smartphone app to do it...... and some systems in the past were less powerful too.
The fact that their answer to free games every month to compete with Sony and Microsoft is a "one month trial" is a complete butt f***. Meaning you get a free game every month, but at the end of the month, Nintendo takes it back and you'll have to pay for the game to continue playing. Nintendo is becoming a Apple in the worst way.
I believe Ninty's response was that if gamers all focus on 1 game, it will make the community all play more cohesively, as opposed to many free games where gamers spread out.
A total BS answer to me, BUT if that is a genuine answer, it goes to show they don't have much confidence in their online community. If they truly believe they have to funnel gamers into a single monthly game so everyone sticks together so there is a big enough online group to keep the activity fresh, it goes to show even they predict the online community will be bone dry.
MS and Sony gamers have so many gamers that play online I don't think anyone cares how splintered off online gamers are..... with exception of devs closing servers here and there to cut costs as that old game's community is dead... which sounds like what Ninty's Switch online pool will be.
Just to show how active the MS community is, I played Black Ops BC today and the pool is 20,000 gamers. I tried World at War and it's still 2,000.... although right now it seems 1,900 of them are god mode hacker azzholes. lol
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I'm guess their online service will be a shade above what Wii U's is. Mainly a huge digital store and nothing really more. I read that Miiverse will not return so I have no idea how their social service will be. All in all, their online better be dirt cheap.
The system has share button functionality, so it sounds like the system should allow gamers to do YT or Twitch stuff. So as a start, it should have the basics.
As for a specialized social service, to me it comes down to whatever that smartphone app is. It could be a plain jane party/chat app. Or something totally different where the app is one part party/chat and one part "Miiverse 2".
Since Nintendo's online functionality is so weirdly put off to people phones, and Ninty has so far said nothing about the UI or app with only about 1.5 months to go, chances are the system's social services are going to be plain. If it was something awesome to show, Ninty would be promoting it day one and Reggie wouldn't be doing vague PR answers about the online service. The system supposedly doesn't even have basic apps like Netflix coming anytime soon.... my 6 year old tv even has Netflix built into the menu.
I think what Ninty is doing is just focusing on gaming on the go with a no frills feature. Kind of like XBL. It works fine, but XBL is a rather boring looking service of menus.
I think Switch's interface will just be a simple structure which all those hipsters in those videos would use.
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Knowing Nintendo It was it was either/all A) Protect the kiddies. B) Save battery life when on the road. C) This was their way of differentiating themselves. D) They're making a Nintenphone. E) Their execs are classic cases of previous position competence did not equal current position competence. E) They put together the switch in a major rush and couldn't get it in there so this is their solution until they can update the OS. F) They're trying to live up to their new slogan "Reinventing the wheel, in square form".
Apparently its also only for iOS and Android. So a crazy Windows Phone owner like me is left out in the cold. Oh well I most likely wasn't going to pay for their service anyway.
they cold very well have made the splitscreen 30FPS on that and even "local play only" if they really couldn't time it with the online aspect.
Which to me would be silly, if you use the oddframes to sync one, and the even to sync the other of the split screen player... buuuuuut okay. And yes I"m very much against paid online, I wouldn't be if MS had servers or allowed us to start our own servers free. Then I would love for them to have a paid version of their live service which they keep "cheater free" and with good dedicated servers. But you don't get that option, they (together with Nintendo btw) actively wend after tunneling software that allowed for free online play.
And yes, that bugs me.
It also does cannibalize local play, as companies like EA often see it as a threat to their paid business model (remember they get part of that money you send to MS per month, as they are allowed their own matchmaking servers, it was why in the beginning of the Xbox brand, you didn't have online capable EA games for the Xbox. )
THIS! I don't own a smart device for reasons of privacy. And I like to keep it that way. I do have a work phone that stays at work that is an android device, which I use to test our apps with. But that is about it. Why should I be forced to sign up for datamining my personal information, simply to play online?
And you know it will happen, evenPhilips TV's with AndroidTV on them? Now start showing ads, and see it as a "way to generate more money!". Televisions that you buy! Right there in the menu!
I have friends, I just don't have a rooftop. OOH WAIT! I do
, but it is a Norwegian Rooftop.. so not fancy schmanzy weather that you posh Southerners are used to. If you want to play on the roof? You better buy ball in a cup! And then you still have to hope the string doesn't freeze solid
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Not really worried about it. Not like i'm going to be playing third party games on Switch. If the next Smash Bros. is amazing, and it will be, then the online fee will be worth it for me. Can't imagine them charging more than $40 a year. Live and PS Plus are a bit overpriced, $50 was already pushing it. So as long as it's priced right, whatever.
Well the "paid demos" of 30 year old games got me worried. Starting to believe that Nintendo will be extremely stingy, and not announcing a price is making that believe worse.
The right price is whatever gives them a good revenue stream at the expense of lost MP gamers.
It sucks, since PC online gaming is free (except many MMO with monthly sub fees), but console gamers are willing to pay it, so the console online model sticks. Even Ninty with their gimped online is charging money.
Map packs are the same. Might be free on PC, but console gamers get charged $10-15 per pack.
The right thing to do as gamers to nix the fees is don't support it, but we do. EA says digital microtrans hit record levels every year, esp with EA Sports. Every gamer claims to not be part of the action, yet somehow EA keeps rolling in the Ultimate Team fees. So one group is lying..... and I doubt it's EA's earnings reports.
I've never bought any nitpicky microtrans item, avatar skin, theme, Ace Combat fight jet skin etc.... but I have bought some CoD map packs. So I contributed to the map pack fees strategy, and I do MP, so I'm supporting $60 annual online fees.
http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/1/14474430/nintendo-switch-online-service-price
Looks like i was spot on. Not going to be that much in comparison to Live/PSN.
Why is it okay for Microsoft(a company with a trillion dollars) and Sony to make money off online fees but it's not okay for Nintendo to make a buck?
Probably because Ninty's online infrastructure is weak and they don't get the support of all the usual online games like shooters and sports.
But if that price is true (about $20-25), it's much better than $40+.
Well if nobody gets left behind like Microsoft promised with Scorpio and PS5 isn't out until 2020 then it's possible that Switch gets all the dudebro shooters that the other consoles get since Switch is about as powerful as vanilla X1/PS4.
We'll see what happens. If third party devs just abandon Nintendo again then yeah, not much reason to pay an online fee just to play Smash and Mario Kart.
We'll see what happens. If third party devs just abandon Nintendo again then yeah, not much reason to pay an online fee just to play Smash and Mario Kart.
The good thing is that Ninty said they aren't charging money for online until the fall. So by that time, people will have an idea how good Switch's online is and if all those dudebro shooters and EA Sports come out.
When MS and Sony started charging money for online mp, they did it as a hard starts. No way to really test it out.
Xbox OG charged when online became available, and Xbox 360 and PS4 charged for online right away.
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I do not beleive it is okay for Microsoft either, especially if it is a peer 2 peer connection that is made. People are just foolish enough to pay for something that they should get for free.
Need to pay to be able to back up saves
Yeah this is ridiculous and they still haven't sorted out the online chat without that crappy app.
The price isn't the problem, the problem is that their service is ULTRA sub par to be even paying for. This is less than free PS3 PSN era quality service they want us to pay for. Their games don't even have VOICE CHAT which has been a staple feature since the original Xbox, only 1 game does and you have to use a smart phone app. LMAO. Nintendo are completely out of their minds.
I'll pay $20 a year just to message people online. Seriously, i saw that i couldn't message anyone when i got my Switch and was like really Nintendo.. there's really no message option here. *throws Switch out window* Yeah right, best games in the world baby. Anyway..
Can't defend their lackadaisical approach to online play but hey they'll figure it out one day. Heard a rumor they might be teaming up with Microsoft and Discord to do Xbox Live like online on Switch. That could be cool.
Can't defend their lackadaisical approach to online play but hey they'll figure it out one day. Heard a rumor they might be teaming up with Microsoft and Discord to do Xbox Live like online on Switch. That could be cool.
Their voice chat solution is such an embarrassment. It's 2018. The PS2 had a more elegant system.
