What Is Nintendo Switch Online?
Nintendo Switch Online is the online subscription service for the Nintendo Switch. In other words, it is the counterpart to both PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold, so it should come as no surprise to learn that there are a lot of people who are curious about which is better than which under what circumstances. Unfortunately, there is no simple and straightforward answer in this regard, meaning that interested individuals will want to look into what each service offers before making up their own minds based on their own priorities.
How Does Nintendo Switch Online Compare With PlayStation Plus And Xbox Live Gold?
For starters, Nintendo Switch Online comes at a lower cost compared to its counterparts. For those who are curious, Nintendo charges either $4 per month or $20 per year, which is cheaper than what people can expect to pay for either PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold even if they are paying at a discounted rate. This is without considering what are being called family plans, which offer subscriptions for up to a total of seven accounts at even lower prices per subscription. Unfortunately, the cost of a service tends to be reflected in the features bundled into the service, with this case being no exception to the rule.
One excellent example is how Nintendo Switch Online doesn’t actually come with native support for voice chat. Instead, there is an app to enable said feature, though a bad launch has not exactly provided it with the best of reputations. With that said, Nintendo Switch Online does come with the features that most people would expect, as shown by the fact that it comes with cloud saving. Something that can prove particularly useful because Nintendo doesn’t care much about which Nintendo Switch a particular user is logging in from so long as they are logging in.
Having said this, there is one other issue of serious concern. In short, both PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold offer discounts on certain games as well as a number of free games on a monthly basis, which can provide a fair amount of value to the subscribers. Meanwhile, Nintendo Switch Online offers access to a selection of NES games, which will see some rotation from time to time. This is interesting because this will be the first time that some of these NES games have ever had online play, but to be perfectly honest, most people will see this as being less valuable than what comes with PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold.
Further Considerations
Summed up, Nintendo Switch Online comes with the core features that most players would expect from something like PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold. However, its offer when it comes to additional games isn’t as good, which might explain why it comes at such a reduced price when compared to its counterparts. As a result, interested individuals will have to make up their minds based on the factors that matter the most to them.
For example, if someone doesn’t actually spend a great deal of time playing through game after game, the game discounts and the game giveaways won’t matter as much to them because they won’t be getting as much value out of them anyways. Likewise, if someone has a particular fixation on NES games for whatever reason, that could sway their choice as well. With that said, it is important to note that full details have not been released for Nintendo Switch Online, meaning that interested individuals might want to wait on making a decision until more information has come out.
