Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack is Priced at $50 for 12 Months - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 November 2021 / 4,025 Views
Nintendo during the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct revealed the Version 2.0 Update and the Happy Home Paradise DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons will launch on November 5, as well as the price of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.
An individual membership is priced at $49.99 USD for 12 months, while the family membership is price at $79.99 USD for 12 months. The family membership can be used by up to eight Nintendo Account holders. The Happy Home Paradise DLC is included for free with the subscription for the Expansion Pack.
Along wit the Animal Crossing DLC, the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack includes games from the Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. This includes popular games like Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Star Fox 64, The legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and many more.
Here is the list of confirmed games coming to the Expansion tier:
Nintendo 64:
- Super Mario 64
- Mario Kart 64
- Star Fox 64
- Yoshi’s Story
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Mario Tennis
- Dr Mario 64
- Sin & Punishment
- WinBack
Sega Genesis / Mega Drive:
- Castlevania Bloodlines
- Contra Hard Corps
- Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
- Ecco the Dolphin
- Golden Axe
- Gunstar Heroes
- Musha
- Phantasy Star IV
- Ristar
- Shining Force
- Shinobi III
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Streets of Rage 2
- Strider
Here are games coming after launch:
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Pokémon Snap
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
- Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
- Mario Golf
- Paper Mario
- F-Zero X
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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When sony announced that horizon forbidden west would now cost to upgrade from ps4 to ps5, Sony fans took to social media to register their unhappiness at what the mega corporation was doing, and in the end it caused playstation to backpeddle, it's time us in the nintendo court didbthe same thing...
If we want them to change, let's start affecting their bottom line. VOTE WITH YOUR WALLETS (but also be nice and none toxic)
There is a reason Nintendo fans are described as a cult. You know as well as I do that their core fanbase will pay, pay and pay. Sure I will be downvoted, but Nintendo are one of the most anti-consumer brands out there.
Thats true for any fanbase though. Nintendo just doesnt back down as easily as other companies, unfortunately.
It reminds me more of when MS tried to double the price of Xbox Live, which they also backpeddled on.
Absolutely pathetic. The balls on Nintendo to try and sell access to decades old ROMs for 50$.
As well as them actively trying to shut down ROM sites, only for them to sell those same ROMS for more than they are worth these days. Also doesn't help that them taking down ROM sites means they eventually become the only place to play them from...
Its actually smart, they will make more money this way, because people will have to keep paying every year. Had they released these 5 dollars each they'd get around 20 dollars only once, around 4 games average per player.
LOL, the mega drive collection itself costs next to nothing.
Geez, Nintendo is fucking this up. They are now charging about as much as competitors but just giving me 20 to 40 year old games.
This is a bad deal even if you own Animal Crossing. How exactly is this even remotely sensible if you don't?
There HAS to be a lot more up Nintendo's sleeve in order to justify this kind of price increase! Whether that means all future paid DLC will get added onto the Expansion Pack, or GameCube/Game Boy consoles will be added at no additional cost, or both!
I mean, there's already a Genesis collection on Switch called Sega Genesis Classics, so there's no justification on the Genesis side of things.
Yeah. I'm shocked. I thought it would be 20 per year on top of the original 20. So like 40 total.
But I don't think there's anything more to it. They just messed up.
I definitely think they'll add more DLC and consoles in the future but that doesn't justify the current price lol
Charge $60 per year, give subscribers all first party DLC, and include a large, rolling selection of games from the back catalog. That I'd pay for.
But you have Winback, do not forget this.
See if I could be confident more systems were coming, this would make more sense. But Nintendo has hardly instilled confidence that that will happen with any expediency. Or if all paid DLC would be free, that would be neat. But again, no clarity. So I'll stick to the base offerings which are fine enough for $20
Yeah that's more than I expected it would be. Too much for me, but I bet many will get it regardless of the price.
They lost me. I was hoping for like 15 extra per year, expecting 20, and willing to pay 30.
The value isn't there. Not when comparing to what you're already getting with the other games. I hope it bombs so they drop the price.
What were they thinking?
I also think it's too pricey but you said you're willing to pay 30 extra. Or did you mean 30 total?
I wasn't paying attention when I saw the infographic. I thought it was 50 extra. And I was like WTF? 30 is definitely at the breaking point. I need to look into the animal crossing dlc. If it's something I would like to check out, the 30 extra isn't horrible. But they're going to need to add another system next year or another dlc to keep the value high enough. Otherwise, the games alone aren't worth 30 extra.
30 extra is reasonable if they add more DLC/consoles but right now it's a bit high.
I think it's definitely at the breaking point. But I think by next year we might see it differently with more games/dlc. But then you have to have the game that goes with the dlc.
Long story short, I think we all wish it was 20 extra instead of 30. I mean not any increase would be ideal, but that wasn't going to happen. Lol.
More DLC wouldn't add value for me since I'd rather buy anything I want and own it for good, but more consoles/handhelds like GameCube, GBA, and Dreamcast would make it very tempting!
GameCube isn't happening for this tier for sure. Dreamcast maybe.
But I just mean like if next year they add in the botw2 dlc or something. If they keep adding in a dlc that I would probably buy anyway, I might as well keep the service and skip buying the dlc. I'm likely only going to play it once anyway. And if I really wanted to play it years later, I'd just buy it then.
I doubt they will be swapping out the dlc. So it's like it I planned on buying the dlc every year, then it's like I'm only paying 10 bucks per year for N64/Genesis games.
But that's where it can all fall apart. If it's a dlc for a game you don't have, it loses that value.
Yeah I'm personally not interested in having my DLC attached to a service but I can see how that could have a lot of value for some people. I wish Nintendo would add some older first party Switch games and make it closer to Game Pass but that'll never happen lol
Yeah, that's a big fat 'no' for me.
Geez, Nintendo. The only way to justify this exaggerated price is if, over time, they keep adding other free DLC, like with Animal Crossing. Otherwise, what a joke of price.
I can't say I'm a fan of Nintendo trying to adopt the approach the other two are doing, in splitting up their games into chunks of DLC. Nintendo was the last of the big 3 that actually released fully complete and featured games, and now seeing this as well as Pokemon is giving me the vision that future Nintendo games are just going to release half baked and DLC tacked on later, that would have otherwise made more sense to be included in the base game.
Zelda DLC was fine because all of it was pretty much a motorcycle and challenge modes, and I know not everyone on earth is into challenge modes, but with AC, I was into more decorative objects, and that DLC with the home designer feature has such objects I desire, but not enough to pay £25 for alone (I'm not into designing homes for non villagers either or amibo stuff, I just wanted those new wall separators and exclusive furniture).
Crazy how most of the cost is coming from the Animal Crossings DLC. It's being forced into the subscription model. That's complete bullshit there. I'm not interested in it. Otherwise, the extra cost would probably be around 10 more. Which would have been fine. No stable online, no native voice chat, 20+ something year games, etc does not warrant this price at all. I normally rock with Nintendo, but they're buggin'. I'll stick to the regular NSO.
If they did this without the Animal Crossing DLC for games almost 30 years old, and even some that are 30 years old...they would be scrutinized worse than they are right now. 10 bucks more than the regular NSO price would have been fine. If this had Gamecube on it, I would have bit. This is not worth it unfortunately.
I'm thinking Nintendo is most likely going to keep adding to this Expansion Pack with GameCube, Game Boy, etc. down the road. Maybe even future paid DLC as well. Either way, way too expensive for what they're offering right now. As enticing as it is to play my favorite N64 games again lol
This is why I hack all my nintendo consoles, because they are so anti-consumer. Even re-releases of wiiU old games cost full 60 dollars or more. These games are not worth at all when they dont even have enhancements, while you can install an emulator for free on any phone tablet pc xbox etc and get enhanced graphics.
Can just buy a Xbox series S with developer mode and then no need to pay Nintendo a dime, hahahha
online play for classics is soooo cool!! now had they added a choice of dlc of say the same value instead of forcing AC, that would have been just perfect
So if we don't want this, is the price for online unchanged? Like, is this optional, at least?
Animal Crossing DLC at $24.00 and a year of this at $50 is a play for sure.
Just don't stop and think too long otherwise you might question the value!
You're wrong its not 30 dollars for 30 roms, its 900 dollars if you want to keep the games for the next 30 years. or most likely 1800 dollars if you want to keep the games forever. But Nintendo online price will increase with time, so make that 2500 dollars to keep these 30 very old games forever.
Or alternatively get an xbox or a pc or a laptop and get all these games completely free with emulators.
If it started with 15+ N64 games and 20+ Mega Drive games it would have been better. But not like that. It'll likely take a year or more for the announced games to all release there.
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