Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass to cost $49.99 USD/year

Thought this would be an interesting discussion to have, because I'm seeing a lot of very mixed comments on this new plan.

For those who haven't yet read, the plan will include:

Access to select N64 games (some of which will be playable with online multiplayer, like Mario Kart 64)
Access to select Sega Genesis games
Access to the Animal Crossing: New Horizons DLC, Happy Home Paradise (an expansion which costs $25 on its own)

Here's which N64 games will be available with this plan on launch:

More Nintendo 64 games will be added going forward, including The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, F-Zero X, Banjo-Kazooie, Mario Golf, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, Paper Mario, and Pokémon Snap.

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Here's which Sega Genesis games will be available with this plan on launch:

Prices are:
Single user, 12 months: $49.99 / €39,99 / £34.99
Family plan up to 8 users, 12 months: $79.99 / €69,99 / £59.99

What do you guys think about this? Do you think the features are worth this price tag?

Too pricey for me.
Though they'd reel me in for sure if they added DK64 xD

Whether or not it's worth it depends on if they keep adding stuff (after the ones already mentioned as being added later on) I think. The price is per year after all.

Personally, no. Owns several of the initial and upcoming N64 games already. Is not interested in the Happy Home Designer Paradise downloadable content either.

-_- Can they at least add a single account monthly plan. This is what I do for current subscription.

This is a no for me right now.

sounds kinda gross to me really

I assume that you have access to all the games on the pass, but only for as long as you pay for the pass, and fuck that. Especially if you're not interested in the majority of the stuff offered. Just fucking re-release it all individually for a fair price that you can keep forever.

also why put only Phantasy Star 4 on there and not the whole quadrilogy

If they added their Gamecube and Wii library then I would be *happy* to pay, but for a select few N64 games and Megadrive games (including games which you can easily access) - it's a total rip off in my opinion.

Way too expensive and they deserve all the flak they are getting for a greedy ass BS move like this.

Hard no for me. I'll just keep my current sub.

40€ is somehow the cheapest of all plans and yet doubling the price of a regular subscription every year is pretty damn expensive just for a select group of N64-Mega Drive games. If you don't care about the Animal Crossing DLC, it's way too much.

I would have accepted at max $15 more a year, but $30 more no. Though I heard why they are asking for the ridiculous price is that they are passing the licensing fees to the consumer because they didn't want to absorb as much of the price for the licensing fees for third party titles.

I actually am not paying for online atm, but I was considering subbing for a year with the expansion pass to try out a few n64 titles if it was reasonably priced. I don't really play online much, and because of the horrid pricing there have been people who outright dropped online in protest.

Definitely not worth it for me. This pricing brings them on par with the other online console subscriptions (PSN/XBL), I think, but there's just not feature parity. It's generally kind of annoying to do online with Switch because making sure everything is kid-friendly trumps usability in most of the games I've played, so it's just a pain to connect to friends you've already added through a cumbersome friend code. You can only voice chat if you download their smartphone app (AND the game is supported in it...?) and it's just a bad time. It's not so bad when you can hop on a friend's family plan and split the cost because you're getting what you pay for, but if they want me to pay that much more, a handful of 20+ year old games and DLC for games I may not even get are not gonna cut it.

Priscilla Kelly said:

I would have accepted at max $15 more a year, but $30 more no. Though I heard why they are asking for the ridiculous price is that they are passing the licensing fees to the consumer because they didn't want to absorb as much of the price for the licensing fees for third party titles.

I actually am not paying for online atm, but I was considering subbing for a year with the expansion pass to try out a few n64 titles if it was reasonably priced. I don't really play online much, and because of the horrid pricing there have been people who outright dropped online in protest.

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If that's true... that's stupidest and most ridiculous greed-led decision there could possibly be

me personally theres very few "olden" games i would like to play and majority is just old pokemon games whether its main or a side game. For more than double the price and you only get max 20 games while xbox gamepass and psnow each alone can give you loads of titles. However since nintendo is the newest in this game of subscriptions for games and features (like i hate that the cloud saves is buggy) im willing to watch how it evolves to see if it changes, gets better or worse. Now that the steam deck is releasing i think nintendo is probably gonna have competition depending on how well the deck does and if it does really well. Nintendo better shape up or ship out because then its gonna be only their exclusives that keep people not much else, but i will say it might feel better in the hands and controlling things than the deck i cant say for sure though yet. Nintendo switch online just feels like tactics in a war thats can sure enough cost em soon enough. But hey it could get better, but knowing nintendo it problably wont. Sorry for the long rant, hope my point got across

As someone who's interested in playing some of the games on offer I still think it's over priced and unjustified. It should have been 15.
20 + 15 so 35 for the full package, doesn't jumping to 50 and over doubling the price devalue the current service? lol.
Personally I'm not going to upgrade, I wanted to play some of the games on my switch but not enough to splash an extra 30 a year. Especially when I could easily emulate them elsewhere and just play them on a different device.

Reported lots of input delay and frame rate issues with games. Cannot save Ghost Data in Mario Kart either. Asks for an N64 controller pak.

Flubbed some graphics as well. Grabbed comparison screenshots from Twitter (@spotskeletons). Shows N64, Wii U Virtual Console, and Switch Online from top to bottom.



Feels bad for people that forked over the cash.

I feel Nintendo have let their success go to their heads on the 'expansion pass.'

A few reasons... First starting off with the addition of Sega Genesis game's.
Comparing the list between the Sega Genesis Collection you can pick up for $30 on the online shop or for $15a-$20 used if your lucky down a used game shop... Comparing the games in the package:

#Name 👈 = Games in Collection

Expansion List:
Golden Axe 👈(1, 2 & 3 Are in the collection!)
Strider
Musha
Shining Force👈(1& 2)
Sonic 2 👈 (1 & 2)
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (Note: Puyo Pop) 👈
Streets of Rage 2 👈 (1,2 & 3)
Shinobi 3 👈
Eco the Dolphin
Gunstar Heroes👈
Phantasy Star 4 👈(2, 3 & 4)
Castlevania: Blood Lines
Contra: Hard Corps
Ristar 👈

Out of this list, only 5 of those games are not in the collection you can pick-up. The Sega Genesis Mini has Strider, Contra, Castlevainia and Ecco, eliminating the other 4; leaving only Musha. Leaving me also to ask, why the extra money to run the game's on this particular console? Didn't the Snes have more graphic power over the Sega Genesis with Mode 7, better sound and rotating sprites? I mean, I love the Sega Genesis; I got the mini console and have been trying to beat Earth Worm Jim without save states!... But I'm getting to the point where why we're paying for something for the extra processing power that doesn't need that much power? You can play the Sega Titles online with a friend in the collection or someone completely random!

Moving on, Super Mario 64, we have had the Switch Port off the 3D collection leaving the rest, which OOC has been censored from the 1.0 ver from it's art to it's bug fixes which saddens me a little and there are better versions of both the legend of Zelda B64 games as someone has updated the texture's to make them look cleaner, pop and as if the game had a proper remaster if you google N64 game mods and texture packs for them...

I'm angry that Nintendo is relying on their back catalog again, except more heavily while expecting players to cough up the dough to play these online or stream them in. IF they're adding more game's in; I'd rather see a re-run of some other titles not in the old catalog such as Mischief Maker's or Space Station Silicon Valley, however, that's me for my obscure titles. I'd Rather Mario and Nintendo take a hike off a short cliff into an ice cold lake to cool their heels, as these additions ain't worth the extra money.

lol no. they're definitely pushing it. i've been hearing a lot about how the n64 emulation sucks compared to emulations that currently exists out there, so... not rly worth it. even the online services are apparently lacking? which is... yikes. for that kind of price, it'd be reasonable to have some high expectations for what's being offered. :s

I purchased this for my younger cousin. He's having fun so it was worth the price, but the selection right now is really pathetic.

ReKoil said:

Too pricey for me.
Though they'd reel me in for sure if they added DK64 xD

Whether or not it's worth it depends on if they keep adding stuff (after the ones already mentioned as being added later on) I think. The price is per year after all.

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I was also looking for DK64, or Colosseum!