Nintendo online family subscription. Any downsides?

[Sutton Dagger]

So I've been putting off signing up to Nintendo's online service but with Pokemon coming out soon and with my wife getting a Lite soon I thought I'd finally get it.

I was looking at signing up to the family plan for both of us and then realised you can have up to 8 accounts as part of the plan. My brother (who doesn't live with us) is also getting a switch, would be be able to join in too? Are there restrictions using it across multiple switches? Can they both access the nes/snes games etc. How do cloud saves work when there are multiple people with different accounts. How hard is the process for getting us all on there.

Just wanted feedback from people who have done it cause the website didn't go into detail for some of these questions.

 

[Panthalassic]

The only problem I've had is people not paying me back for it lol

I have people with US and Canadian Nintendo accounts on it and haven't run into any problems.

 

[VanWinkle]

As far as I can tell, functionality is identical between the two plans. I haven't heard any of the other people on my plan bring up anything they thought they should be able to do and can't.

Everyone can play the NES/SNES games. Wish I could confirm with you about cloud saves, but I'm like 95% sure everyone can

 

[Saikyo]

Do you want to play nes/snes games, tetris 99, splatoon 2 and maybe Kirby Clash? Its worth.

If not dont bother lol

 

[MondoMega]

After a year with a Family Plan, I think I can say that there are no downsides at all. To answer your questions one-by-one:

• Surprisingly, Nintendo doesn't check to see if every member of the family plan is in the same region. Your brother can join anytime, even after you pay for the membership.
• There are no restrictions on multiple family plan members playing games online at the same time.
• All users can access the NES/SNES games.
• Cloud Saves are tied to the individual user, so those are fine.
• The process in setting it up isn't that complicated. Once they're part of the family group, they'll get the membership once someone in that group purchases the family plan.

 

[JershJopstin]

I admin a family group. Only real downside is that I formed it with 8 people last year, and my brother's finally getting a Switch soon but I don't have room for him. You're also at the mercy of the guy running the group; I could theoretically kick anyone from mine without consent, and they would lose access to NSO. But as long as you make one with people you actually know that's not an issue.

 

[RocketDarkness]

I have one for me and the wife, and I added a few friends as well. Probably should have asked for a couple bucks from the friends, but it's not really a big deal. It's very easy to manage the membership, and everyone gets access to everything, except maybe a few of the special offers like the NES/SNES controllers. But functionality-wise, it's all there.

 

[BDGAME]

I joined a group with 8 friends from different cities and countries. Everything working.

 

[Sutton Dagger]

Wow, thanks for all the informative replies, sounds like a no brainer. I'm sold

 

[caff!!!]

Yeah I run a group with people and it works out well for everyone

 

[Fireblend]

No downsides. I run a family group for my friends and coworkers and it works perfectly and everyone pays like $4.5 per year.

 

[Bowl0l]

Downside is Nintendo will start limiting the sharing aspect if enough people subscribe to it, so don't take too long to decide to subscribe.

 

[ghostcrew]

I've been on a family plan with a buddy from Japan (I'm in Europe) since the day it launched and all is fine. Acts just like I have my own sub. No downsides.

 

[AllEchse]

I would say the only downside is that you can't take part in the "free whatever amount of months" that happen with Twitch Prime or are included with some games like Overwatch, Tetris 99(Retail version) or Mario Maker 2 (There were some more of those recently).
But other than that theres really no downsides.
Is cheap either way and the SNES games bring some actual value now.

 

[VillagerMax]

I couldn't add my nephew to my family plan because his account was a child account to his dad's account. Other than those weird cases, that's about it. Oh, and it keeps emailing everyone when they make account changes.

 

[Phendrana]

I'm in a family group with seven friends (one of whom doesn't even live on the same continent as me), and it works fine. Everyone has full access to everything.

$7 AUD per year feels closer to what this mess of a service is actually worth.

 

[Mekanos]

I have a bunch of Americans in different states and someone from the UK on the family plan. It's fantastic. We all pay only $4.50 or so a head, which is a great deal for NES/SNES games.

 

[Tathanen]

One downside that I've found: those deals for a free year that you could track on to your existing subscription don't work, they're always free single user years and wouldn't extend a family account.

 

[DarkWish]

I would say the only downside is that you can't take part in the "free whatever amount of months" that happen with Twitch Prime or are included with some games like Overwatch, Tetris 99(Retail version) or Mario Maker 2 (There were some more of those recently).
But other than that theres really no downsides.
Is cheap either way and the SNES games bring some actual value now.

Click to shrink...

This. It's exactly the same as the individual accounts but there's never any sales on it. Not really an issue though cause it's so cheap anyways.