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delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,687
Boston, MA
Source:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/9fh19l/nintendo_switch_online_family_membership/

Thanks to glorious_sunshine.

Original Japanese source:

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/support/nintendo_account/family/index.html

----------------------

Regarding the Family Plan:

  • You cannot be in more than one family [plan].
  • If parental controls were set before 14th May 2018, it'll automatically apply to that account's family members.
  • You have the option to set a member to be the guardian account, and exercise parental controls on other family members. (Only one member can be the Managing account, but you can have multiple guardian accounts).
  • Within a family, members do not share MyNintendo points, eShop account balances, and purchase history.
  • Nintendo accounts linked with different switch systems can also be added as a Family member. [p.s. it says nothing regarding accounts from different regions i.e. whether this applies to an UK and US account as many have asked about, however, I have been able to add my own UK and JP account to one family. I'm unsure how the Online service will apply to this "family" though.]
  • If any member within a Family purchases the Nintendo Switch Online Family Plan, all members can enjoy the Online service. (You do not need to use the same Nintendo Switch console as the person who bought the Family Plan. The Nintendo Switch Online paid service will release in September 2018).

Regarding the Managing Account:

  • You can invite other [normal, i.e. not linked with a family] Nintendo accounts into your Family.
  • If the Managing Account holder is 18+, you can create Child Accounts.
  • If the Managing Account holder is 18+, you may set any 18+ accounts in your Family as a Guardian account.
  • By accessing Family Settings, the Managing Account holder can delegate another account to be the Managing account, or remove members from the Family.

If you remove yourself as the Managing Account, the following happens:

  • You will no longer be the Managing Account (however, if you held the role of a Guardian as well, your role/privileges as a Guardian remains)
  • All members of the Family, including yourself, will fall under the management of the new Managing Account Holder
  • You may no longer change the login ID nor password for Child Accounts
  • You can no longer add or remove Child Accounts
  • A copy of communication [regarding purchases] from Nintendo to the Child Account will no longer be sent to you (but will be sent to the new Managing Account Holder)

Other Information:

Q: What happens if the Managing Account was deleted?

A: The Family will disband, all accounts associated with the Family will no longer belong in any Family (i.e. they may join another Family), Parental Controls will no longer apply. If any Child Accounts were created under the Family, they will be deleted along with the Managing Account. The only way to prevent this is to give the role of Managing Account to someone else first (see above). If you contact Nintendo within 30 days of deleting the account, it is possible to recover the account.


Q: My family has multiple Nintendo Switch consoles, if we purchase the Family Plan, would the multiple accounts and multiple switches in my family all receive the Nintendo Switch Online service?

A: Yes. Even if the members of your family use separate Switch consoles, if all of the accounts used on those Switches fall under the same Family, all accounts can use the Nintendo Switch Online service. (You do not need to be using the same Switch as the person who purchased the Family Plan)


Q: Family Plans can only be purchased by an Nintendo Account Holder who is 18+, are there any age restrictions which apply to members of the Family using the Family Plan?

A: No. The purchase must be made by someone with an 18+ Nintendo Account, but the members of the Family can be of any age. They will be able to access all aspects of the Online service with the exception of the smart phone app, which has an age restriction of 13.

----------------------

Close if this is a duplicate.
 

Deleted member 426

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,273
So...this all sounds pretty great! Right? Spotify have done well with their family plan. Does Sony or Microsoft have anything similar? Appreciate you're not likely to have multiple PS or XB in a household but it's be interesting to know.
 

Deleted member 36578

Dec 21, 2017
26,561
This is the plan I'm going to get along with my brother and a couple friends. Makes sense to do so.
 

Deleted member 8791

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,383
I'll probs have to buy a family plan for all my foreign eShop accounts if the deals are good enough, lol.
 

Qwark

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,027
So...this all sounds pretty great! Right? Spotify have done well with their family plan. Does Sony or Microsoft have anything similar? Appreciate you're not likely to have multiple PS or XB in a household but it's be interesting to know.
You can share PS+ with 2 systems in the same household by setting primary accounts. But it's limited to 2 systems, and the sub account can't use cloud saves... so it kind of sucks. But games (something Nintendo's doesn't do I believe) and online service do share. I'm not sure if they planned for it to be used that way. This sounds good, so hopefully Sony follows through with a similar plan.

Can't say for Xbox.

Also, I know people are going to abuse this family system. I'm not going to say that's wrong to do, but it makes me uncomfortable, that's the reason the sharing system got worse from PS3 to PS4, too easily abused.
 
Last edited:

Lyrick

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,818
There doesn't seem to be anything insidious here. Coming from Nintendo I was expecting something more obtuse in nature.
 

Kouriozan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,110
Would be nice if there is gamesharing, my brother and I both own our own Switch, we live in the same house and it's pretty tedious we have to relogin every time.
 

RailWays

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
15,674
Family plan is a no-brainer if you know anyone else with a switch. I'm just splitting the cost ($35) with several others, which comes to $5 each.

Better than $20 for one account.
 

Pablo Mesa

Banned
Nov 23, 2017
6,878
this been up since day one but many choose to ignore it or were dubbious if Nintendo was actually allowing this to happen out of actually Families
 

Metto

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,109
It seems the main downside to this is if you aren't the Parent account you don't get anything from MyNintendo.

So that's something to consider

Edit: never mind I'm dumb you just don't share it. Yeah this seems great if you want to do the effort
 

sensui-tomo

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,629
Era is a big family right?
Time to find total strangers to share with, just like the good ol ps3 game sharing days.
 

Deleted member 4970

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
12,240
I really wish they'd offer something akin to family sharing on Steam or primary accounts on PSN. It'd be nice to be able to buy one copy of a game and have my brother also be able to play with that licence.
 
OP
OP
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,687
Boston, MA
I really wish they'd offer something akin to family sharing on Steam or primary accounts on PSN. It'd be nice to be able to buy one copy of a game and have my brother also be able to play with that licence.
Then you would have issues where a child accidentally buys really expensive stuffs, and you're now hit with a financial headache.

Separating purchases from credential information, how would one prove you own this purchase, if you're able to swap around Managing accounts? So I do think this is for added security by restricting purchase sharing.
 

xyla

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,385
Germany
Fantastic! That's exactly like I wanted it to be. I was worried that the accounts in a family account might not be equals and had to be restricted as child accounts or when they would buy anything.

I'm gonna share the online plan with a few friends (which I consider family) and since I only want the NES games and cloud saves, that seems pretty alright to me too. 12 Euro a year is fair for that I figure.
 

Gricean

Member
Aug 30, 2018
114
Now that they're locking Nintendo Accounts to a single system, it would be nice if they had implemented eShop library sharing in the family plan...
 

Phoenom

Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
1,304
Will there be a thread on ERA for Family groups? Seems like an easy way to save some cash.
 
Oct 27, 2017
42,700
Expected, but still a bummer.

I guess this doesn't touch on the one question I'm still curious about: will they let you access your purchases on consoles besides your primary if you're a subscriber?
Why would they? Especially when you can join a family with anyone. I'm sure friends who want to split a sub wouldn't want to share all that info and would want to maintain it separately

I think this is the whole point. I just don't see how this cannot be abused.
They made it with sharing in mind. In fact, they probably priced the plans intentionally to get people to get the family plan even though, for Nintendo, it's probably a marginal difference in cost
 

mute

â–˛ Legend â–˛
Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,088
If i'm understanding this correctly, if I ever get my son his own Switch then there is no way he would have access to digital purchases made on my Switch, yes?
 

LegendofLex

Member
Nov 20, 2017
5,466
Why would they? Especially when you can join a family with anyone. I'm sure friends who want to split a sub wouldn't want to share all that info and would want to maintain it separately
A legit use case for actual families would be to manage software for all your family members under one family account umbrella.

If i'm understanding this correctly, if I ever get my son his own Switch then there is no way he would have access to digital purchases made on my Switch, yes?
Right now you can only access digital purchases for an account on its primary system.
 

Piccoro

Member
Nov 20, 2017
7,095
  • Within a family, members do not share MyNintendo points, eShop account balances, and purchase history.
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I was kinda hoping we could share games, ps4/xbox one style.
 

gig

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,276
Hell yeah. Sharing with friends will make this as cheap as 5 bucks a year.
 

Insaniac

Member
Jul 27, 2018
89
So as far as I can see there is no disadvantage to having a family plan with my cousin and brother at all?
 

Jazzem

Member
Feb 2, 2018
2,684
This is honestly why I can't be that mad about paying for the service, sorted this out with my brothers + various friends the past day or so. Gonna be paying ÂŁ3.93 for the year!

Of course I still sympathise and agree with many of the criticisms, plus I do feel for those who this isn't a viable option for. You get a saving even just across two people so it's definitely worth trying if you can :)
 

lord_of_flood

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jan 1, 2018
1,743
Cool, doesn't seem like much of a hassle. I might consider doing a family plan with a couple of my friends, but it's cheap enough that I'll probably just pay for my own individual plan.
 

gig

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,276
With 7 friends sharing, you'll be paying 4 cents a month for the service
 

Kirbivore

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,925
I think this is the whole point. I just don't see how this cannot be abused.

To be frank, and regarding to another post, the abuse came from being able to share game purchases with other people at no cost, so you had 5 people playing one game at the price of one person. I do not see that being the case here
 

Pablo Mesa

Banned
Nov 23, 2017
6,878
anyone wants to set up a Discord to coordinate/ discuss making "family" plans with other ERA members ??