Rumour - Nintendo Italy: Paid Nintendo Switch Online Service Delayed To Fall 2018

[Kolx]

Nintendo Switch Online, the paid online service for Nintendo's hybrid console, was originally meant to launch in Fall 2017 after the trial became available with Splatoon 2. However, we haven't heard about it in a long time and for good reason.

As you can read below, on the Italian website it is now explained that the paid subscription service will be available in Fall (Autumn) 2018. That's a pretty huge delay and one has to wonder whether Nintendo is simply having infrastructure issues or perhaps there will be new features to entice players to subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online. As a reminder, we've included below the official feature list confirmed by Nintendo at the time.

Of course, availability could vary between territories though it would be quite weird in this day and age where services and even games launch day and date globally.

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https://wccftech.com/nintendo-switch-online-delayed-fall-2018/

 

[Deleted member 249]

It was supposed to only launch in North America to begin with, if I'm not wrong, so this might not necessarily be news.

 

[Revolsin]

Let's just keep delaying it till like 2023 so we're at Switch 2.

 

[Alvis]

 

[Escalario]

FYI the spanish website has a generic 2018 date, so it's a possible screw up on Nintendo Italy's part.

 

[purseowner]

The Switch Online service is the new Zelda game, clearly.

 

[Oregano]

Good, more time to reconsider the stupid parts of it before asking for money.

 

[Figments]

Hopefully it means a substantial Switch update to include party chat, messaging, and game invites at the system level.

But who am I kidding. Nintendo won't do it, and there will be people proclaiming from the heavens that they don't want those features because they don't use them.

 

[Sir Guts]

If it isn't a screw up from the site then good, I'm not paying for this. Right now it's needs a lot of improvement.

 

[Kolx]

It was supposed to only launch in North America to begin with, if I'm not wrong, so this might not necessarily be news.

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That's why I made sure to add Nintendo Italy to the title and to add the last part in the op.

 

[Deleted member 1378]

which means the classic games collection is delayed, too

fuck

 

[VariantX]

One of the few times Nintendo delays something, and people are almost unanimously happy about it.

 

[Abriael]

Pretty amazed that the article takes a mention on a country-specific website (while all other websites don't have that mention) and sells it as factual delay (wording it like it was official) without doing any verification or even mentioning the possibility of a mistake.

I've seen it as well and reached out to Nintendo Italy for a clarification. Doubt they're gonna respond very soon tho, they all have an OOO notice. I would definitely not consider it an official delay, for now, tho.

 

[Comic Obsessed]

What? Oh well, just a couple more weeks before the Direct to clarify things.

 

[Deleted member 198]

Hopefully it means a substantial Switch update to include party chat, messaging, and game invites at the system level.

But who am I kidding. Nintendo won't do it, and there will be people proclaiming from the heavens that they don't want those features because they don't use them.

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I dunno them delaying it due to the reaction to the phone apps seems like a safe bet.

 

[Ryengeku]

indefinitely delay it. Please & Thank you

 

[Nintenleo]

Basically Smash Bros confirmed for Fall 2018

...or Pokémon? They need a big game to officially launch the service

 

[Lite_Agent]

More like someone was sloppy and forgot to remove the "autumn" bit when changing the year to 2018 ;)

 

[Frankish]

Bad news, and disappointing, if true. But I'll wait for more official confirmation.

 

[Blackquill]

Oh man I'm so sad, I waited this for so long !

 

[Ogodei]

I wouldn't mind this at all if it was gating the Virtual Console away from us.

I mean, if Nintendo needs to rebuild the features away from their crazy mobile app scheme, all the better, but give us our VC.

 

[Nintendojitsu]

I rather hear about this now than in the January event. Thanks Nintendo Italy!

 

[L.O.R.D]

waiting for pokemon switch to make it paid i think?

 

[ThisIsMyDogKyle]

Hopefully this means it has real improvements over what's there right now and not half-assed like literally every other attempt at online Nintendo has ever done.

 

[Deleted member 9971]

That sounds like music to my ears.
I guess they will release it with a major online focused game?

Personally they should keep it free imo. The Switch is doing pretty well anyway and not every console needs paid online especially not a Nintendo one with their online history so far.

It would also be a great sellin point.

 

[mrmickfran]

Just delay it indefinitely.

 

[Abriael]

More like someone was sloppy and forgot to remove the "autumn" bit when changing the year to 2018 ;)

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This is quite possible.

 

[Quad Lasers]

I don't really understand how they're gonna weather asking people to pay money for access to online after they've been conditioned to having it for free for a year and a half.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

I'm not taking this too hard at face value since A) It's only on Nintendo Italy's site B) It could easily just be a leftover from when it was planned for Fall 2017, and subjective C) Next fall is waaaaaay too late to launch paid online without getting some form of backlash. Not to mention it was always just "2018" so Fall wouldn't technically be a delay even if it is true. It's not great of WCCF to treat this as more than just a rumour. I guess all we can do is wait for the January direct.

 

[Stealth]

I will wait for an official announcement in more substantial territories.

 

[Deleted member 8001]

which means the classic games collection is delayed, too

fuck

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The big thing here is this. I really hope this is just false information cause this is legit terrible news.

 

[V0ltg]

More like someone was sloppy and forgot to remove the "autumn" bit when changing the year to 2018 ;)

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Lmao, this sounds plausible.

 

[Jon Carter]

Delay it until forever at this point. It's stupid.

 

[Stealth]

Oh, so it was not actually delayed. We only ever got an official date of 2018.

 

[Mega Man Zero]

I'm not putting too much faith into anything Nintendo of Italy's website says.

 

[Floex]

Bad news, and disappointing, if true. But I'll wait for more official confirmation.

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Waiting for what exactly? We can play online now and barely know what they are going to include.

 

[dreamlongdead]

I don't really understand how they're gonna weather asking people to pay money for access to online after they've been conditioned to having it for free for a year and a half.

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If the subscription truly turns out to be $20 a year, then most people will be OK with paying that. It's hardly breaking the bank, especially considering all the Switch owners (and gamers, in general) who spend so much money on games that they never end up playing anyway.

 

[Pif]

Me not paying for a ridiculous app in my phone just gets delayed until fall 2018 then.

 

[Deleted member 8001]

Waiting for what exactly? We can play online now and barely know what they are going to include.

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Virtual Console and people are hoping for the basics that other systems have like text based messaging and even more unlikely, voice chat via the system itself without an app.

 

[Stealth]

As many people have correctly said on Twitter, the service was not delayed. Nintendo Japan only ever gave a 2018 release date. If anything they narrowed down the time.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

Right before Smash 5 in October/November.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

Online - Nintendo's immortal enemy.

 

[Dark Cloud]

If true this is GREAT news. It means Nintendo is taking this serious and wants to get it right. And we we get more free online.

 

[chainlinkspiral]

Yeah, I'm going to guess it launches with an unannounced marquee title that requires it, maybe even first year included with it for free, as per Nintendo custom. Probably talked about at the January Direct.

 

[Deleted member 2145]

smash delayed until fall 2018

they probably decided along the way to just go ahead and make a sequel

 

[Yukinari]

Hoping they explain the service in the january direct cause im getting tired of hearing nothing about it.

 

[Reki]

This is far from a solid source (someone could've made a mistake somewhere) but amazing if true. Hoping they delay it until Switch 2 or better yet, cancel it.

Pokémon could make a lot of players pay for online, though.

 

[V0ltg]

https://twitter.com/MysticDistance/status/945406207833014274

He has a point.

 

[Codeblue]

The bigger the userbase gets the more good will they're going to lose when they start charging.

 

[Dark Cloud]

So maybe Smash will launch in the fall/holiday with the online. That makes me believe it's Smash 5 or close to it.