cross-posted from: https://ani.social/post/35665810

Nintendo is so proud of the feature that it even included a little C button right on your Joy-Con (which was a point of excited speculation before the reveal) so you can jump into Game Chat whenever you like.

Unfortunately, it also tried to bury the fact that this Game Chat feature will actually require a Nintendo Switch Online subscription once the free trial period ends on March 31, 2026.

Now, you may be wondering what the button does if you don’t have a subscription? Thankfully, Nintendo’s vice president of player and product experience, Bill Trinen, was interviewed by Polygon on that very same topic. Trinen explains that the button will let you “find out about the NSO subscription there and get a sense of some of the functionality.” It’s basically a button that asks you to pay up.

It’s basically a button that asks you to pay up

We’ve gotten to the point where button functions are microtransactions…

This is why I emulate games and just use Linux

  • daannii@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    They have been charging a subscription for online features since at least covid.

    This isn’t anything new.

    I have a 3ds and you could play animal crossing with anyone online for free. But when I got the new switch one during covid I was surprised to learn you can’t do that without a subscription. And they basically had all the online game features requiring it.

    They used to have all the old consule games as free. But then started requiring a subscription for those. And then decided nah, we will make it so n64 and others will require an even more expensive subscription.

    I can’t recall the cost but the base level one is fairly cheap but probably still over priced since I literally only use it for animal crossing which I take long breaks from. I’ve played a few of the old Nintendo and SNES games but not enough to make it worth $30.

    Maybe $30 a year ?

    I always say a switch is like a inkjet printer. Sure it’s a lot cheaper than a laser printer (gaming PC). But the ink (games) cost 10x more so ultimately you don’t save any money.