With the launch of the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo is doing something they have never done before, which is launch a paid online gaming service similar to that of Sony’s PSN and Microsoft’s Xbox Live. It was previously estimated that it would cost anywhere between $20-30 a year, and it looks like the pricing and some of its details have surfaced.
Starting with the bad (or good, depending on how you look at it) news, on Nintendo’s website (via IGN), the company has confirmed that the online service for the Switch will only be launching in 2018. This means that instead of launching this year, gamers can only expect it to come into effect next year, which we guess also means that you won’t have to start paying for it so soon.
Pricing of the service has also been confirmed where Nintendo has priced the service at $3.99 a month if you were to purchase month by month. However a 3-month membership is priced cheaper at $7.99, and if you were to purchase an entire year’s worth of subscription, you’d only have to pay $19.99 which is actually a pretty good deal.
Note that while the service itself has been delayed to 2018, Nintendo still has plans to launch an accompanying smartphone app that will allow users to voice chat with each other while playing games. The app is expected to debut this coming summer.
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