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Fans don’t seem to be happy with the recently announced Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, with the official youtube video racking up over 54K dislikes compared to only 15K likes.
The expansion pack was first revealed at the September Nintendo Direct, announcing that for an extra fee, players will get three Nintendo 64 games and Sega Genesis games.
At the recent Animal Crossing Direct, it was revealed that players will also get the new Animal Crossing Happy Home Paradise DLC for free, but that the expansion pack will also cost an extra $30, this makes the Nintendo Switch Online $50 dollars overall or $80 a year for the family pack.
The majority of the dislikes come from the outcry that the Expansion priced is overpriced, charging $50 a year for what are essentially N64 ROMs and Genesis ROMs that could easily be downloaded and played through an emulator.
Fans are saying that Nintendo is being greedy or lazy, even joking that it should be labeled the “expensive pass”. Many also lament Nintendo’s refusal to bring the virtual console, their previous online store for retro games or that that won’t at least add a greater variety of consoles to the pass like Gamecube or Gameboy Advance games.
The NSO Expansion Pack is…kind of an awful deal? pic.twitter.com/eZpqHKLgGy
— Arlo (@ArloStuff) October 16, 2021
The sad thing is with NSO, Nintendo could totally provide a service worth 50 dollars
Add more systems people want and it could totally be worth it, but as of now? No way pic.twitter.com/8mR3EiLN5A
— TheNCSmaster (@TheNCSmaster) October 15, 2021
Many have also pointed out that the vast majority of Sega Genesis popular titles are available on the Sega Genesis Classics Collection, available for the Switch for $30 with over 50 games and no annual fee.
You know this exists right Nintendo? pic.twitter.com/69NsRqvW6D
— Weegee :^) | #YamatoForSmashAndFraymakers (@WeegeeLord9) October 16, 2021
These are not new criticisms, Nintendo’s Online Service has already been criticized in the past for an overall lack of quality due to its faulty servers for online games as well as lacking many of the features of its competitors such as voice chat (without a phone), party chat, community hubs and other features that competitors like Xbox Live and Playstation Network have.
Its selection of age-old NES and SNES while great for new players can also be seen as frustrating due to many of these games having being ported numerous times and how they are slowly released over months with popular titles for both systems still not available like Earthbound for the SNES.
The online service’s main advantage is that it was cheap at only $20 a year compared to the monthly fee of competitors but with the expansion pass’s raised price, with many of calling that into question.
Some fans however are defending the price point saying that it is still relatively cheap compared to its competitors, technically only being $4.1 a month and that many of the N64 games on offer would be more expensive to find otherwise.
Prominent leaker Emily Rogers has also said that it is likely that the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack fee is so high due to the rising costs of licensing for third-party games.
Of course, the best thing to do if you don’t like the Expansion Pack is to not buy it. That sends the clearest signal to Nintendo that you disprove of this action, although chances are a large dislike bar may also send a pretty clear message as well.
