Nintendo Switch Online could be expanded upon in the future.
During Nintendo’s recent 81st Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, Shuntaro Furukawa, the Japanese gaming giant’s president, was asked about the possibility of introducing a higher tier to Switch Online that offered additional features.
In response, Furukawa said “it’s important not only to increase the number of new members, but also to encourage existing members to continue using the service.” To do this, he noted that Nintendo “is working on increasing the appeal of the service to make it even more fun and convenient to play with Nintendo Switch.”
Furukawa didn’t elaborate on what Nintendo might actually do to make Switch Online more appealing, but the logical step would be to expand the service’s offering of classic games.
When Switch Online launched in September 2018, the service offered several NES games for free, including the original Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong and Metroid. The following September, the service’s retro offerings were expanded to include SNES titles like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Super Metroid and F-Zero.
However, outside of this curated catalogue of NES and SNES titles, there’s no other way to play older Nintendo games on Switch. Therefore, fans have been calling for Nintendo to bring back its ‘Virtual Console’ service from the Wii and Wii U eras to offer a larger variety of games, including those from the Nintendo 64 and Game Cube generations.
This would prove especially welcome for series like Metroid. After nearly 20 years, the action-adventure franchise is getting a brand-new 2.5D entry in October’s Metroid Dread, but there’s actually no way to play the game’s predecessor, the acclaimed GBA title Metroid Fusion, on Switch.
Nintendo Switch Online costs $4.99 CAD/month, $9.99/three months or $24.99/year.
Via: Nintendo Everything
