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What is this absolute bullshit about individual vs family Nintendo Switch Online plans?

What degree of bullshit is this?

  • Bullshit

    Votes: 57 12.6%

  • Absolute Bullshit

    Votes: 68 15.0%

  • 100% Bullshit, now with 75% More Bullshit

    Votes: 103 22.7%

  • OP is an insufferable whiner who is no fun, which is very much why they added this as a response.

    Votes: 268 59.2%

  • Avengers 2: Age of Ultron is misunderstood

    Votes: 76 16.8%

  • Where's the "paying for online is fucking bullshit to begin with" poll option?

    Votes: 17 3.8%

  • Paying for online is fucking bullshit to begin with

    Votes: 22 4.9%
  • Total voters
    453
Optional Objectives

Optional Objectives

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,437
As though their online wasn't bad enough...

My partner and I have been playing Animal Crossing, as people do. I have the primary account on our switch, and we have no problem sharing games and having different user profiles. That's particularly important for Animal Crossing, since each profile has its own house on your island and everything that comes with it.

Anyway, my partner was getting geared up to hang out with a friend. We have had Nintendo Switch Online for a while, thanks to stacked Twitch prime giveaways, and I haven't had to do anything extra to play with Nooklink or get online. So no problem, right? Wrong. Apparently, users don't just have separate profiles on a switch, they have whole damn separate accounts. My partner's account didn't have a NSO subscription. So no Animal Crossing online, no easier time typing into the game with its app (which is garbage, btw), no gates open for other players. Apparently my account had some magic sauce where only I could play the game online.

And that's when I found out that NSO has tiered membership: Individual and Family plans. Family plans cost 75% more on top of the individual membership - individual is $20/year and family is $35. You get nothing extra with that family membership but the ability to have the other profiles you designate as "family" on your account play online. Here I thought family settings only related to, like, parental controls, but no. Not when Ninty sees the opportunity for a little more cashish.

In comparison, it's like if I paid for PlayStation Plus and only one profile could use it. If any other profile wanted to play games online, BAM, better hand over a 75% surcharge, sucker!

What is this absolute bullshit?
 
Inugami

Inugami

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,995
Optional Objectives said:
In comparison, it's like if I paid for PlayStation Plus and only one profile could use it. If any other profile wanted to play games online, BAM, better hand over a 75% surcharge, sucke
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Nintendo single plan is only $20 a year, or $35 for a family plan... Both significantly cheaper than Sony... So yeah, hard to be upset IMO.
 
Xterrian

Xterrian

Member
Apr 20, 2018
2,833
Your comparison is really damn flawed. It's $60 a year for however many accounts vs $35 for eight on the switch. In this case, it's $30 each vs $17.50.

Or, if you have friends, you can all chip in and eight people get a year for less than $5 each.

Plenty of things to criticize Nintendo's online for. This ain't one of them.
 
shoptroll

shoptroll

Member
May 29, 2018
3,680
Family for two is still cheaper than two individual plans. Not sure I follow what the problem is.
 
PlayBee

PlayBee

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 8, 2017
5,584
It's pretty nice to pay $5 a year for Switch Online instead of $20
 
Butch

Butch

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,439
I don't know about that account situation but thanks to the family plan I pay almost nothing for the service. It's the best.

That poll sucks lol
 
Inugami

Inugami

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,995
(edit) wrong thread.

On topic: one thing I was pleasantly surprised about, you can use a single family plan across regions. I use my single family plan on all my US accounts, as well as my Japanese account. Nintendo is at least doing full region unlock right this gen.
 
Fumpster

Fumpster

Member
Nov 4, 2017
1,227
Couldn't you and your GF just get a family plan and split the cost, bringing the total cost for both of you down? I suppose if you don't want to do that then the situation sucks, but I'm sharing a family plan with like 8 people and we each pay less than 5 bucks a year for it. It's kinda dumb how cheap it is.
 
Kato

Kato

Member
Oct 28, 2017
32
Netflix
Google Music
Apple Music
Spotify

To name few. If I am not mistaken they work the same. Besides that... PS+ is about 50-60 a year per system . So another system in another room going online at the same time is another 60. And the Nintendo family plan makes it possible to add 5 slots. So 35 divided by 5 people in your "family"

Edit: So it seems to be 8, Even better ;)
 
FatalT

FatalT

Member
Feb 24, 2019
2,502
Would you rather pay Microsoft or Sony's subscription plans for "family" plans (which don't exist) where you'd both have to pay $50 a year each instead?
 

Deleted member 49438

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 7, 2018
1,473
Actually instead of having to pay $20 for you & 20 for your partner you can pay $35 for you two & up to 6 others. All of my friends are on my Online plan & it comes out to less than $5/year... The service is crap but the only thing you can't really attack is the price/value of the family option...
 
SPRidley

SPRidley

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,255
Intel_89 said:
Family plan is up to 8 users, I'm sharing one of those with friends and it boils down to roughly 4€ each.
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Same here, is the only way I think nintendo online is cheap enough to get. Im sure everyone knows someone in their family or friends to split it like nearly everybody seems to be doing.
Im even surprised Nintendo is allowing it.
 
elLOaSTy

elLOaSTy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,863
Found this out the same way as well but thought it was fine since I could just get $15 added to my account and not need to pay up an extra $20. Hearing its up to 8 is pretty solid to me. PSN and Xbox is more money.
 
Sonicfan1373

Sonicfan1373

Member
Nov 24, 2017
783
Yeah but you end up paying more for PS Plus, and if you split the family plan among more users you end up paying even less. Not sure what the complaining is about here.
 
Phellps

Phellps

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,894
Family plan makes the service even cheaper, OP. It also is tied to each account, meaning whatever they play, they get Switch Online. This is a big difference from PS+ or Live, where it's tied to the subscriber's primary console. There's no bullshit about it, and they advertise the family plan prominently in the Switch Online page.
It's on you.
 

mrmoose

Member
Nov 13, 2017
21,335
They even allow you to prorate your subscription now if you're already subscribed to individual for a year (they didn't before). also, I'm pretty sure both PSN and Xbox require a subscription per profile to play online, don't they?
 
chrisypoo

chrisypoo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,457
I love the family plan. I, my wife, and my daughter all are on the same plan, very cost effective and easy.
 
Gay Bowser

Gay Bowser

Member
Oct 30, 2017
17,762
Optional Objectives said:
And that's when I found out that NSO has tiered membership: Individual and Family plans. Family plans cost 75% more on top of the individual membership - individual is $20/year and family is $35.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

So, still significantly cheaper than PS+, then?

At least NSO gives you the option of paying less if you only need it for one account? You could just as easily say that it's "absolute bullshit" that PS+ only offers "family" accounts, with no option for individuals to save money by only paying for access for one profile.
 
Dremorak

Dremorak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,785
New Zealand
I pay like $10 a year for my wife and I cause we split it with friends.
Its cheap as shit OP, not sure what your problem with the family plan is lol.
 

Deleted member 12833

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,078
The price is whatever. I pay for it myself and just let friends and family mooch off it. The bigger issue is how bad the service is itself
 
riverfr0zen

riverfr0zen

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,169
Manhattan, New York
It's a logical evolution given today's world of multiple devices and accounts. You have to account for storage space, bandwidth, whatever licensing rights, etc. etc. and it only makes sense to do it on a per-account basis. $15 extra isn't bad for letting multiple people play. The middle period where consoles were transitioning to online services was exactly that -- a transitory period -- one can't expect the model of the 90s and 00s to persist given the massive changes that have occurred in terms of expectations for online services since that time.
 
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LightKiosk

LightKiosk

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,479
I can totally understand being under the assumption that the online is done at a system level and any account tied to that system will have access. The reality is that it's done at the account level as you now know, and as it has been mentioned, the family plan is quite cheap for how many people you can attach to it.

Hypothetically speaking here, if you, your partner, and your partner's friend were to split a NSO family plan... it would come out to $12/year for each person. That also leaves room for 5* other people (damn it's really only $35/year for 8 people?) to join and further decrease the cost.
 
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Intel_89

Intel_89

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,039
Portugal
SPRidley said:
Same here, is the only way I think nintendo online is cheap enough to get. Im sure everyone knows someone in their family or friends to split it like nearly everybody seems to be doing.
Im even surprised Nintendo is allowing it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, I'm not sure why either but for 4€ a year I get to play Tetris 99 every once in a while, that alone makes it worth it for me.
 
riq

riq

Member
Feb 21, 2019
1,690
I'd vehemently agree with you OP if weren't for the fact thar Ninty allows you to put whoever you want on your family plan, essentially splitting the $35 8 ways.

It is surprisingly pro consumer of them to not restrict who you put in your family group.

Now if you wanna bash it for being a poor service overall, I'm all for it. Paid online is dumb, especially when it barely works.
 
K' Dash

K' Dash

Banned
Nov 10, 2017
4,156
not only were you not paying anything for you NSO, since you were using twitch promos, you come here to complain about getting a subscription where you can get up to 8 people and pay next to nothing for separate accounts.

Even if you split it between 2 you would pay less than going full price for both.

What do you want us to tell you? Oh no OP don't take advantage of this great fucking deal to pay next to nothing for NSO!!!
 
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