nintendo switch Nintendo Switch Online Service costs money

[asus killer]

1 hour ago, RuffRuffmcgruff said:

another 5 years and we'll have to pay to play online on PC.

correction, you have to pay to play online on PC (even in free games steam gets it's cut from microtransactions, fee to enter steam, etc... and that pays for the servers), you pay for online when you pay the game, there are no free lunches. 

 

The difference is that in consoles you pay twice, and i guess it's even more idiotic for console games that are online only, they sell you a game for a price knowing that unless you pay more that game can't even be played.

[Demonking]

1 hour ago, RuffRuffmcgruff said:

This guy is completely right, 10- 15 years ago this would've sent shockwaves through the gaming community, especially for Sony and Nintendo fans. The major bonus of having a ps3 was free online. Watch it, another 5 years and we'll have to pay to play online on PC.

Microsoft tried that with games for Windows live and PC gamers told them to fuck off,now games on the window store are still free to play online to this day. PC gamers actually have a backbone.

[RuffRuffmcgruff]

32 minutes ago, asus killer said:

correction, you have to pay to play online on PC (even in free games steam gets it's cut from microtransactions, fee to enter steam, etc... and that pays for the servers), you pay for online when you pay the game, there are no free lunches. 

 

The difference is that in consoles you pay twice, and i guess it's even more idiotic for console games that are online only, they sell you a game for a price knowing that unless you pay more that game can't even be played.

Paying for internet services is a given though, but yeah it's despicable how anti-consumer this practice is.

[asus killer]

10 minutes ago, RuffRuffmcgruff said:

Paying for internet services is a given though

is it really? you pay for windows 10 but you don't pay extra for the servers when you download the updates. We also don't pay for servers on android or ios for gaming, updates, etc...  Am i seeing this wrong? are there many other services besides consoles where you pay for the product and then for the cost of accessing their servers?

[Brehohn]

You're going to stop playing an online service just because they are asking for money in order to keep their servers running? 

 

Its $20 for 12 months. Xbox and playstation players pay $60 every 12 months. I'm sure you can swing $20 and avoid eating at McDonalds or something for a couple days.

[RuffRuffmcgruff]

1 hour ago, asus killer said:

is it really? you pay for windows 10 but you don't pay extra for the servers when you download the updates. We also don't pay for servers on android or ios for gaming, updates, etc...  Am i seeing this wrong? are there many other services besides consoles where you pay for the product and then for the cost of accessing their servers?

I was referring more to ISP charges, not the actual access of a games servers. But you are correct there isn't anything else i can think of that replicates Xbox Live, PSN style of payment model.

[Drak3]

So, apparently it's anticonsumer for a company to charge you for a service they provide. A service that end users have no right to.

[Brooksie359]

16 hours ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Oh yeah, the three do take cuts from physical games as they handle distribution and manufacturing of the physical copies.

Considering with how deeply invested Valve is with VR, it wouldn't shock me if their next big title is a VR title, like how Half-Life 2 was the DirectX 9 seller.

Half-Life 3 VR confirmed?

[asus killer]

3 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

So, apparently it's anticonsumer for a company to charge you for a service they provide. A service that end users have no right to.

so you don't have the right to play a online game only that you already paid 60$? 

[PlayStation 2]

1 minute ago, Brooksie359 said:

Half-Life 3 VR confirmed?

I dunno if it'll be HL3, but it is known that Valve is working on a Half-Life related VR game.

[Drak3]

6 minutes ago, asus killer said:

so you don't have the right to play a online game only that you already paid 60$? 

Believe it or not, no.

You have the right to any offline gameplay, within EULA agreement. You don't buy the game itself, just a copy of the code and a license to use it.

[Sniperfox47]

For all the people pointing out that games nowadays are P2P or on servers run by the developer I just want to point out that the CDNs, which cost *astronomically* more to maintain are not P2P and are run by the console devs.

 

For all the people pointing out that you don't pay to use Valve's servers for steam I want to point out that yeah... You do... Valve's cut on games is ~30%. On consoles that's closer to 15% on digital games and 10% on physical games plus ~5% for manufacturing costs (it varies from console to console and developer to developer). The switch gets hit particularly hard on physical games because of the costs of the actual storage medium being so much higher. Also take into note that Valve makes a *TON* of money off of microtransactions and loot boxes, not only in their own games but also in any games using Steam payments. Sony and Microsoft get substantially lower cuts on console, and Nintendo was reluctant to even adopt DLC, much less more invasive microtransactions.

 

And none of this is to mention that providing proper support for consoles including security updates, new features, and new developer APIs is not free or even cheap. There's a reason why the support level on the PS4 has been *so* much higher than the PS3.

 

It's lower cost than any competitors by like 2/3rds. It doesn't include crud designed as a hook like the "free monthly games" that most users don't go out of their way to redeem. It's just straight and simple "Give us a bit of money so you can use our services." No manipulative BS, no hidden costs, all described well before the hardware -much less any online title for the hardware- launched. You couldn't get any less anti-consumer.

[spartaman64]

1 hour ago, Drak3 said:

So, apparently it's anticonsumer for a company to charge you for a service they provide. A service that end users have no right to.

so if asus say you know what we have the best customer service in the world and those agents and infrastructure cost money so we are going to charge our customers 5 dollars a month to unlock access to the internet. you guys dont expect to have the best customer service for free do you

[Drak3]

17 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

so if asus say you know what we have the best customer service in the world and those agents and infrastructure cost money so we are going to charge our customers 5 dollars a month to unlock access to the internet. you guys dont expect to have the best customer service for free do you

Extended warrantees cost money and the manufacturer warrantee is part of the cost of the device.

 

It'd be different if you could buy the device new, sans warranty.

[spartaman64]

Just now, Drak3 said:

Extended warrantees cost money and the manufacturer warrantee is part of the cost of the device.

 

It'd be different if you could buy the device new, sans warranty.

this isnt for the warranty its for the customer service 

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, spartaman64 said:

this isnt for the warranty its for the customer service 

Again, you pay for that. That's what the warranty is, them selling you full access to customer service.

[spartaman64]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

Again, you pay for that. That's what the warranty is, them selling you full access to customer service.

im not just talking about extended warranty. thats not the only thing the customer service does

[Peter S]

I'm not a serious gamer, so it is okay for me to pay the price for their service once in a while. Also, they made it clear to the customers that they will come up with a new service and that there are costs associated. I just hope that, with this new pricing plans they will provide their best service to attract the customers.

[jpenguin]

I'm sick of people complaining about this, servers cost money.

I totally agree that the app sucks though. 

[Thaldor]

1 hour ago, Maria Phene said:

I'm not a serious gamer, so it is okay for me to pay the price for their service once in a while. Also, they made it clear to the customers that they will come up with a new service and that there are costs associated. I just hope that, with this new pricing plans they will provide their best service to attract the customers.

Naahh.. It's Nintendo, their "new and great online services" have been quite ermmm... "well" done in the past. Like you lived in EU or US and wanted to access Pokemon Global League couple of months after the launch of the Pokemon Sun and Moon, that's too bad the whole registration service was down and the site itself was unusable for those who didn't have an account. There were no problems in Japan and other Asia where Pokemon Company maintained the PGL, but US and EU were in hell because Nintendo maintained the PGL and refused any problems in the service because... It's Nintendo. First couple global missions even ended in failure and some part of that was probably because no one with new game and account couldn't login to the PGL to take part into the global missions. Also no press releases, no any comment on the matter before Pokemon Company was contacted about the problem and even then Nintendo was saying something around "We have some minor hiccups with the login services" and after around 2 months someone at the Nintendo finally did something and some part of the players with new accounts could login to the PGL, but the same problem continued to exists.

[asus killer]

4 hours ago, Drak3 said:

Believe it or not, no.

You have the right to any offline gameplay, within EULA agreement. You don't buy the game itself, just a copy of the code and a license to use it.

what? you have the right to play offline in a online only game? what are you smoking?!

The last part of your comment i don't get the relevance to be honest, no was discussing that.

[Combustible Lemon]

23 hours ago, Rattenmann said:

People are so used to seeing the "free" sticker all over the place.

Honestly, just pay for the stuff you use. It costs money. It costs peoples time. You use it,... just pay up.

That is how the world has worked since we started trading stones and chickens.

 

Thinking you deserve something for free, or any company should offer their work for free is just silly.

It may be short-term marketing, but take that as a nice gift and be happy about it. Don't bash them, when they start taking money again.

 

Nothing more to say really.

But we already paid.
For the console and for the game. Sony and Microsoft take up to 30% of all purchases, I'll guess Nintendo doesn't charge less than that. That's money that comes right out of our pockets.
Steam takes a similar amount and gives you all those features for free - because we will go somewhere else if they'll start charging - and they're not doing so bad. On consoles, you have no alternatives. That's all there is to it. Nothing more.

[Drak3]

14 minutes ago, asus killer said:

what? you have the right to play offline in a online only game? what are you smoking?!

The last part of your comment i don't get the relevance to be honest, no was discussing that.

Don't like it, don't buy it.

[Noctus]

10 hours ago, RuffRuffmcgruff said:

This guy is completely right, 10- 15 years ago this would've sent shockwaves through the gaming community, especially for Sony and Nintendo fans. The major bonus of having a ps3 was free online. Watch it, another 5 years and we'll have to pay to play online on PC.

Was about to mention this. Remember when playing online was free? I do. Another layer in splitting up services locked behind a paywall. Wouldn't surprise me this was all planned for (PSN/Xbox aswel), get people hooked, invested in the brand etc, then compartmentalize the experience behind money. What you gonna do? Skip ship? Those that do will be covered by the money that don't, provide. Certain fruit company has it locked down to an art. 

[Drak3]

1 hour ago, Combustible Lemon said:

But we already paid.
For the console and for the game

Yes, you paid for the console and the game. Not access to their game servers.