Welcome to Games for Breakfast, a new feature series here on BagoGames!
Games for Breakfast, written by features editor Angelo De Bellis, is a daily opinion piece of about 250-500 words—I gotta keep it brief—that engages topical game news. Every new post will go live at 9am EST so that you can grab your cup of coffee and read a brief account of a particular gamer’s take on the latest goings-on in the industry.
With this first ever Games for Breakfast post, let’s discuss the recently explored pricing structure for Nintendo’s online services for the Switch.
Head of Nintendo Tatsumi Kimishima told The Nikkei on Wednesday that the services will cost somewhere between $17.60-$26.40. When I first heard that Nintendo was going to start charging for their online services, I was worried that their lack of transparency in what they would offer coupled with the fact that typical online services cost around $60, would spell trouble for their approach.
I’ve changed my mind just a little with this new pricing model, as it seems like a mild asking price, though I do wonder why there exists a range in price. Could Nintendo have something special in mind for the higher tier? Perhaps, but from what they revealed at the Switch event, the month-to-month offering of NES and SNES games that disappear after 30 days is not all that exciting, even if they will receive an online multiplayer component. If Nintendo does have additional features that are exciting enough to get people hungry for the launch, then why wouldn’t they have just announced it already?
Though Nintendo has surprised me with a lower-than-expected price, which certainly makes sense since I can’t imagine how their online services will compare to the mature services offered by their competitors, I remain guarded about just what to expect from this first-time foray into a paid online service.
Do you think the proposed pricing is too high, too low, or just right?