As much as Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime may want to spin it otherwise, Nintendo Switch Online, the paid online service for Nintendo’s Switch, is a bit of a dumpster fire currently. Games suffer from poor netcode frequently, basic features like messaging and game-independent lobbies are simply not a thing, and voice chat is handled exclusively through a smartphone app, as opposed to natively on the system itself.
However, there may be hope that Nintendo is actively looking at addressing some of these issues, because they have posted a new job listing for a “Manager” for the “emerging” Nintendo Switch Online service.
The news here is that this may actually end up being a job listing that leads to meaningful change. Specifically, the listing specifies that the candidate will “closely partner with [Nintendo’s] product development team to drive the product roadmap and ensure delivery of the best service possible to [their] consumers,” and that they will “work with [Nintendo’s] parent company in Japan to drive global initiatives and provide a two-way dialogue regarding service performance and feature enhancements.” This makes it sound like whoever takes up the job may have actual power to affect change, rather than just being a figurehead.
Hopefully, this means Nintendo’s online service will actually reach at least Xbox 360 standards, if nothing else. At this point I am a broken man, I don’t ask for much beyond that.
