Nintendo Switch’s update 6.00 went live yesterday, and while on the face of things, there are not a whole lot of user facing changes, there is none rather important one that for some reason was not publicized until now. You see, Nintendo has changed how user accounts on the Switch work– in a good way.

Until now, your Nintendo account could only be logged in on one Switch system at a time; you could not deactivate or manage your account logins remotely, and it would have to be done directly from the console itself, short of calling Nintendo (which means that, if, for example, you ever lost your Switch, your account was gone too).

Both of these things are now changed: in terms of user accounts, Nintendo has made it possible for an account to be logged in to more than one system at a time. One system can be designated as ”primary”, which will be the account’s home system. On this system, you can play any and all digital content associated with your account with no limitations whatsoever. On any other system that the account is logged into other than the Primary system, you can still play your digital content, as long as you maintain an internet connection.

Does this sound familiar to you? It is the exact system Sony uses for PlayStation accounts on PS4. It also allows for digital game sharing between friends, by simply swapping their accounts for each other’s respective consoles.

The other important change is that your account can now be managed by going to www.accounts.nintendo.com, and selecting “Shop Menu”, and selecting your device activations for there directly.

It took Nintendo a very long time to get around to this – the company has offered digital content in some capacity since 2006 – but I’m just glad at this point that they did it at all. I didn’t expect them to ever join the 21st century.

Nintendo has updated the Nintendo Account website, and the updates reveal more information about the planned upcoming online service for the Switch. It looks like full fledged friends functionality will be a part of the offering this time around- the service will even recommend friends to you based on other accounts (such as Twitter or Facebook) that you may link to it.

This feature can be disabled at any point, of course (although naturally this won’t affect friends you may have already added using this functionality). It’s basically identical to similar features that PSN and Xbox Live provide, and it’s good to see Nintendo not shy away from something like it this time.

It also looks like the Nintendo Account website can be used to set up and manage parental controls for child accounts, the same as the app. Whether or not this is an indication that everything that can be handled via smartphone apps can also be handled via the website remains to be seen.

Finally, the one unexpected benefit of all of this is that players will be able to change their Nintendo Account display ID at will- something that PSN does not offer at all, and Xbox Live charges for. Will you look at that.

[Thanks Perfectly Nintendo]

Nintendo’s Nintendo Account service- their new online backend that will absorb the existing Nintendo Network, and modernize Nintendo’s online offerings, bringing cloud functionality, account based digital purchases, achievements, sharing, and a new Club Nintendo like rewards program, to the table, is now available in the west. You can register for your Nintendo Account starting today at accounts.nintendo.com.

Registration is surprisingly quick and easy- it actually feels like something from the 21st century now! You just click on sign up, and you get the option to sign up either with your Facebook, Twitter, Google, or existing Nintendo Network account. Doing so imports all your information to the new account, and you are ready to go.

Alternatively, you can also make a brand new account from scratch- some may wish to do this, because Nintendo Account isn’t available in all regions worldwide yet.

This promises a far smoother and modern online experience than we have had to experience from Nintendo yet. It makes me a bit more excited for what they may have in store for us with the NX.

Yesterday, Nintendo finally launched their My Nintendo and Nintendo Accounts services– their long promised unified account services that would be hardware agnostic across all of their devices, as well as smartphones and PCs, and offer services such as media sharing, achievements, Cross Buy, Friends Lists, and unified purchase histories- the kind of stuff that should be standard, but Nintendo is only getting around to now.

The service launched only in Japan, and only partially- there was just an open registration portal, and we still don’t know when Nintendo’s devices themselves will be getting the services yet. What we also didn’t know was when the rest of the world could expect to get their hands on My Nintendo- until DualShockers very kindly reached out to Nintendo Australia for a comment, who confirmed that the service will launch in Australia and New Zealand in March.

“In Japan, Nintendo has launched its new Nintendo Account system. This preliminary launch represents a limited selection of the full functionality that Nintendo will eventually offer. This preliminary Nintendo Account launch is focused on bringing off-device purchase functionality to the Japanese market.

“This preliminary launch is limited to Japan. Nintendo Account and the new My Nintendo membership service will launch in Australia and New Zealand in March 2016.”

It sounds like the launch in Japan right now is highly limited- with the full launch coming much later. We could generally use the Australian launch as a good barometer to judge when the rest of the world might be getting these services too, but recent history has shown Australia often getting things far earlier than any other western territory- for instance, Australia and New Zealand got the New Nintendo 3DS models last year, shortly after the Japanese launches, while the west had to wait till February.

We’ll keep you posted.

Nintendo might not yet have a console that can compete with the PS4 and Xbox One during the Holiday shopping season, but the company isn’t taking the pummeling it’s taking in sales laying down. Rather it appears the firm is gearing up for a big fight once 2016 rolls around. One of the first steps in that fight is the launching of its singular login service known as Nintendo Account.

The service will unify gamer logins for all Nintendo products including future Nintendo applications that will be featured on smartphones and tablets. Of course, the service will also be used for the new Nintendo NX console whenever it might be launching, and is expected to be launching in 2016. American Nintendo users will have to wait a bit longer though as the service has now just launched in Japan. It appears the company is using its home region as a kind of test case before they launch the service to a wider audience.

Anyone who has an existing Japanese Nintendo Network ID can sign up for this new account service using the just launched website. Once a user signs up, they will have their purchase and play history on the Wii U and 3DS imported into this account. There isn’t yet any word on when Nintendo plans to bring this new service to the US or Europe. The launch is just one of the big things the company has going on this week. There are also rumors the firm is going to have a rather large reveal later this week at the Video Game Awards show.