If you are planning on accessing any of Nintendo’s online services next month, across either Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, or the Switch, you may want to take note of these times- it looks like Nintendo has announced server maintenance for next week, which means services will be offline for these periods.

Maintenance will first take place on Monday, April 17. It will start at 5pm PT (8pmET/7pm CT), and will last for two hours. This maintenance will only be taking Switch’s services offline- online functionality access, such as online play, leaderboards, friends list, and eShop, may be restricted during this period. A second round of maintenance will occur on Wednesday, April 19. Servers will be taken offline for an hour and 45 minutes, starting 6:45pm PT. Services on all Nintendo platforms will be affected during this period- so everything we mentioned above, plus also things such as SpotPass and Miiverse on Wii U and 3DS.

Best to get this done with before Mario Kart 8 Deluxe launches, Nintendo.

At last, Nintendo has joined the 21st century. With the Nintendo Switch, your Nintendo eShop purchases will no longer be tied to your hardware or device- they will now be tied directly to your account. And every time you log into a Switch with your account, they will be there, waiting for you to redownload them.

Thanks to the Nintendo Switch leak that we reported earlier, it looks like we now know that eShop purchases will be tied to your account. People on Twitter have spotted that the Switch settings menu has this text under one of the options: “Your Nintendo Account contains your Nintendo eShop purchase history and current balance. By re-linking your Nintendo Account after initializing the console, it will be possible to redownload any software or DLC purchased using that account. (Software that has been discontinued may not be available for redownload in some cases.)”

This indicates that the years of hardware transfers and hoping against hope that your system does not break or get stolen are now past- we finally have a proper account system on Nintendo! Good job, guys. Only took you roughly 17 more years than everyone else, though.

When Nintendo announced that their online services would be going paid at the Nintendo Switch reveal last month, a lot of people were incredulous- how could this company, that had so far failed to build a proper online network, or public confidence in their ability to build one, think it could get away with charging users for it? Sony had spent years fostering goodwill with PSN and PS Plus before it had decided to lock online behind a paywall, for example.

Happily, it sees as though Nintendo understands this to some degree, because the Switch’s online subscription will not be costly at all. Speaking to Nikkei (via Nintendo Everything), Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima revealed that the company’s online services for the Switch would cost ¥2000-¥3000 a year- this would come down to $17-$25 a year roughly, at exchange rates as they stand right now.

That’s not a bad price at all, annually- that is less than half of what PSN and Xbox Live charge. Given that Nintendo has just enough online games that their fans might want to play – Super Smash Bros., Pokemon, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Monster Hunter, and of course, Splatoon – this price is low enough that most of them will probably happily subscribe.

Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed something that the rest of us all already basically knew- that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be the last game Nintendo releases for the Wii U. After this, no more Nintendo games will be launching on the platform.

“From a first-party standpoint, there’s no new development coming after the launch of the legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” Fils-Aime said to Polygon in an interview. “We really are at the end of life for Wii U.”

That does jive with the fact that Nintendo seems to be continuing support for the 3DS alongside the Switch (including even 3DS/Switch multiplatform games), but that they don’t have anything beyond Zelda announced for Wii U. That said, Fils-Aime assured Wii U owners that they would still be able to enjoy their Wii U consoles for some time to come.

“From our standpoint, sunsetting is quite some time into the future. The ongoing activity from an online standpoint on [Mario] Kart and Splatoon is significant. We’re going to continue to support that.”

So, basically, Breath of the Wild is going to be the Wii U’s last gasp- we suppose there are worse notes for a system to go out on, in the end.

Between the eShop and the Virtual Console, Nintendo have some of the best digital content on handhelds- it’s just a shame that they make it so hard for most users to enjoy that content, with their regressive, backwards policies when it comes to digital content ownership. Unlike literally everyone else in any industry, Nintendo have chosen to tie purchases to your device instead of your account in the past.

With the Switch, the expectation was that that would change- but Nintendo never actually confirmed that at their event. However, now, speaking in an interview, Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime has laid all speculation to rest. He has explicitly stated that purchases will now be tied to Nintendo accounts.

‘We will be sharing more information at a later date. What I can tell you is that with the introduction of the Nintendo Account, we now have the capability of tying consumer purchases to their particular account. So that opens up a range of executions for us to address that consumer desire and need. So, we hear it, we’re working on it, and more information will come.’

Reggie also confirmed, explicitly, that Switch will have no Friend Codes. ‘There are no friend codes within what we’re doing,’ he said. Of course, Nintendo had already done away with Friend Codes on the Wii U, so this was to be expected.

Nintendo Switch is due to launch worldwide on March 3.

According to market tracking and analyst firm SuperData, Sony’s PlayStation Network, and Microsoft’s Xbox Live generated $3 billion in revenues in 2016- an incredible number, and one which probably explains why Nintendo plans on transitioning to a paid subscription online model on the upcoming Nintendo Switch.

“The combined earnings for the subscription service for Sony and Xbox – PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, respectively – generated around $3 billion in revenues last year, and has proven a key component in transitioning consumers to the higher-margin side of the business in digital distribution. Total earnings for digital downloads on console last year, including full game downloads and micro-transactions, was $7 billion, worldwide,” SuperData said of the two services, noting that Nintendo themselves are probably looking at pushing digital sales on the new machine.

While Nintendo can hardly be blamed for wanting a piece of this pie, they ave not earned the confidence from customers to be able to get away with charging for online- their online offerings on Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS were all dismal, and there is no reason to suggest that that will change with the Switch, especially since early indications aren’t the most encouraging. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo’s own online numbers look a year or so from now- hopefully their offering is better than it looks.

Nintendo certainly has some, uh, well interesting ideas (to put it nicely) when it comes to implementation of online services and this has to be one of them. Where PS4 and Xbox One offer built in, system level voice chat for all games natively, Nintendo will instead rely on an app on your smartphone to provide the same feature. This is particularly frustrating, because the Switch being a tablet should be able to provide voice chat support natively.

Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime explained the reasoning behind the odd decision in a recent interview, “We are going to provide an overall online service, subscription-based, that not only will capture the multiplayer opportunity, but also the voice chat capability that we’re going to provide through a global app. We think that that’s just as important as access to Virtual Console content.

“The reason for that is, it continues to reinforce our commitment to online, and do so in a way that will enable the consumer to enjoy their Nintendo Switch and to still be able to play those connected experiences—like Splatoon, like Kart —while they’re on the go. Instead of having some sort of bulky gamer headset, you’ll be able to do it right off your smartphone, put in your earbuds that you use for your standard mobile device. We think that’s a pretty sweet solution. That’s part of the overall opportunity that we see in a subscription service.”

I… am not sure I follow his reasoning fully? The one advantage to this I can see is that smartphones should be able to restrict access to voice chat by younger players, meaning Nintendo should now be able to support the feature universally for each game, instead of the patchy implementation that we saw with the Wii U and its games, but… couldn’t they have just managed this on the system itself, via utilization of some form of parental controls?

The era of free online play on consoles is over- Nintendo are apparently bringing a suite of full featured online services to the Switch, but with that comes the end of the era of free online play. Nintendo Switch will have paid online services.

To be clear, this won’t be true right away- you will be able to play online for free until Fall, at which point you have to switch to paying for online. Exact details, such as what services will be gated behind the fee, will be revealed at a later date.

The one thing that Nintendo did share was that the full suite of their online services will be entirely compatible with smartphones. They discussed looking up games online and jumping in directly with smartphones, but I am sure more information will be coming later.

The Nintendo Switch conference is occurring right now. We will keep you posted on all the news as it comes.

There is further potential in the idea, too- PlayStation Now is theoretically hardware agnostic (and has been offered on Android phones and Samsung TVs already, with a recent rumor also pegging it for a PC release soon), which means that by offering people the ability to play these older PlayStation games without having to invest in dedicated proprietary hardware, Sony are theoretically winning more converts for their current generation systems. This is a strategy not unlike Nintendo’s with their smartphone games, actually (and we already know that it has been very successful for them).

Given all this, PlayStation Now, warts and all, must be admitted to be a rather prescient strategy- and it is one that I whole heartedly think Nintendo and Microsoft should look at embracing and emulating. For both companies, it will be a way to potentially attract more people into their ecosystem in the here and now, while also hedging their bets for the hypothetical cloud only future that is sure to come eventually.

"PlayStation Now, warts and all, must be admitted to be a rather prescient strategy- and it is one that I whole heartedly think Nintendo and Microsoft should look at embracing and emulating."

Take Nintendo, for example- is there any reason that they could not potentially offer a Virtual Console subscription service on PC, say, for $10 a month, and offer full access to NES and SNES games (at least the ones that would be supported on the service), playable via streaming? More than enough demand exists for old Nintendo games- it’s one of the reasons why Virtual Console has been so successful on Nintendo’s consoles and handhelds. By offering their old games on neutral platforms like PC (and smartphones) this way, Nintendo could kill three birds with one stone- they could earn extra revenue from their old games, which no longer by themselves add much, if any, value to their current hardware; they would potentially expand the number of people exposed to Nintendo’s games, and thus the number of people who could eventually purchase Nintendo hardware to play more of them; finally, they would be investing in cloud infrastructure, which will have the twofold benefit of improving their network and services backend in the here and now, while also giving them something to build off of should gaming ever truly move fully into the cloud.

From a usability perspective, too, a Nintendo Virtual Console offering NES and SNES games would be far better than PlayStation Now- unlike PS3 games, which can be dozens of GBs in file size, and therefore require a lot of bandwidth (and, by extension, come with the threat of a lot of latency), NES and SNES games are tiny- we’re talking maybe a few MBs at best. Not only would something like this not require a lot of bandwidth, it would also be accessible to a lot more people with poor internet connections that PlayStation Now cannot reach.

In other words, there is simply no reason that Nintendo have not yet begun to look at opportunities in cloud gaming- indeed, a Virtual Console subscription service would be another line of steady revenue for them, and for the company which is looking at diversifying its revenue streams as much as possible, that can only be a good thing.

"A Virtual Console subscription service would be another line of steady revenue for Nintendo, and for the company which is looking at diversifying its revenue streams as much as possible, that can only be a good thing."

A case for Nintendo offering a PlayStation Now service is relatively easier to make- but what about Microsoft? Why would Microsoft want to offer a cloud gaming service? How would they make it usable, given that Microsoft’s oldest console, the original Xbox, has pretty big file sizes for its games?

For starters, one must remember a few things- Microsoft, as a whole, is a company that is moving towards a hardware agnostic future. Not even that- they are categorically making the move away to a platform agnostic future, and under Satya Nadella, their current CEO, their mantra is very literally ‘cloud first.’ Let us also not ignore that, long before Phil Spencer took on the Xbox One, and tried to turn the console around, Microsoft had intended for the console to be the standard bearer of cloud gaming.

Given all of this, the question isn’t why Microsoft would not have a cloud gaming service- the question is, how do they not have one in place already? It makes complete, total, and absolute sense for Microsoft from all perspectives. It furthers their strategy of moving towards the cloud, it furthers their shift towards a hardware agnostic future, it potentially shows off the utility of their Azure cloud offerings, and it even lies in line with their vision for the future of gaming.

But Microsoft are probably spooked by the backlash against the original Xbox One concept, which was predicated on the cloud- so that’s fine, we get that. And they probably feel that their current take on backwards compatibility with the Xbox 360, which has won them so much goodwill and accolades, is superior to a cloud service. We get that- that’s all well and good. But what about the original Xbox? What about Microsoft’s old PC games? Why are Midtown Madness, Knights of the Old Republic, Conker Live and Reloaded, Halo: Combat Evolved, and Zoo Tycoon not offered via a cloud streaming service, for smartphones, PCs, and even Xbox?

"There is no reason for Microsoft to not jump in with a cloud offering of their own."

This would allow Microsoft to monetize these old games that are all now out of print, and are earning them little to no money. It would act as a flagship offering for their cloud services. And it would also act as a very powerful demonstration of their cloud and network capabilities. And of course, they would attract more people into the larger Microsoft ecosystem, too. There is no reason for Microsoft to not jump in with a cloud offering of their own.

It comes down to the cloud being important- whether or not you like it, whether it is now or thirty years in the future, cloud gaming is ultimately the future. And unless Microsoft and Nintendo act to capitalize on the opportunity soon, they will be left behind in this new frontier, with only Sony having had the foresight to invest in this field ahead of time.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

The new My Nintendo loyalty program is finally live- an amalgamation of services like PS+ and Xbox live Games with Gold with Nintendo’s Club Nintendo offerings, it offers players loads of discounts on games and Nintendo software, as well free Nintendo games, simply for engaging with the Nintendo ecosystem.

The My Nintendo program launched today (alongside Miitomo, Nintendo’s first smartphone app ever), and the first batch of rewards available on the service is now listed. It’s got a whole lot of cool stuff on offer that you can try and strive for:

North America

• My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – 1000 Platinum Points
• Miitomo – Mario Suit – 250 Platinum Points
• Miitomo – 1 game ticket – 85 Platinum Points
• Miitomo – 5 game tickets – 420 Platinum Points
• Miitomo – 10 game tickets – 250 Platinum Points (1 time only)

• 15% discount on Zelda: Wind Waker HD – 750 Platinum Points
• 15% discount on Yoshi’s Woolly World – 750 Platinum Points
• 15% discount on Zelda: A Link Between Worlds – 600 Platinum Points
• 15% discount on Animal Crossing: New Leaf – 450 Platinum Points
• 15% discount on Super Mario 3D Land – 450 Platinum Points
• 30% discount on Splatoon – 140 Gold Points
• 30% discount on Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker – 100 Gold Points
• 30% discount on Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D – 100 Gold Points
• 30% discount on Ultimate NES Remix – 70 Gold Points
• 30% discount on Punch-Out!! – 50 Gold Points

• Super Mario 64 (Wii U) – 90 Gold Points
• New Super Mario Bros. U DLC: New Super Luigi U – 170 Gold Points
• Pikmin 3 Mission Mode DLC: Battle Enemies! Stages 7-10 – 20 Gold Points
• WarioWare: Touched! (3DS) – 1000 Platinum Points
• Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (3DS) – 35 Gold Points
• Donkey Kong Country Returns – 230 Gold Points
• Metroid Fusion (Wii U) – 60 Gold Points
• Super Punch-Out!! (Wii U) – 70 Gold Points
• My Nintendo Theme 1: Mario – 200 Platinum Points
• My Nintendo Theme 2: Donkey Kong – 200 Platinum Points

Europe

• My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – 1000 Platinum Points
• Miitomo – Mario Suit – 250 Platinum Points
• Miitomo – 1 game ticket – 85 Platinum Points
• Miitomo – 5 game tickets – 420 Platinum Points
• Miitomo – 10 game tickets – 250 Platinum Points (1 time only)

• 20% discount on Yoshi’s Woolly World – 600 Platinum Points
• 20% discount on Pullblox World – 150 Platinum Points
• 20% discount on Mario Kart 7 – 700 Platinum Points
• 20% discount on The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds – 300 Platinum Points
• 40% discount on Splatoon – 100 Gold Points
• 40% discount on The Wonderful 101 – 120 Gold Points
• 50% discount on Metroid: Other M – 60 Gold Points
• 40% discount on Super Mario 3D Land – 110 Gold Points
• 40% discount on Tomodachi Life – 100 Gold Points
• 50% discount on Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move – 30 Gold Points

• Super Mario 64 (Wii U) – 90 Gold Points
• New Super Mario Bros. U Add-On Content: New Super Luigi U – 90 Gold Points
• Pikmin 3 Add-On Content: Battle Enemies! Stages 7-10 – 20 Gold Points
• WarioWare: Touched! (3DS) – 1000 Platinum Points
• Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (3DS) – 35 Gold Points
• Metroid Fusion (Wii U) – 60 Gold Points
• Super Punch-Out!! (Wii U) – 70 Gold Points
• My Nintendo Theme 1: Mario – 200 Platinum Points
• My Nintendo Theme 2: Donkey Kong – 200 Platinum Points

That’s a healthy catalog of games to start out with. You get Gold Points for buying Nintendo products off of their eShop, while Platinum Points are awarded for simply engaging with the Nintendo ecosystem.

Which one of these games are you going to try and get first?