Nintendo Switch Online may soon add retro games from other classic systems

By Aaron Mamiit Updated June 29, 2019

Nintendo Switch Online, the online subscription service for the Nintendo Switch, may soon add more titles to its collection of retro games.

The service currently offers access to a library of classic NES games, among other benefits such as online multiplayer and cloud saves. More NES titles are being regularly added to the collection, with the games getting new features such as save states and online play.

Nintendo Switch Online subscribers, however, have longed for the inclusion of games from other classic platforms, such as the SNES, Nintendo 64, and GameCube. While there is no timetable, it appears that Nintendo is at least considering the expansion of the service’s retro collection.

In the company’s 79th annual general meeting of shareholders, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa responded to a question on whether content from past consoles, particularly the more recent Nintendo 64 and GameCube, will find their way to Nintendo Switch Online.

“At this place we cannot tell new information about future classic hardware among others, but we are thinking about providing an extension of the online service which is currently providing Famicom [NES] software, as well as other methods of providing them. We also recognize that there are opinions wanting to play past titles,” Furukawa said, according to the translation provided by Japanese Nintendo.

The Nintendo Wii and Wii U, which were the predecessors of the Nintendo Switch, offered access to the Virtual Console. The service allowed people to play games from the NES, SNES, and Nintendo 64, so there remains hope that the same functions will soon find their way to the Nintendo Switch.

This is not the first time that the addition of more platforms to Nintendo Switch Online’s retro collection was reported, as dataminers discovered a list of SNES games and four emulators in the code for the subscription service in January. The first emulator is for the NES, so the speculation is that the three others are for the SNES, Nintendo 64, and GameCube.

Nintendo Switch Online offers either an individual subscription for one user, or a family subscription for up to eight users. An individual subscription costs either $4 per month, $8 for three months, or $20 per year, while family subscriptions costs $35 per year.

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