ZeldaGuardian
The Great Sage of The Seven Sages
Hello everyone... I am The Great Sage... And welcome to the NSO Membership discussion. Today, we will be going over all the newest stuff and prices of what all the memberships offer and which one is the right one for you. Now, whether you're a first-time Switch owner or been doing this for almost 6 years now, you have heard many things about the Nintendo Switch Online (NSO for short) Membership plans. Well, I'm here to help break those down for you to further help you understand and decide which is the best fit for you. Let's begin...
Now, the very first membership plan and program was first talked about in 2017, but was ultimately pushed back to 2018. Now, once it was finally released, we were given a bit of information about it. We were going to be give NES and SNES games to start off with and access to their Cloud Save Storage (in the event that you either lose your data, switching to a newer switch console, etc). And it started off at $4.99/mo, $7.99/3mo, and $19.99/yr. Now, initially, everyone was going for the monthly or 3 months to see how it would play. But as for yours truly, I bought the year subscription. Mathematically, it made sense, because it equaled out to about $1.67/mo. The only one drawback I had was that I was going to have to buy that membership 4 times, because me, my 2 sisters, and my brother all had switch consoles. So, I had to make sure we had access. Well, it wasn't long until they released the Family Bundle for $34.99/yr. Now, originally, this was ONLY for ONE console and ONE account. So, even if I had gotten it, my siblings would have to still purchase theirs, because again, separate switch consoles. However, I took a closer look into their fine details and found out that you don't have to be on the same consoles to have the Family Bundle activated. All you have to do is designate the account owner of the Family Bundle, buy the Family Bundle pass, and you can sign up up to 7 accounts (via email) to your Family Bundle. So, after doing some quick math... If you divide the total amount of the pass (including tax) by the amount of people under your family plan (those who could help pay for it), you would be spending a lot less than many people think. So, for instance... Where I am, with tax, my Family Bundle came out to $38/yr ($37.99 to be more precise). So, including me, I had 7 others in that family account. If you divide 38 by 8, you get 4.75. So, as long as everyone paid $4.75 each year to the account owner, it basically costs the exact same if you had bought the 1 month membership on your own. 8 people can have access to all the NES and SNES games that were constantly being released, plus the Cloud Save Data, and the ability to play online with one another... And it would only cost them $4.75/yr. And that was for the Family Bundle pass...
Now, moving to October 26th, 2021... Nintendo had announced and released the N64 Expansion pass to the membership. This meant a drastic change in pricing, but this Expansion pass is completely optional. You can still stick with the original plan for a lot less. However, the newest pass, called the Nintendo Switch Online + N64 Expansion pass, is currently sitting at $49.99/yr for individual members and $79.99/yr for the Family Bundle. Yes, I was just as surprised at the price hike as you were. I wasn't honestly expecting to be paying $45 more than I had spent on the Family Bundle. However, once again, I decided to see how the math worked on it. Where I am, my Family Bundle for this newest pass is $86.87 (with tax included). So, I told everyone that instead of paying $4.75/yr for their membership in my family plan, it was going to be raised to $11/yr. Everyone had agreed and now, we have access to all the NES, SNES, N64, and Sega Genesis games, along with the Animal Crossing DLC pass and the Mario Kart8 DLC Expansion pass as well. Now, if you don't have this N64 Expansion pass currently, you can still purchase the Animal Crossing DLC and the Mario Kart 8 DLC passes for $24.99 each. But, by having the N64 Expansion pass to your account, you gain access to those for free.
Now, I will agree that in this day in age (with the way inflation is), spending that kind of money can be a bit daunting. But if you can get 7 of your friends and/or family that have their own switch, you all can agree on splitting the family membership price and get access to all this awesome stuff. That's how I viewed this new membership and it's worked out really well. My membership is up in October of this year, and the most I will have to pay is $11. Everyone in my Family Bundle will have their $11, $11 times 8 is $88, which pays for it perfectly. But what are you thoughts about it?? Anything you want to discuss about it?? Please, tell me your thoughts about it. I'm always curious to see how others think.
Now, the very first membership plan and program was first talked about in 2017, but was ultimately pushed back to 2018. Now, once it was finally released, we were given a bit of information about it. We were going to be give NES and SNES games to start off with and access to their Cloud Save Storage (in the event that you either lose your data, switching to a newer switch console, etc). And it started off at $4.99/mo, $7.99/3mo, and $19.99/yr. Now, initially, everyone was going for the monthly or 3 months to see how it would play. But as for yours truly, I bought the year subscription. Mathematically, it made sense, because it equaled out to about $1.67/mo. The only one drawback I had was that I was going to have to buy that membership 4 times, because me, my 2 sisters, and my brother all had switch consoles. So, I had to make sure we had access. Well, it wasn't long until they released the Family Bundle for $34.99/yr. Now, originally, this was ONLY for ONE console and ONE account. So, even if I had gotten it, my siblings would have to still purchase theirs, because again, separate switch consoles. However, I took a closer look into their fine details and found out that you don't have to be on the same consoles to have the Family Bundle activated. All you have to do is designate the account owner of the Family Bundle, buy the Family Bundle pass, and you can sign up up to 7 accounts (via email) to your Family Bundle. So, after doing some quick math... If you divide the total amount of the pass (including tax) by the amount of people under your family plan (those who could help pay for it), you would be spending a lot less than many people think. So, for instance... Where I am, with tax, my Family Bundle came out to $38/yr ($37.99 to be more precise). So, including me, I had 7 others in that family account. If you divide 38 by 8, you get 4.75. So, as long as everyone paid $4.75 each year to the account owner, it basically costs the exact same if you had bought the 1 month membership on your own. 8 people can have access to all the NES and SNES games that were constantly being released, plus the Cloud Save Data, and the ability to play online with one another... And it would only cost them $4.75/yr. And that was for the Family Bundle pass...
Now, moving to October 26th, 2021... Nintendo had announced and released the N64 Expansion pass to the membership. This meant a drastic change in pricing, but this Expansion pass is completely optional. You can still stick with the original plan for a lot less. However, the newest pass, called the Nintendo Switch Online + N64 Expansion pass, is currently sitting at $49.99/yr for individual members and $79.99/yr for the Family Bundle. Yes, I was just as surprised at the price hike as you were. I wasn't honestly expecting to be paying $45 more than I had spent on the Family Bundle. However, once again, I decided to see how the math worked on it. Where I am, my Family Bundle for this newest pass is $86.87 (with tax included). So, I told everyone that instead of paying $4.75/yr for their membership in my family plan, it was going to be raised to $11/yr. Everyone had agreed and now, we have access to all the NES, SNES, N64, and Sega Genesis games, along with the Animal Crossing DLC pass and the Mario Kart8 DLC Expansion pass as well. Now, if you don't have this N64 Expansion pass currently, you can still purchase the Animal Crossing DLC and the Mario Kart 8 DLC passes for $24.99 each. But, by having the N64 Expansion pass to your account, you gain access to those for free.
Now, I will agree that in this day in age (with the way inflation is), spending that kind of money can be a bit daunting. But if you can get 7 of your friends and/or family that have their own switch, you all can agree on splitting the family membership price and get access to all this awesome stuff. That's how I viewed this new membership and it's worked out really well. My membership is up in October of this year, and the most I will have to pay is $11. Everyone in my Family Bundle will have their $11, $11 times 8 is $88, which pays for it perfectly. But what are you thoughts about it?? Anything you want to discuss about it?? Please, tell me your thoughts about it. I'm always curious to see how others think.