While Nintendo has been relatively late when it comes to online services compared to Sony’s PlayStation Online and Microsoft’s Xbox Live, the huge Switch player base worldwide has helped its online endeavor propel to equally huge heights.
Despite only being released late last year, the Nintendo Switch Online service has now surpassed more than 10 million subscribers. This number was one of the many successes championed by Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa during the company’s most recent Shareholder Q&A.
“The number of subscribers for Nintendo Switch Online has increased steadily since the service was launched last September, and it has now surpassed 10 million accounts.” Furukawa mentioned. It’s important to note that this number has been on the rise since April, with the number edging ever so slightly to the big one ever since.
Furukawa was also queried on other matters, like a follow up question involving matters on how Nintendo plans to improve the service moving forward.
“Nintendo Switch Online provides users the ability to play Nintendo Switch games over the internet, both competitively and cooperatively,” Furukawa stated. “It also provides services such as Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online, Save Data Cloud Backup, and smartphone application services such as online lobbies and voice chat. In addition, we provided Tetris 99 as a special offer to Nintendo Switch Online members this February, and then in May, began selling Nintendo Switch Game Vouchers that allow users to purchase two Nintendo Switch download titles at a discount. We recognize that making the Nintendo Switch Online service attractive to users is extremely important, and will continue to make the content of the service even more appealing going forward.”
The Q&A makes for quite the interesting read overall, and serves to highlight the mindset of the company moving forward. It’s interesting to hear Furukawa’s thoughts on the Switch as a platform for AAA ports of previous years’ games, as well as industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto’s stance on Nintendo’s slow adoption into global gaming trends like the mobile market and VR titles.
At the end of the day, Nintendo is Nintendo, and while their decisions may make some scratch their heads, the company has lived by its own mantra ever since its conception over a century ago. If the subscriber count for the Nintendo Online Services isn’t proof of that, then I don’t know what is.
