Yes, that is exactly what i meant. Glad you understood.

It's unfortunate but some people will be "forced" to subscribe just for the piece of mind. Myself included.

It worked out for me. That was the time I switched back to PC gaming (after Microsoft made their intentions clear about the direction they wanted to take their home entertainment streamers).

Little bit after that I discovered GoG. Now I'm drowning in games - a lot of which are back to my "gaming roots" - strategy games, turnbased stuff and traditional RPGs. Been loving it ever since!

• As already described to you, you can't keep the files. If your switch dies and you don't have your saves on the cloud, then SOL. Local storage solutions are cheap if you know where to look. Multiple terabyte data tape cartridges run about 25-30 USD.

• Because why temporarily rent a rotating stock of games (especially crap like Ice Climber and Urban Champion) when they could be enhanced and given actual value? The 3D classics were getting close, except I don't really need a depth gimmick.

• Hate is a strong word. But I've grown to loathe the laziness shown in many parts of the company, and their head in the sand paradigm. I want to like Nintendo, but so often they make decisions such as not including actual voice chat on a software level for reasons left as a complete mystery. (Think of the children doesn't count.)

Nintendo is good at one thing alone. Games. In actual software design and hardware, they've often made mistakes and decisions which from a simple matter of observation or even basic situational awareness would have avoided problems entirely.

Certainly. Sega was keeping ahead of the curve, perhaps a bit too well. It's just that internal incompetence and documentary worthy poor communication killed the company internally.

[1] I can keep the files, they are stored on my Switch. The issue is backing them up, that is a different issue. Your issue of cheap local storage solutions are pointless, their server, their rules, their decision to take off save files belonging to members that don't pay for it. Simple as that. I don't see anything wrong with it outside of the fact some resort to it as a method of back up which is indeed a legitimate concern.

[2] Do remember, the renting of a "rotating stock of games" is bundled with the key component that people will be paying for: Multiplayer, it's not it's primary selling feature, but a bundle of features. This is simply looping to PSPlus territory, Origin Access etc of paying to rent games. Rightfully, if these are concerns, all parties should be receiving this criticism. Also, increased revenue for Nintendo can potentially allocate money off their servers and allow more money for investment in enhanced versions. This does not rule out releasing better versions along side Subscription versions. Not saying it will happen, but it's not impossible.

[3] Classically Hate is passionate rejection, not rage you tend to see today. As to Nintendo, I think you need to think Japanese. It's a heavily mobile society, voice chat over already existing infrastructure to them makes sense from a business perspective. Sure, it's silly to us, but they do have their reasons for that design implementation. If Nintendo is concerned about think of the children, then it is their concern, parental security was an advertising feature of the Switch. (I am aware of the abuse of profile pictures).

[4] Oh come now, they take 8/15 in the top 15 hardware sales of all time. DS being #2 shipping 154 million, GB #3, Wii #5. Two being only 10 years or so ago and the Switch being second year in is close to 20 million.

I love Nintendo games and I love my Switch, but this online thing is a dreadful offering.
Correct. The original GBA had one and the later Micro brought it back (as did the DS and all subsequent consoles).

[1] Their rules stink. The main competition, (PC, Xbox, Playstaton) have no such qualms about backing up saved data, and some even encourage it. But hey, I'm sure those switches lost in natural disasters will go to prove how stupid this idea is.

[2] Multiplayer? Tell me, what NES games are worth playing for more than 5 minutes, especially with another player involved? I'll give you a hint, it is a very small number. More pointedly, netplay was one of the first things introduced in emulators back in the 1990s,

[3] I could think Japanese. Why, look at Sony over there, with their lack of restrictions and properly implemented party chat system. Huh.
As for the issue with profile pictures, that's just another laughable gap in the logic of their infrastructure. There are no server side checks, it's all based on client trust, the worst idea possible. Same thing allowed 3DS owners to pirate games directly from the eShop.

[4] In spite of the hardware, not because of it. You'll note how quickly many developers either grew tired of the hardware gimmicks or sent them to an illogical extreme, such as having to waggle to jump or draw to roll. The very lukewarm reception of Labo suggests that people were already cold to the idea. ¨HD rumble¨ a lot of people call neat, but they often forget it exists. So very often, a software dev or publisher would be faced with having to press a unique version to make up for system shortcomings.

Oh nintend'oh! A wolf in sheep's clothing...

All are trying to further establish "gaming as a service" and contributing to the deterioration of ownership. The fact that anyone on a DRM-free gaming site does not automatically skew towards believing online checks, et al are "wrong", is proof that the idea of ownership has already been severely deteriorated in terms of social discourse.

Pretty ridiculous actual save backups are a paid feature, but then most people suspected this was coming when the system didn't ship with such said "feature". Meanwhile modders/hackers sorted that out before them.

As much as I love the system, I'm still not a fan of some of the decisions going into it. This being one of them, incomplete physical games being another.

^
This.

I'm really not bothered, if they had offered more virtual console style stuff (and less of a multiplayer focus to it) I would be all over if for £20 a year.
As it is the only feature I might use is save back ups, and I'm pretty careful with my consoles so bar huge disaster of some kind (in which case my save files are probably the least of my worries) I should be fine.

But the games are great, the ability to play handheld and on the TV is great, the controllers are surprisingly good.
And with all the various re-releases and remasters (of both old Nintendo games and ones that have never been on Nintendo systems) it feels like a greatest hits of the last 10 - 15 years of gaming, which I'm not at all opposed to.

Yes, Nintendo make stupid decisions, they always have. But I don't think this one is going to be a problem because the Switch is another winner overall.

It has to be a winner, this is the first time I've seen them with such serious western support since the SNES it feels like. I just don't want the runaway success of something I like becoming an excuse for more boneheaded decisions and potential anti-consumer practices.

Bollocks. To this day Nintendo is the one console manufacturer who is genuinely able to innovate from a hardware perspective. Every second stationary Nintendo console has been a successful experiment that questions standards and actually extends gaming rather than just enhancing established formulas. That's besides Nintendo being utter masters when it comes to managing brands and maintaining an almost cult-like following.

Of course that doesn't change the fact that Nintendo make really weird design flaws in their hardware and that they still can't into internet (not to mention the utter failure that was the Wii U). But they sure as hell can do a lot more than make good games.