90-Day Free Trial for Switch Online Included in the Box
In honour of Splatoon 2’s one-year anniversary, Nintendo is releasing a brand-new Splatoon 2 Nintendo Switch bundle in Japan that includes something Nintendo has never done before: a 90-day free trial for their upcoming Switch Online service.
The bundle will drop on July 21st and will contain a neon green and pink Nintendo Switch, a boxed copy of the base game, some snazzy stickers, and the aforementioned free trial ticket. The ticket can be redeemed when the service kicks off in September. The entire bundle costs 35,960 yen and will be sold only in Japan. It is unclear if a similar bundle will launch in other regions like Europe and North America.
Switch Online is scheduled to roll out in September and will be the first time the company has ever charged for an online service. Splatoon 2, which is one of the console’s more multiplayer-heavy games, will now charge players to play online after more than a year of free online play. The same can probably be said for other multiplayer-centric games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and ARMS.
In addition to online multiplayer, Switch Online will also offer a selection of 20 classic NES games (some with new online functionality) and the ability to save game data to the cloud. Not every game will require the premium online service to play multiplayer, but it’s safe to say that first-party Nintendo games will undoubtedly need it.
Switch Online will offer users various payment plans. A 12-month subscription will cost $19.99 USD while a three-month and one-month subscription will cost $7.99 USD and $3.99 USD respectively. There is also a family plan, which allows for eight different people to have access to Switch Online, that costs $34.99 USD.
How do you feel about the big N packaging free trials in their console bundles? Leave us your opinion in the comments below.