Nintendo Switch Free Game Limitations

The Nintendo Switch has a catch with its free games

The Nintendo Switch has been announced, and around here the reaction has been rather warm. Even I have talked about how I am cautiously optimistic towards it. However, something I brought up then was the Nintendo Switch charging for multiplayer. I’ve made my disdain towards it clear, but one positive it had was a free NES/SNES game a month. However, there is a catch. The NES/SNES game can only be played for that month.

Nintendo’s offering in terms of free games already looked rather paltry. They were only offering a single game, all of them decades old. For comparison, PS+ is offering a grand total of five free games for PS4 users this month. This bundle includes the recent and well received This War of Mine and Titan Souls and you can keep them. Not only are Microsoft and Sony offering more games, they’re offering more expensive ones. SNES and NES games are simply cheaper than more modern games, yet the Nintendo Switch is only getting one a month.

This is not to say that they lack value, but Nintendo has been pricing their older games at a lower price.  The Classic NES was essentially a bundle of NES games where they were priced at three bucks each. Simply put, the subscription for the Nintendo Switch needs more than one rental a month to act as an incentive. I rarely use the PS+ for multiplayer and I still subscribe for the free games. The Nintendo Switch could’ve convinced me to do the same with a large offering of classics. However, can safely say that this won’t be happening now. Maybe Nintendo will change it’s mind, maybe it will offer more. Microsoft did the same with Games with Gold. Until then though, any Nintendo Switch I get will be multiplayer free.