Seems like you can officially forget about the Virtual Console on Nintendo Switch

Nintendo outlined its plans for the long-awaited Switch subscription service this week, and it actually sounds pretty great. But maybe hold off on praising the company, because it also sounds like the Virtual Console is officially dead.

Nintendon’t

So this week we finally learned all there is to know about the Switch’s online subscription plan. The console will have a service that allows gamers to play online, use cloud saves, and have access to a library of NES games. According to Nintendo, that NES game selection will grow too, as time goes on.

Sounds good right? What you won’t have though, is the ability to “buy” NES games and keep them, without being a member of the plan. That said though, the membership is just $20 a year, so it’s honestly not that much of an issue. Or… is it?

While all of the above is good enough, there’s some additional news that gaming site Kotaku just broke, and it’s not so great. In fact, it’s kind of crappy. Well, it is if you want more than NES games. Nintendo hinted at much more than just 8bit games of course, before the Switch launched. As of right now though, it looks like none of that is going to happen.

Kotaku apparently received an email from Nintendo itself, clarifying the future of the Virtual Console. In it, they said that “there are currently no plans to bring classic games together under the Virtual Console banner as has been done on other Nintendo systems.” Sounds pretty definitive.

Could that change? Of course it could. And it even stands good reason that it will at some point. But there’s no reason to think that it will in the near-future, since Nintendo has moved on with the subscription plan, and publishers who want to release VC-type games (like SEGA) are doing so without the official label.

So, maybe forget about the GameCube and N64 games, because you might never be seeing them outside of a remaster or two.

Source: MCV