18th May 2018, 12:24 PM
Not to mention that, well, they have up until now let us play games online for free. It also bears repeating that their online network, just as set of features, is nowhere near what Sony or MS offer. MS and Sony baked their online function directly into the OS of their systems, and all those features work regardless of the game's own programming. In fact, even if a developer wanted to they have no power to lock out any of those features. This is as it should be. Nintendo, by contrast, allows developers to decide whether or not the user's own save files can be copied to Nintendo's servers or not (this is in addition to the fact that cloud saving is currently the ONLY means of getting saved data off the Switch).
Nintendo really needs to rethink how they handle their features, and in fact how they even program their OS at a fundamental level. Right now, features like screen shots and going back to the home menu are handled by in-game code responding to button presses. This means a game can pick moments when the "home" button doesn't even work, and infamously Sonic Mania had a glitch where pressing the home button during the opening FMV would slow the game down, and it woudln't respond properly for several seconds. If the OS intercepted those commands directly, instead of the game needing to be coded to catch commands, this wouldn't have happened.
Further, any and all friend list functionality should be managed solely by the OS. This includes one very basic function, forming a persistent party that can travel from one game to the next without issue. And yes, voice chat should be a built in system feature.
I admire their parental controls and the additional cell phone application for that. They do parental controls better than the competition, but their online services continue to lag far far behind. The inclusion of 20 retro games with the service? Well, from everything I have heard, users won't "own" those games at all. They disappear the moment someone stops paying for them. I refuse to "rent" balloon fight. I don't care what online functions they added, the local play should still function just fine. Just let me own the games. Remember this, the XBox 360's free giveaways are permanent. They don't care if you cancel subscription. That change in behavior happened with the XBox One.
The hard thing is explaining this to people who ONLY own Nintendo systems. Trying to explain what online features Nintendo doesn't have is like trying to explain color to the colorblind. I have had someone flat out call me a liar when I said XBox Live lets you carry an online party from one game to the next, as they carefully explained to me that "one game's coding isn't compatible with another, what you are describing is literally impossible", and completely ignoring what I and everyone else were telling them about how the OS handles parties and friends entirely, and all the game needs to do is "plug in" to the party and pull that data.
Nintendo really needs to rethink how they handle their features, and in fact how they even program their OS at a fundamental level. Right now, features like screen shots and going back to the home menu are handled by in-game code responding to button presses. This means a game can pick moments when the "home" button doesn't even work, and infamously Sonic Mania had a glitch where pressing the home button during the opening FMV would slow the game down, and it woudln't respond properly for several seconds. If the OS intercepted those commands directly, instead of the game needing to be coded to catch commands, this wouldn't have happened.
Further, any and all friend list functionality should be managed solely by the OS. This includes one very basic function, forming a persistent party that can travel from one game to the next without issue. And yes, voice chat should be a built in system feature.
I admire their parental controls and the additional cell phone application for that. They do parental controls better than the competition, but their online services continue to lag far far behind. The inclusion of 20 retro games with the service? Well, from everything I have heard, users won't "own" those games at all. They disappear the moment someone stops paying for them. I refuse to "rent" balloon fight. I don't care what online functions they added, the local play should still function just fine. Just let me own the games. Remember this, the XBox 360's free giveaways are permanent. They don't care if you cancel subscription. That change in behavior happened with the XBox One.
The hard thing is explaining this to people who ONLY own Nintendo systems. Trying to explain what online features Nintendo doesn't have is like trying to explain color to the colorblind. I have had someone flat out call me a liar when I said XBox Live lets you carry an online party from one game to the next, as they carefully explained to me that "one game's coding isn't compatible with another, what you are describing is literally impossible", and completely ignoring what I and everyone else were telling them about how the OS handles parties and friends entirely, and all the game needs to do is "plug in" to the party and pull that data.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)