The (Possible) Silver Lining Behind the NSO Situation 

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I know its tempting to say "Nintendo Online isn't worth it now, but it will be better later so we need to support it now" but don't fall for it. Nintendo is not some struggling up-and-comer, and NSO is not a one-time purchase or even a legacy-pricing service that promises to never increase costs if you jump in now. You are only buying access to what is available now until the end of your sub - if what is available during that subscription time is not worth that much to you do not buy it. If and when the service give enough of what you want that it's worth the given price for that period of time, buy it then. You and only you get to choose how much your money is worth

My biggest fear with this whole thing is that while they apparently have a lot of stuff on the horizon for NSO, they will make an even more expensive tier when those additions happen. While this tier that they just released continues to be neglected and drip fed over the rest of the switches life cycle. That was the big concern for me with this “expansion”, was this precedent for the high price point will set the next tier even higher and unreasonable. Inflation essentially.

I think the problem with Nintendo fans (as a consumer group) is that they don't vote with their wallets. Just look at No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk, and GTA Trilogy for recent examples of how expressing discontent through not buying or asking for refunds compels companies to apologize and start correcting their mistakes. Nintendo fans get mad at Nintendo for their decisions, but then buy the product/service anyway, and then they hope this is the last time Nintendo mistreats them. Nintendo does it again and the cycle repeats. At the end of the day, Nintendo's goal is to make money. "Building a long relationship with the customer" doesn't mean having them happy, but having them pay. If the customer is unhappy and still pays, then it's not Nintendo's problem. It will be Nintendo's problem once and only once the unhappy customers stop paying.

Expansion pack was one of the biggest excitement followed by "oh..." kinds of disappointment I've felt in a while

"there's a reason you hear about nord so much" Me: CAUSE THEY PAY YOU- oh.

As a member of a marketing team, this all looks like standard marketing lingo. Hopefully you're right and they have some bigger plans.

It really feels like Nintendo is run by two competing factions: One faction that is passionate about creating fun products and games for the world to enjoy, and another faction of greedy suits whose only goal is to increase profits. And it's painfully obvious which faction is responsible for which decisions.

I'd probably be willing to go easier on nso if the connection for most Nintendos games was actually stable like other consoles. Even with my friends and I all using wired setups it can still be painfully laggy alot of the time, it's such an unacceptable standard for this era of gaming.

I am assuming "Value-Added Services" means "more services to pay for". When they finally add Game Boy games to the service, we're going to be paying extra.

Alro, your never ending hope in the face of Nintendo’s rock-brained despair will always astound and inspire me you wonderful nerd💙♥️

I wouldn't support that, frankly your ideal situation sounds like my nightmare. Subscription exclusive games, no matter how good a deal, makes me sick. Stuff like Xbox Live is different since those games are also for sale individually. Make the service a good deal, include a lot of games with it, but the most important part is that the games are available individually on the EShop for real purchase.

I think the best way to have a good relationship with consumers is to not treat them like garbage at every opportunity

I'm not very optimistic about NINTENDO improving this service when it started being paid back in like late 2017...

Nintendo’s actions speak louder than their words. If they wanted to add a complete virtual console library, then they would have done it already. I believe they will try expanding in mobile games and merchandising, but their online services will always be limited/drip-fed for the sake of profit.

That Metroid with a Fedora is the cutest thing I have seen today!

This strategy to expand into merchandise and movies really reminds me of what Pokemon has been doing for years. And that makes even more sense considering Furukawa's connections to The Pokemon Company. I just hope Nintendo actually commits to quality games as they say.

I think Nintendo continuing to ask us to trust them going forward is a huge leap of faith when they won't even tease a smidge of their future plans. At this point, it sounds like the Expansion Pack isn't going to be worth sticking with beyond this year.

It would literally have to be halved in price for me to even consider this service.

I'm pretty sure when Nintendo said "adding value" they meant adding value for them and the shareholders not for the customers. Meaning they are going to find more ways to charge us.

"or they could just add a whole lot of tears" I think that's inevitable Arlo.

I'm honestly probably going to let my NSO expire this Christmas. Me and my sister have a family account but both of us have hardly used it. I can't even remember the last time I played online on a Nintendo game. Part of that is their crappy network, which isn't helped at all by my poor internet speed.

I have a quote for this NSO situation and it's future: "Have confidence! No confidence!" - Inugami Korone

Arlo in the bargaining phase of grief.

I didn't like it, until a friend of mine offered to put me on his family plan and I was like, "YES!"

I think the issue is that the Expansion + is starting out of the gate charging for what it LATER will have. As in, eventually it will be very worth the price, however it's not worth that price right now. Or at least, theoretically it isn't. I'm sure a vast majority of people with even a small interest have stomached the cost if I had to guess.

It's crazy how much Nintendo disrespects their own legacy by making their older games so hard to play

Hope that, with Paper Mario coming in a few days, we can finally get the exposure the series REALLY deserves. Seriously, if anyone of you were first exposed to Paper Mario via Origami King, i'd suggest giving the first game a try once it reaches the service, cause you're gonna be missing out on what made the series amazing in the first place.

I didn't like it, but then I downloaded dolphin and all my problems were solved!

I wanna believe, I really do, but Nintendo needs to give out at least a breadcrumb of good faith. Until then, it’s a “believe it when I see it situation”.

One problem with this: I find it hard to see third parties and other companies basically just signing over their games for all of eternity. I'm looking at you Microsoft's Banjo Kazooie. Maybe they have agreed to take some agreed-upon percentage of the NSO membership fee for as long as it runs...but probably only for a system or two. Probably not forever. Plus, Nintendo just...cannot stay on a single track most of the time. When the Switch 3's gimmick turns out to be VR goggles or something, which makes it incompatible with previous software types...they'll drop it for their fun new gimmick. And no software is 100% future-proof, so they'll have to change it anyway when we all move to...quantum computing or something.

If Nintendo REALLY wants NSO to be better with + EP, they need to start listening to us.

"We want to add value!" Ten years later you have to pay $300 a year for a NSO account, every game is broken down and sold in "episodes" to where they are more expensive as digital games than they WOULD BE as physical games... Which won't exist. Don't forget the problem that is the DLC problem. Devs finish a game, but rip out half of it to sell as DLC. From my point of view? It WON'T be better... Things SOUND great to the share holders, but it's padded fluff work. I don't trust that company anymore, hands down. They want to gain my trust again? They can send me a OLED WITH VK's joy-con drift fix applied because the scalpers and their bots keep buying ALL OF THEM! After they do that? I'll think about sticking around.

It just….dawned on me how MUCH Arlo is really an adult. Like, HE READS the financial reports. That’s….a LOT.

Not surprising that Nintendo showcased the DS, Wii, and Switch on that slide. They were showcasing their successful systems. No chance they want investors even remotely thinking of the WiiU.

My biggest concern is that they're charging a price now for how much content we'll *maybe* have in a few years, and I don't believe for a minute that the price won't increase further by that time

I think adding more DLC would add value, like "what if paying for online meant never buying overpriced Nintendo DLC ever again?" For context I live in Australia, so here Breath of the Wild bundled with the DLC is around $140, all Nintendo 1st party games are around $90 stand-alone, so if Nintendo turned around and said "because you bought the expansion pack every paid DLC for first party games are included alongside you 100+ retro games", then that's DLC for Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2, Smash Ultimate, animal crossing, Hyrule warriors AoC (Maybe) plus more alongside a selection of both the best and worst Nintendo has to offer. That screams value to me personally

"Value-Added Services" makes my mind immediately think of the community-centric apps that Nintendo did on previous systems, like Swapdoodle, Flipnote Studio, Miiverse, Everybody Votes, etc. Something similar could work really well as part of NSO, and maybe give it some broader appeal compared to bundling in some oldschool games (although I think they should keep doing that too!). Seems kinda like a no-brainer?

One thing to consider. It looks like Sony have had their hand forced by Microsoft into offering a better subscription service then what they offer now (at least if leaks are true). I wonder if the same is true with Nintendo, that Microsofts insanely good value game pass has forced their hand into offering something comparable

Honestly I could forgive **most** of my grievances with NSO and the Expansion pass if Nintendo came out and said the reasoning behind the premium $50 price is because they're future proofing it for upcoming systems and content and etc. If I KNEW gamecube was on the horizon, or coming next gen, or etc; and that's why the price is what it is, I'd honestly be able to swallow that pill quite well. Just fucking communicate with us Nintendo 😭

I just want to play fun video games. I don't want to deal with subscription tiers and accounts and all that nonsense. Honestly, to me, it just seems like a convoluted way of having consumers pay them consistently without actually letting us *own* anything, and I think that sucks.

What I don't like about the peoplethat are defending the expansion pack priceis that they're saying it's fine because of the price of base nso and you're getting more stuff so it's fine. Nobody is paying for nso for the nes and snes games. They're paying for it so they can play splatoon, smash bros, animal crossing, pokemon and whatever else online. It's just a bonus on top of it. That's why the price is so outrageous to most people.

Every once in a while Arlo makes a video that get me thinking about how he does the recordings with that puppet. Lol. This time him bumping the Metroid did it 🤣

Am I the only one who wants to see Arlo branch out a bit? Like, a full video game variety channel? I’ll stay no matter what, but I’d like to see something new.

Nintendo: chances are not good ARLO: So what are the chances Nintendo: Well out of a million... Arlo: So your saying there's a chance?!

They NEED to keep this going over the next systems. They CANNOT start from scratch again.

You know I wouldn't mind paying for a monthly version of NSO Expansion or of they had offered a free trial version, especially to longtime subscribers like myself so I could at least try it. If they are actually going to add a lot more to the service then definitely make it worth the money.

We should get used to expecting the worst from Nintendo. Anyone who has hope for them are fooling themselves. Nintendo is too rich to even consider making changes

Expansion Pack shouldn't JUST be emulation. The online needs to actually be good, voice chat shouldn't need a phone, it costs too much as is, lacks anything for third-party titles or indie games, it's just a BAD system that can't be improved unless it's basically revamped completely.

Paying $50 a year to play one or two games you care about will always be a bad value. NSO will always be anti consumer as long as Nintendo puts everything behind a paywall without an option to buy select games individually. #BringBackVirtualConsole

I just thought of something... Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on Arlo Plays, PLEASE

I think Arlo is the only guy I don't skip the adds on. They are so funny!

I've always hated that NSO is the reason the Virtual Console isn't a thing on the Switch eShop. I would love to buy certain Snes and N64 games and not just rent them. Nintendo is probably afraid they would lose 30 to 55% of NSO subscriptions if they gave us the choice.

I think "value added" is just cooperate speak for up sell. I don't think it means move value for the service.

Zane still doing a bunch of lovely legal stuff for the world I also love the references to noah the vaguely hipstery artist guy in the new Arlo video, on his desk he has Noah's hat on his metroid, and his camera off to the side

love your videos arlo. Catching up on all of your new ones now!

In 5 years, this video will be flooded by either "This aged like milk" comments or "This aged really well" comments

This would be a good way to re-invent backwards compatibility. It would be like Steam, but classy. I just hope they has better prices, stronger internet connections, allow mods and fan games, and maybe even stream service wrights. It's strange to dream.

There needs to be a compilation of Arlo intros lol. I cannot get over them.

Lol that little sorry to the hat was just great , I love your content Arlo 💘

Zane the Computer Guy is the most dangerous man on Earth

As much as I want to be hopeful on this silver lining for NSO as you Arlo, I strongly do not think the NSO will massively improve in the future. Nintendo has had a reputation for always delivering bad or subpar online services since the Wii, and the only redeeming qualities of them being that they were cheap to use compared to the competition (free with the Wii and Wii U, and $20 dollars on basic NSO); but with NSO Expansion Pack being $50 dollars per year means the only redeeming quality of Nintendo's online services is gone, so now they have to massively improve the service to truly compete against PlayStation Plus's and Xbox Live Gold's $60 dollar annual plans. Unfortunately, all Nintendo has done is simply add new games to NSO at a slow pace, never really improving the service itself. And the drip feed has just been confirmed to continue, as Nintendo will give us for the Expansion Pack service Paper Mario (N64) this December, and that's it. Great game, but only 1 new N64 game for NSO in this 1.5 month time frame since the Expansion Pack came out, it only tells me that we will be getting 1 N64 game per 1-2 months, which means for us to get all the leaked 38 NSO N64 games, we have to wait at least 2-3 years for NSO Expansion Pack to have enough N64 games for people to actually wanna play them. And this is not even factoring that we aren't getting NES and SNES games attached to Paper Mario this December, which sucks. You'd think they could at least include one or 2 NES or SNES games with Paper Mario (as they kind of did with the SNES games when those were first added, with those having a few NES games included), but no. Also we gotta mention that even if we did get all 38 games in just 1 year and not 2 or 3, if the input lag, emulation issues (fog in particular), bad default control scheme issues, and more are not fixed before these get added, no amount of extra content will make these games on NSO good to play on and spend the $50 dollars for annually to play them. I mean, imagine playing 007 Goldeneye (N64) or Perfect Dark with the current default control scheme, or playing Mario Golf or Fighting games with that extra input lag; it will ruin the games for even those people that didn't grew up with the Nintendo 64.

These intros have been so good lately! keep it up

it is so cute that he has the green screen up and is clearly framed out so much as to not use it, oh you arlo you

I get so excited whenever I see that Arlo has posted another video! Love ya buddy 😁

The only thing that slide makes me hope for is that the service MIGHT continue to the next console, but right now calling the current situation "drip feed" is being way too optimistic. We're currently at 6 months without a new NES game and 5 months without new SNES games. The feed is stopped and dry

Arlo, you have without a doubt the best sponsor segments of any game channel, I absolutely adore them. 🤣

Quality VPN advertisement. Didn't hear any technical inaccuracies and it was very entertaining :)

Arlo was all I needed today

Thing is, I believe that this current drip-feed will continue into the next gen systems. It shouldn't start over like with the WiiU and 3DS. But not knowing the plan in advance isn't great either.

I love, and I share, this optimism. Thanks, Arlo~

This is the first time I have entered Arlo into youtube search and came up with our blue buddy instead of a certian singer or some electronics.

#BringBackVirtualConsole I wish they would just charge $3 a month or so, with discounts for longer contracts, for access to online play, WITH VOICE CHAT… and then just let us moderately well-emulated ports of vintage games, like they’ve done for years on Wiis and Wuus and DSesss, and such… please?

Hacker Arlo unlocked 🔓

Arlo's plant is looking so happy and I'm so glad 💚🌱✨

Clamp joke just made me wish we still had arlocasts- the clamp sponsorship was top tier 😂

The biggest thing that bothers me is the Animal Crossing DLC being a "big" part of the expansion. I don't play Animal Crossing. I understand there is a huge install base, but not everyone plays it. I've avoided NSO since the Switch came out, and I wont touch it until, if ever, I think it's a real value. So show me more games or bite size adventures like Bowser's Fury and I'll tap in.

I...REALLY...don't understand how anyone can get excited from seeing a slide from a Nintendo investors presentation.

Gotta love those thumbnails of arlo staring at the topic with some concern lmfaoo

Honestly I appreciate the positivity Arlo. Keep it up :D

This is all REALLY shooting for the stars. I really do Nintendo knows how much they've fumbled the NSO games.

This is a alternate dimension Cookie Monster who lives video games instead of cookies. I love it

That sponsored intro skit was so good!

Top Tier Ads. Right next to internet comment etiquette. He's done an entire episode that was one giant VPN Ad. Amazing.

What do I think? I think I just watched a 15 minute video on our puppet friend trying to get us to sip the copium with them... Thinking anything is changing from looking at this is just sad. They literally got sued multiple times over their controllers, and they STILL have not made a change. And you think they're going to change their rollout? More power to ya.

I reeeally hope that digital purchases on Switch transfer to and are backwards compatible with the next major Nintendo console.

The only sponsor spot ill ever watch on RU-vid

Arlo vid to watch while eating? _yes please_

I do feel like something will have to give with the expansion pack, since from everything I’ve seen/heard I can’t imagine it’s getting THAT many subscriptions (even a decent amount of content creators have been skipping out on it from what I’ve seen), and it doesn’t seem like the expansion has much to entice the sort of people who “don’t know better”.

I wonder if they're gonna start selling movies on their own, either for rent or an outright purchase, like how you could buy Shrek for GBA. They could start selling like, the Mario movie on the Switch digitally.

I am so impressed by this guy’s ability to puppeteer Arlo. Just look at 7:03. Freaking how? It’s like Arlo is real.

I love how the glasses fall off and just snap back onto Zane's face during the NordVPN ad.

I just can't have much hope when the current NES and SNES libraries are still so barren. How long has it been since we've gotten new SNES games? -and they were like...games I didn't even download when I was a naughty teenager and downloaded every ROM I could find that looked interesting.

I just want the virtual console back

Never in my wildest dreams did I think watching a Muppet talk about business economics about my childhood video games would be something I look forward to in my adult life, yet here I am.

I really like this take and it's what I feel too - things are rough now but I want to be optimistic that this is certainly possible. No expectations, but hopeful!

On the subject of the online service, Paper Mario is coming out on the 10th! Any thoughts it being the first n64 game to be added and do you think it might reignite the fire of the paper Mario fandom for better or worse?

Love the positivity arlo

Arlo Come for the hilarious ad reads Stay for the detailed analysis of Nintendo

I love it when you call me mamma mita singin ooh lalala now ooh nanana ooh you got me runnin