like everyone else, you were told before the Switch was even released that online content would become paid at some point. that is what you are getting, it is not an incomplete service. for one third the price of competitors, you are getting online play. anything on top of that is a bonus. heres me- im buying the Switch online service, im setting it to auto-renew, and that will be the end of it. i wont have to worry about cloud saves being deleted, i will have an abundant library of classic games at my disposal, and i wont even think twice about it. actually elaborate for me here- what are you upset about? consider your own life and any realistic scenario you could find yourself in. now tell me how their online plan serves to inconvenience you. it isnt bad, it isnt incomplete, youre just overthinking it

It kinda is. People wouldn't be nearly as worried about losing their online save files if they could just make backups offline.

But why do I care? This will be fixed before I buy a Switch + Pokémon 2019.

It's not a bonus, I am paying for it. And most of the features they've tackled with the online fee really didn't need to dissapear, they've just taken them from regular service to generate a false sense of value. When EA does this with Origin we conplain, why shouldn't do it when Nintendo does it too? Even leaving aside online gaming, which is the thing they've been the most upfront about with the service, most of the things they're using to entice players are things that we had for free before:

-Save data backups: You could do that without the need of the internet with both the WiiU and the 3DS (through a free application Nintendo released to transfer saves from cartridges to inner memories). Now you can't do that, and the service they offer now is extremely tied to the subscription, to the point of it being harmed by it.

-VC: With their attempts of them building a Netflix-like services, they are making us unable to actually buy and own games, even with the limitations of the digital format. Now it will be all tied to the subscription, and while that gives you access to many games, the moment you stop paying you stop being able to access them, when the same can't be said about actual ownership.

The only things that are new are the voicechat app (which makes sense when in portable context, but should not be the standard method of voicechat) and the discounts, which are still a mystery, even months after the service's announcenent. It's been presented poorly, and they've offered nothing of real worth for me to considering a purchase, they've only taken features away.

Do they still require that whole adapter cord going from your cell phone thing to do online chat? Please tell me that's not still a thing...

It's still a thing unfortunately. Additionally, not all games on Switch will support cloud saves.

Hopefully, these issues are fixed soon.

I don't see why this is bad. If I stop paying I lose access to something. Nothing strange about that.

Easy answer. Because of Hacking. 

Save data backups on the 3DS and Wii U were not perfect either. there were games that did not allow you to create backups, and i know firsthand. and it seemed annoying at first, but then i realized they were not allowing backups of games for the same reasons the Switch has. so no this is not a downgrade, this is what youve been getting. only this time its all managed through their payed online service. 

the whole "streaming service vs. ownership" debate is just ridiculous at this point. if they sold the games on their own they would be $4.99, so for 4x that amount you get 20 to start with and then 4 more every month. so the value is there, and i cant even blame them for making it subscription based only. Netflix has original series that can only be viewed by buying a netflix subscription. Hulu licenses the rights to have TV shows exclusively on their service that you have to pay for. so does youtube, so does amazon, even Playstation Now which is literally the exact same thing has been doing this for years and nobody cares. its to make the service enticing. 

It's not a ridiculous debate. If an idustry gives you less and less options to purchase their products it is going to hurt both the consumer and the bussinesses themselves. Variety is needed, and having a single monopolistic method of distribution is excedenly harmful. Even if I have to pay more for it, I still want the option to buy and own stuff, even in the limited form of digital media. Also, you don't make a service enticing by taking away things that used to be free and putting them under a paywall. If anything, that makes people hate the service.

And save data options in the WiiU/3DS were more yet more practical and safe than the cloud offer, even if they never allowed games like Pokemon to do this. The vast majority of games still had the option to save the progress on physical media (SD memory card) which was faster and cheaper in the long run.

Wrong thread....