I think Nintendo is quietly working with the Taiwanese/Japanese company that's providing the streaming service for Control and Hitman III that were announced earlier today. Many people are raving the service works surprisingly well for something that basically just shadow dropped.

I can't help but wonder if this is test ground for maybe even a NSO "Pro subscription" where Nintendo could offer say a number of 3rd party streaming titles on top of the standard NSO stuff for say $8.99 or $9.99 a month. You get like say a collection of 15-20 3rd party games to play on top of NSO games and benefits.

Even if not, the current model is not bad, $39.99 is a pretty good price for games like Control and Hitman. Data miners already have also dug up Resident Evil 3 Remake is coming to Switch in a Cloud version, and Dark Golem a spot on Capcom leaker who leaked MH Rise, MH Stories 2 also has said RE7, RE2, and REVillage are also coming to Switch in Cloud versions in the West.

I know everyone would prefer native versions, but Cloud streaming works a lot better than I think the naysayers try to say. Games are definitely playable and even shockingly so and 5G is also starting to proliferate which means in the future even portable play for a Switch system is within reach.

Lets be honest too, even if Switch could had hardware that could run PS4/PS5/XSX games, it would still be a pain in the ass for developers to port and many of these games would be a massive headache to fit onto a 64GB cartridge even, let alone 32GB. 

In the future even for portable play, with 5G streaming to a Switch may be quite easy to do, and Nvidia DLSS may also mean you can simply use a 360p signal for low data usage that looks almost identical to a 720p-1080p native image for play on the go, only using up say 300MB-480MB of data an hour. 

And really this is no work for 3rd party devs. They can just have the PC version and that version streams to Switch, all you need is Switch controller support which is no problem. And sales don't have to be sky high for these games, because there is no porting cost or cartridge cost. 

No thanks.

I am old and stubborn and like to own my games. For me this would mean out and no more Nintendo console.

Cloud gaming is too dependent of a good internet infrastructure, and Nintendo's is notoriously unstable. And in any case I like to own my games, so this doesn't appeal to me.

Nintendo can still make their own games and they obviously will that run native on the hardware, so I don't think you have to worry there.

But 3rd party games that will probably never be on Switch like Control, Final Fantasy XV, Resident Evil 7, DMC 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, Call of Duty games ... why not I say?

I mean especially for people who own a Switch and really don't want to pay $500 for a Playstation or XBox just to play some 3rd party games, this could increasingly becomes a good solution.

Plus it could give Nintendo enough content to justify a higher end Nintendo Switch Online tier ($8.99/month?).

Nintendo doesn't need to have their own internet infrastructure. 

Control on Switch is running off the infrastructure setup by a Japanese/Taiwanese company called Ubitus and it's running great for a lot of people right now. 

Nintendo doesn't need to build an infrastructure, they're not interested in controlling the world or making Netflix like Google, Amazon, MS, etc. are, they can just partner with a company like Ubitus or even Nvidia (they have the GE Force Now service). 

There certainly are a lot of benefits and it truly seems appealing. However, I am also concerned about the downsides like lack of ownership, connectivity issues, the downward spirale of third party incentives and so on. I will always prefer physical media.

It will be something that benefits devices such as the Switch, that don't have the power envelope to run said software.

If a cloud service with an overgrowing catalogue comes up out of this, and if you can use on any device you like, be it on PC, all consoles, mobile, toaster; then the disadvantages can be offset.

You know what could be an interesting business model ... instead of "ownership" per se, say you subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online Pro Subscription.

For $7.99/month you get your standard NSO stuff BUT instead of a Netflix model you're given a list of say 30-50 3rd party titles. From that list you can pick 3-5 games (maybe some games are worth "more points" depending on how high profile they are), and you have access to those games for as long as you keep paying monthly OR you can change games say after 3 or 6 months.

This way money can go more directly to the publisher or the game you're actually spending time streaming instead of the Game Pass model where it's a bunch of games and all the pubs have to share a little pool and also maybe this way you can curate a selection of games that you more personally like.

So lets say you can have Red Dead Redemption 2, GTAV, Resident Evil 2, and Final Fantasy VII Remake. That would not be bad at all.

So if they port games that can only run on the Switch via the Cloud, then youre out? I dont get it... I mean what downgraded AAA games have you bought for the Switch? Witcher 3? Doom? Skyrim? 

Games don't even need to be "ported" to Switch for a Cloud version anyway, a developer just needs to get in touch with Ubitus/Nintendo I guess. As long as you have a PC version, the game is basically ready to go already.

I think eventually potentially dozens of games could be available the way Control and Hitman III and Resident Evil 2/3/7/Village are apparently coming.

But I think it would be neat if Nintendo partnered with Ubitus for a NSO package too ... get a selection of streaming games + NSO sub for one price, Nintendo makes money, 3rd parties get a cut, win/win.