Someone explain to me how exactly this benefits people who (a) want to purchase the Animal Crossing DLC separately or (b) people who don't even own AC. Because it sure feels like I'm either missing something or this is one of the worst business decisions I've seen a company make since Battlefront 2's whole loot box fiasco.

As was said earlier, it feels like the Animal Crossing DLC might have been a last-minute throw-in for some damage control. Because despite how popular AC is, there are still a lot more Switch owners who don't own the game than who do.

Wouldn't it make more sense to do something like, having DLC from several different games to choose from? Like, you could choose between AC, one (or heck, be a real champ and do both, Nintendo) of the fighter passes from Smash, or all of the Breath of the Wild DLC? Between those three very popular games, you'd be covering much more of your base.

And every year, allow the subscriber to get another free DLC package for renewing the subscription from not only those games (and other games like Xenoblade 2), but for games released during that annual period as well. I mean, we all know that Hyrule Warriors is going to get a season pass, and there's no reason to think Botw2 won't follow the format of its predecessor.

Feels like that would soften the blow and justify the price hike somewhat.

If Nintendo put more DLC passes/expansions in this thing, it would start to actually be worth it, and for people who have the Family plan it might even be more worth it, because it means you'd be able to share the DLC with just one account, instead of having to buy the damn things several times. I mean, who the hell does that is another story, but for those few that do, 80 dollars is actually very nice. This is if Nintendo indeed provides more DLC content aside from New Horizons'. 

If you give the DLC maybe that sparks some base game sales.

Wii shop was ass to buy anything on. So it's Nintendo's fault.

Maybe if Nintendo cleared Eshop on switch of so much shit and organize it better so retro games had their own category and listed by retro system. Browing Eshop for games is like browing Amazon Prime for TV and movies or the DVD discount bin at a Walmart.

It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't a bunch of retro games and one recent-ish titles DLC, but it is. And it looks especially bad value when you have whatever Sony or Microsoft are offering (especially the latter) in terms of content for a subscription service.

Though people are still going to get it to play classic Mario and Zelda so you can't really blame them for bumping up the price. Tbh I'm surprised its taken them this long to offer a PS Plus and Xbox Live like service, including cost.

Growing library is what Gamepass offers. This is a set on stone library that Nintendo don't make fully ready to play and instead will release each 2 months to fool idiots into believing the library is really growing, otherwise they would subscribe, play everything they want in some months and then unsubscribe

Price aside and how much would anyone pay for old games, let's to the central question when paying for online services:

Has anyone questioned how low quality is Nintendo online service actually is? The experience in both Steam online and PS Online are overall just better and smoother

Splatoon 2 still a sorrow to play with so many players dropping every single match. After 3 years I was expecting some progress, but it never quite get any better

In Animal Crossing time wasted travelling between islands is also excruciatingly high. Try to make a party with 6 friends, you better have patience to wait at least 30 minutes until everyone is in

Nintendos attitude towards online has been baffling from the start and shows no sign of changing direction.

With the Wii it was bad but free with optional VC, with Switch its bad and costs... now we have this??

And then there's Pokemon, pay to transfer (from last gen), pay separately to store and pay AGAIN for online play. I always felt the online service should include bank/home etc. 

Unless they have a serious rethink I wont be parting with any money for online. 

Licensing costs is supposedly one of a big reasons why Nintendo have increased cost of service.