For the current Switch, unlikely, but possible. I’d give it a 30-40% chance. On future consoles, it’s as certain of a “yes” as the service existing beyond the lifecycle of the original Switch.

While I understand the reasons against it, I do think the ceiling is much higher. Nintendo could theoretically release a tier that eventually includes every game ever released on a Nintendo console and consoles of companies who decide yo sign their consoles onto the service. The only real barrier is that licensing agreements and additional dev required for updating online functionality may make certain games unfeasible.

On a separate topic: The practice of limiting or suspending the purchase of older games to release newer more expensive updates kind of irks me a little, but their property, their choice. I just wish companies who updated their games had the faith in the updates and upgrades of their titles to sell themselves while keeping the original available. (Actually? Does this even happen? Or did I just make something up to get worked up about? :D )

I see alot of people assuming that everything from NSO will immediately be transferred to the Switch successor, but is it really true?
The Switch successor may have entirely different hardware from the OG Switch, that would make it difficult to easily port and emulate NSO games on entirely new hardware, its not as easy as just transferring the service over to Switch 2. It would take alot of time to make sure all 200+ games on NSO will emulate and work properly on new hardware at launch.

We saw that even though the Wii had a ton of Virtual console games, the Wii U didn't immediately get all those games right at launch and instead it was a very slow trickle of releases, it may be the same situation with Switch 2.

However, I think this time around there is a possibility Nintendo really prioritizes making almost all of NSO games work on Switch 2 at launch since NSO is now a subscription service thats supposed to produce them revenue long-term, and they might not want to risk losing subscriptions when consumers upgrade to Switch 2 and have no access to NSO games, they want to keep their subscribers hooked potentially for life and not having NSO games ready on their new system would turn off consumers from continuing the subscription, so hopefully Nintendo ends up prioritizing NSO games to be ready for launch on Switch 2.

I think it's likely we'll see the NSO service continue into Switch 2 since I remember in one of Nintendo's financial meetings they mentioned how they want their services from switch 1 to continue into the successor for a smooth transition. However, its still uncertain if we'd get all the current NSO games immediately transferred over to Switch 2.

Yes, on the Switch successor.

Certainly they could just have another pricier tier and add more systems. I don't see more systems coming to the Expansion Pack though, unless they just increase the price of the expansion pack. GC is a maybe, but nothing else. Online play, some major first party AAA DLC, plus NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, GB, and GBA all available for $50/year is already a fantastic deal. I have no idea what kind of profit they make on it but I would think their profits would be getting pretty thin on NSO if they started adding more non-Nintendo systems.

But for sure this subscription library of games model is their retro games service from here on out, so it's definitely possible we'll get more systems on the service next-gen, but I would think that's only likely if they increase the price or do a third pricier tier. I guess it comes down to how much do they think more consumers will want to pay extra for a bit more obscure systems. GC and DC feel like the only major systems left, and I mean DC was a short lived system. Master System, Saturn, TurboGrafx-16, Neo-geo are all pretty obscure systems with few gems to get people excited and I'm not sure any of those systems would do much to bring in new NSO subscribers or tempt current subscribers to get a more expensive subscription.

I would think at absolute most we could get GC in a few years on the Expansion Pack, definitely not during Switch's lifetime as they'll be focusing on adding N64, Genesis, GB, and GBA games for rest of Switch's life. But nothing beyond GC without having to pay more. In general I think it's just a much better model for other companies and Nintendo to have these companies release collections of their old games or ports or remasters as digital games rather than lump them in with NSO, thus making NSO more expensive for customers and/or less profitable for Nintendo. There's already plenty of systems on NSO to make anyone who's interested in playing old school games get the Expansion Pack, especially once the N64, Genesis, and GBA libraries get filled out.

If say a couple years into the next-gen they added GC to Expansion Pack but upped the price to $60 that'd be cool with me.

Oh, a new thought. They could bundle non-Nintendo separately from the Expansion Pack, like $10/year per system or however much, and therefore not make the main offering more expensive and giving users the option to get libraries of these other systems, while also keeping their profit model solid because obviously they could just charge customers more than whatever money they are paying to license the games from the systems. If other non-nintendo systems are gonna be added that would see to be the best way. But honestly probably they are just done adding systems or they'll add GC next-gen and that'll be it.

Yes but I think disc based games (Dreamcast, GCN, Wii, etc.) will have to be handled differently, as in like you will be able to download your "favorites", but having every game downloaded won't be feasible because it'll take too much storage space.

Also the other complication may be that Metroid Prime Remastered sells so well that they go "hold on a sec, we can charge $50 a pop for remastered versions of these games".

Yeap and I think NDS will be the next one

I could see Nintendo arcade classics added to the Minimum price tier and Nintendo DS added to the premium tier, but yeah, they will probably create a new higher tier for higher end systems past that.

Hopefully TG16 and Saturn (not likely but I can dream)

I know people online while whine like crazy about it, but I think eventually there will be a higher end NSO tier which costs more money which will have higher end retro games and other bonuses the lower two tiers won't have.

Gotta maximize that profit.

I Can see this happening but not for a few years, and it's going to be a monthly subscription starting at $10 per month.

Saying that is a higher end and more costs make people angry haha, you have to say something like... For only $9.99 per month, you get access to Switch Online, Retro Consoles, extra content and different Switch/Switch2 titles every Month!

I'm Sure Nintendo is planning their Next level subscription, but Switch Online + Expansion Pack still feel too new.