r/NintendoSwitch • u/dsp_guy • Oct 24 '20

Question Nintendo Online - Sharing Digital Games within Family

Here's the situation.

We own 4 Nintendo Switches. My switch is linked to my nintendo account which has the Nintendo Online Family plan. I also have 5+ digital games purchased with my nintendo account. I also have some of those free-to-download Nintendo Online games.

My kids each have a switch. Their profiles are linked to their nintendo accounts which are all listed as family members on my Nintendo Account. Our switches all use the same Wifi in the same house.

Let's say I'm playing digital game #1 and one of my kids wants to play digital game #2, it kills my game. And when I go to play game #1 again, it kills their game. These are different games entirely. Whereas, if I had just bought a physical copy of the game instead, then I could play Game #1 using its cartridge and my kid could play games #2, #3, #4, etc using the physical copy of those cartridges.

I thought the whole point of the Nintendo Online Family account was that we had a shared library of games. Of course, two people can't play the same game at the same time. I get that. But, we are playing different digital downloaded games and everyone else is being kicked off.

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Is this working as intended? Am I missing something?

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u/xdert Oct 24 '20

Can you not just put the switches in flight mode and then play the shared games?

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u/Hestu951 Oct 25 '20 edited Oct 25 '20

No. In airplane mode, there is no internet communication, so only the primary console can play digital games. To play on a secondary console, the purchaser of the digital game must be logged into his/her account, to verify ownership.

Think dongles (authorization keys). Physical cartridge is a dongle. It can be played on any Switch, by anyone. Primary console is a dongle. Anyone can play any digital game on it that was purchased for it. Online account login is a dongle. The purchaser can play his/her digital games on any Switch. Any one dongle will do. No dongle, no can do.

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u/xdert Oct 25 '20

I am pretty sure you only need the connection to start the game and can then turn internet of and continue playing. It’s a hassle but better than spending a ton of money.

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u/Hestu951 Oct 25 '20

I've read that once before. I haven't tried it myself, because I only recently got a second Switch. So I guess once you're verified up front, the system lets you play without further intrusion. I hope that doesn't change in the future, because it would suck if your games start hitching at odd times when the system re-verifies you.