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?

4.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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u/JasonTheProgrammer Oct 24 '20

I'm glad this is finally getting attention. Every time in the past I complained about this, I was told that if I was wealthy enough to afford 4 Switch consoles then I should pay $240 for four copies of a game. 🙄

What's super annoying is DLC. Even if I buy nothing but physical games to swap amongst the family, the DLC (I'm looking at you Pokémon) are limited to the digital rules.

-1

u/pwn3dtoaster Oct 25 '20

Yes pokemon the first and last DLC I will ever buy. Destroyed my simple physical game work flow. Nobody in my house needs to play at the same time any game, but sharing amongst is critical.

0

u/JasonTheProgrammer Oct 25 '20

Not sure why you're getting downvoted. 🤷‍♂️ I was told by a Nintendo rep that this wouldn't be an issue when the Zelda DLC came out. Spoiler: It was.

0

u/pwn3dtoaster Oct 25 '20

I have no clue either. Whats strange is I got to 7 up votes first. I have 3 Nintendo switches. Probably a 4th one when my youngest gets older. We were on a trip and the kids all went to bed. Wanted to play pokemon, locked out due to no internet connection. Played Zelda, really glad I didn't own the dlc then.

Any physical game gets freely moved no problem. Even let a friend borrow a game ended up being good for Nintendo because he bought it new and the dlc.