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Nintendo just hit the reset button on Switch Online free trials

By Eric Abent/

Beginning with the release of the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo started charging a fee to play online. Nintendo was the last of the console makers to take this particular plunge – while Microsoft has required an Xbox Live Gold subscription for online play since the days of the Xbox 360 and Sony jumped on that particular bandwagon with the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Plus, the Switch was the first time Nintendo started requiring a fee of its own.

The resulting service is Nintendo Switch Online, which runs $20 a year or $3.99 per month. That's significantly cheaper than the yearly and month subscription fees for Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus, but users have found that Switch Online isn't quite as stable as either of those other services. We've experienced that ourselves too – in both Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Mario Maker 2, laggy connections are a frequent problem (check the reviews in the timeline below for more on that).

Despite these issues, the fact remains that you need a subscription to play online. If you're on the fence, Nintendo offers a free seven-day trial to Switch Online, giving you time to test it out in the games you'd want to take online. Nintendo of Europe announced today that it's essentially resetting those trials, so if you used up the 7-day trial before, you'll be able to claim and use another one by heading to the eShop.

Nintendo doesn't say why it's doing this, but it probably has something to do with the pandemic that's currently keeping everyone at home. At the moment, only Nintendo of Europe has confirmed this promotion – Nintendo of America's Twitter account doesn't say anything about it.

So, whether this is a Europe-only affair or if trials have been reset for all Switch Online users is something that's up in the air at the moment. We've reached out to Nintendo of America for clarification and we'll update this article if we hear back.

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