Nintendo Switch Cloud Saves Retained Within 6 Months Of Subscription Lapse

The launch of the Nintendo Switch Online Service brought at least one much sought-after feature: cloud saves. Unfortunately, Nintendo didn't reveal the gory details until it launched. Now Switch owner are coming to terms with what they can and cannot do with the Switch's cloud save data. Fortunately, Nintendo sheds a bit of a good news on when that data expires after your subscription to the service ends.An FAQ for Nintendo's UK site has this to say about that very topic: "Save data stored with Save Data Cloud cannot be kept outside of the duration of your Nintendo Switch Online membership." That hints that, once your subscription expires for one reason or another, you can kiss your cloud saves goodbye forever. Fortunately, that's not the case.

Although it still has to update the actual text, Nintendo assures IGN that the save data is still there. You just can't access them until you renew your subscription. But don't wait too long because Nintendo will only keep the files on its servers for 180 days. After that, hope you got your data saved locally.

That's definitely some good news after the bad news Switch owners received earlier this month. Not all Switch games will support cloud saves. Not even hit ones like Splatoon 2 or the upcoming Let's Go Pokemon games. Nintendo's reason is that cloud saves could be used to cheat to regain traded items or revert levels. Why Nintendo couldn't develop a more robust system, in an age of online and mobile games, is probably going to remain a mystery.