Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack price is a big hike over standard subscription

After making us wait a few weeks for details, Nintendo today announced pricing for Nintendo Switch Online and its Expansion Pack, which adds playable Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games to the service. The new pricing might elicit sticker shock in those used to Nintendo Switch Online's standard pricing of $20 a year because gaining access to the Expansion Pack content means suffering a rather dramatic price increase.

At the tail end of its Animal Crossing: New Horizons Direct today, Nintendo revealed Switch Online's Expansion Pack pricing will clock in at a hefty $49.99 per year for individual subscribers and $79.99 a year for family subscriptions. That is a significant price bump over the standard Nintendo Switch Online cost, but Nintendo also revealed today that the Expansion Pack will include the Happy Home Paradise DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons in addition to N64 and Genesis games.

Happy Home Paradise is priced at $24.99 as a standalone purchase, so if you're an Animal Crossing player planning to buy the DLC, then an upgrade to Nintendo Switch Online's Expansion Pack could well be worth it, at least for the first year. It should be noted that the Animal Crossing DLC, Genesis, and N64 games are the only additions in the Expansion Pack, meaning you get all the other features of Switch Online with a standard subscription.

We're guessing this pricing isn't going to sit well with Nintendo Switch owners – or at least those who aren't Animal Crossing: New Horizons players. Indeed, the overview trailer for Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, which we've embedded above, sits at 6.3k likes and 3.6k dislikes at the time of this writing, so there is certainly a sizable contingent of Switch owners who aren't happy with the price of the Expansion Pack.

The big question now is whether this decision to add DLC to the Expansion Pack is a one-off thing for Animal Crossing or if Nintendo will add more DLC to the Expansion Pack in the future. We'll see what happens from here, but the Expansion Pack launches on October 25th, with a discount available for those who are currently subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online.