Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: nintendo, nintendo switch, Nintendo Switch Online, switch, Switch Online

You Could Lose Your Nintendo Switch Cloud Saves if You Drop the Online Service

Published Fri, 14 Sep 2018 19:20:35 -0500

The Nintendo Switch Online Service was finally given a launch date and details last night, however, some new details have come to light that may make you reconsider the online service. Or at least, reconsider how you'll approach it.

While the Switch Online Service provides access to cloud saves for compatible games, according to a new report from Variety, if you discontinue service, you could lose access to your cloud saves.

From Variety:

Nintendo also notes that it can't "guarantee" that cloud save data will be retained after an "extended period of time" from when a membership is ended and local save data backups remain unsupported on the Switch, though it sounds like that could change in the future.

"While we have nothing additional to announce on this topic, please be assured that we listen carefully to the feedback from our customers," the company writes on a support page. "We are constantly working on ways to further enhance the experience of using the system

So while being able to save information on the cloud is absolutely vital to a console with an internal memory of only 32 GB, Switch owners will have to take on an additional risk with those cloud saves. Because while its great to store your save game files on the cloud, it's less than encouraging to know that your save files could be deleted when your membership is ended.

Especially since local save data backups aren't supported on the Switch.

Sure, it makes sense for Nintendo to let go of old save information for Switch owners who don't pay for the external storage space, however, most other consoles also allow for local save backups on external harddrives. So there's some extra risk involved in the Switch Online service.

Basically, if you don't think you'll keep the Switch Online service, you might want to make sure you don't use the cloud save options, unless you decide to keep it. Permanently.

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