Nintendo Switch Online subscribers will have six months to recover their saved files from online cloud storage after their subscription ends. The access will be removed after six months if the user does not want to re-subscribe to their premium online service.
This was revealed by IGN who were informed of the change by a Nintendo spokesperson. His official words were
If a Nintendo Switch Online membership expires, users won’t be able to access their Save Data Cloud backups. However, Nintendo will allow users who resubscribe within 180 days to access their previous Save Data Cloud backups.
This clears out the dilemma where users were worried that they will lose their saved files from the cloud if they are unable to renew on time before the subscription ends. The grace time announcement comes at a stage when Nintendo Online is having some problems already specially in China where users are not able to use the service properly because of Google being banned there.
It was officially mentioned on their website as well that users will lose their saved files in case the subscription ends. However, it looks like that Nintendo has finally listened to their fans and has given a six months window to all so that they can re-subscribe within six months and recover their saved files from the cloud.
Currently, the best cloud saving services are offered by Microsoft, which does not even need a premium online subscription to avail the cloud saving feature. Nintendo recently started its premium Nintendo Online service but it looks like it has a long way to go before it is at par with Xbox Live and PS Plus services.
Currently, all titles on Nintendo Switch do not even support cloud saving probably because it was not present before. However, all future titles will most probably support this feature and some previous games will also receive updates and patches which will add cloud saving functionality.
Let us hope that Nintendo sees these problems and tends to focus on fixing them as soon as possible because since players are now paying for online services, it is vital that they get worth of their money at least.
Let us know in the comments section below about your thoughts on Nintendo Switch Online and the recent changes being implemented for it.