Why Bother, Nintendo

For all the good Nintendo does for their products, the biggest bugaboo for them has been their online service. From the eShop being a complete mess to their online services lacking basic features, it's something the company stumbles upon again and again. Five years after the Switch has released, they've come out with version 2.0 of their mobile app. Jon Porter at The Verge has more.

For my money, the 2.0 update’s most interesting improvement is that it offers an easier way to find and share your friend code, the cumbersome 12-digit identifier that’s the primary way of adding friends on Nintendo’s online service. Instead of having to manually copy out the code from your Switch console itself before sharing it with a friend, the update lets you easily copy it from the app with a single tap.

The Verge

Aside from minor tweaks to this app, which is required to do any sort of voice chat during a game, this is the marquee feature of a full version change for their app: copying your friend code. It's almost laughable that Nintendo does these things but even more laughable at their online pricing. While their base online is only $20 a year, they quickly try to upsell with extra software that can get quite expensive. I would love to hope Nintendo can and will do better, but they're selling Switches like crazy. As long as the money keeps flowing, they have no incentive to do anything about it.