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Nintendo Switch Cloud Save Data Disappears If You Cancel Subscription (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Nintendo Switch game save data stored in the cloud is only available "as long as you have an active Nintendo Switch Online membership." If you eventually cancel the $20/year subscription, Nintendo is "unable to guarantee that cloud save data will be retained after an extended period of time from when your membership is ended." That wrinkle in Nintendo's plan was not included in the details of yesterday's Nintendo Direct presentation, but it can be found digging through the FAQs and customer support pages on Nintendo's website this morning. On the plus side, Nintendo clarified that you will be able to transfer cloud-based saves between Switch systems just by signing in with your Nintendo account on as many consoles as you want. But Nintendo also said it will continue not allowing local backups of save data to an SD card or other outside storage. UPDATE: It's worth noting that cloud saves on PlayStation systems remain accessible for six months after you cancel a paid PlayStation Plus account, while cloud saves on Xbox Live are offered for free in perpetuity.
Why would any expect Nintendo (or any company) to continue to store your data when you stopped paying for the service?
Why is this news?
ok
They are holding your save data hostage for money.
Memorise that mantra. Cloud infrastructure should never be used as a first resort. The savings are illusory.
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
I hope the orange buffoon doesn't have any saved games because his sub is going to get canceled while he's in prison. Special thanks go to out to Manafort for doing the right thing by flipping.
Tough break, Trumpanzees: you voted for a lifelong conman who sold you out to Putin.
I'm getting the idea that the author of this little article has been brainwashed into the idea that companies are *supposed* to save your data, after you ask them to delete it. That's pretty sad.
Delete my account, delete my data, please. That's what's supposed to happen in the first place.
I don't respond to AC's.
Hit them where it hurts.
You can't read, so pretending you ever subscribed to the NYT or any other accredited journal is like pretending Trump isn't going to die in Federal prison a traitor. Good luck with that traitor faggots lol. Too fucking cute.
Why would any expect Nintendo (or any company) to continue to store your data
Because it's a BACKUP SERVICE. And the way to really make money is to make people pay for retrieval, and to actually have the backups...
I have to say I am *really* happy with Sony precisely because they did this. I had a PS Plus subscription I let lapse accidentally as the CC I didn't realize I had been using had the number changed. So I'm 80+ hours into Horizon Zero dawn when a system update totally borks the drive, non-recoverable, full reset only option. I had been lax with the direct backups so it didn't even have the game on it, so I went to PS Plus - and found the account expired! But out of desperation I re-signed up and all of my stored saves were there - I was very lucky and ended up just losing a few days of play.
Now maybe after a year or something, sure, delete the data. But there should be a decent amount of time where people who just made dumb mistakes with auto-pay can restore what they have, and the amount of goodwill a company earns from something like that is incalculable (for some odd reason mentally I give Sony more credit for keeping my saves than having an update fry the filesystem in the first place).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
dont gayme. problem solved. bitz saved. bandwidth saved. time saved. internet fagz nulled. win-win.
I can verify that after I restored a lapsed PS Plus subscription, I still had all my save data.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's reasons like this I have finally given up on Nintendo and my last console from them will be the wii u.
There is always something. Like the fact on the wii purchased games weren't bound to the console.
That combined with the fact that all their games are mostly sequels or are third party titles available on pc anyway, screw them.
I find the thing people are ignoring, and yet is the most important thing, is:
But Nintendo also said it will continue not allowing local backups of save data to an SD card or other outside storage.
I see no reason to ever own such a device. After hearing that, I wouldn't use a Nintendo Switch if someone gave me one.
Smash isn't the sort of game I would ever want to play in the first place. I am holding on and waiting for the new Animal Crossing to come out on Switch.
I want to respond with a pithy comeback, but I'm unable to read your witty prose.
As more details come out about Nintendo's online program it reeks of amateurs trying to build an online service. Sad really.
Online content these days are gimmicks to get people to use your platform. They're a value add; not a product you bolt onto the console because you still lack a functioning online service. Paying for online is like paying to walk into Walmart, no thanks.
Nintendo obviously aren't willing to hold on to data for longer than it remains profitable. If someone decides to take a break for a few years then it may make sense to delete all information about them. At the very least, Nintendo wants to make sure it has this option.
Cost of storage and the bad PR means they probably won't. I feel those who do lose their data are in first world problems territory though.
They're utterly terrible. What keeps them going is really well polished and fun games that appeal to kids and family.
The switch is apparently a pretty great indie console and transcends the home / portable functionality really well but by god their online services have always been incredibly mind blowingly backwards. The voice chat I believe requires the use of a cell phone or some incredibly complicated cabling mess for example.
Never every buy a Nintendo console, with the expectation of even 1/3 of the features of the other 2.
Worst part (like many modern, locked down devices [Apple!]) is that the potential of the device is wasted, due to poor restrictions. It has a display, speakers, wifi, inputs, storage etc - but how many of the great things possible are allowed?
Frustrating to enounter arbitrary limitations, something Nintendo excel at.
Yea because you are a flaming fucking faggot LOL.
I agree, the only thing of value that Nintendo puts out anymore is their first-party games. They've been complete fuck-ups at making competitive console hardware since the N64. I'm not sure whether to call the SNES or the GBA their last greatest system, but in any case both of those are discontinued. The Wii Remote was probably the most innovative thing they've made since, but I've got more praise for that controller than I do for the console it was connected to.
I've decided that their games, while fun, are worth missing out on if it means not dealing with the headache that is dealing with Nintendo's bullshit when it comes to console design and online services. I wish they would give up on the hardware business and start making Mario and Zelda games available on Steam. They'd probably make a lot more money doing that instead of their current business model of bullying money out of those who want to save, translate or preserve their legally purchased video games.