In typical Nintendo fashion, the company dropped a tiny stick of proverbial dynamite with its sudden announcement of the Nintendo Switch Online: Playtest Program.
This upcoming playtest is meant to allow users to try out an unspecified new feature for the Nintendo Switch Online service. Despite sign-ups for the Playtest immediately flooding in and nearly simultaneously meeting Nintendo’s slot requirements just after the gates opened, the company has yet to say what this is all about.
The more you Ninten-to-know
The undisclosed nature of the Playtest has naturally piqued the interest of the Nintendo community. Moreover, Nintendo has asked participants to not share any content from it.
Another interesting detail is that the download size for the test is 2.2GB, indicating that whatever it’s about, it does seem to be something of true note. The actual test itself begins in two weeks, taking place from October 23 to November 5.
It’s unclear if Nintendo will formally reveal the contents of this secret project right after the test; there may be some more waiting after the fact.
Regardless, such a move is rather unprecedented for the company. It has conducted online playtests before for new games (often publicly available,) so this restricted, top-secret deployment is quite the change of pace.
Whatever the case, the fact that this is all for the Nintendo Switch Online service may have something to do with either enhancements to its infrastructure or new system functionality in terms of support for more platforms. Some fans are theorising that this is all for potential GameCube support, but of course, Nintendo isn’t providing any hints that point to any particular area.
Laying the groundwork
Of course, because at this point it can’t help but be part of the discussion, some fans are hoping that this may also have something to do with the Nintendo Switch successor.
Nintendo has at least confirmed that Nintendo Account functionality between the Switch and the next platform will be shared. So, whatever this secret potential new feature is, the next system will likely also be compatible with it. But, that’s a story for another day.
