A leaker suggests the reason for the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription's price could be blamed on Sega licensing, as the Expansion Pack brings Sega Genesis games to Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch Online's new subscription tier includes games from the Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis, as well as the upcoming Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Happy Home Paradise DLC.
The NSO Expansion Pack price is much higher than existing subscribers were expecting when it was first announced. The Expansion Pack cost $50 per year for individual memberships, which is a $30 increase from the standard Nintendo Switch Online price of $20. A family membership, should users want to purchase membership for up to 8 accounts, costs $80 per year. The exact reasoning for why the new prices is unknown, but an insider has provided a possible answer.
Tweets by Emily Rogers muse that a potential reason for the high Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack price tag boils down to licensing costs. She states, "I heard Sega were paid very, very well," and that the licensing costs add up when taking into account third-party games on Sega Genesis, such as those published by Konami and Capcom. Rogers claims the price could also be related to Sega's allegedly low game sales on the Wii Virtual Console service, a reason she indicates is why Sega didn't bring any of its games to the Wii U Virtual Console.
The new NSO price tier has seen a very negative reception online since the reveal of its release date and cost. The Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack trailer's dislikes have exceeded 80,000 at the time of writing. Social media comments and tweets from shocked players express shock and frustration at how expensive the NSO + Expansion Pack memberships will be, but Nintendo has shown no signals it will revise the individual and family prices.
It's hard to say for certain how much this potential reason for the NSO Expansion Pack's price could have contributed to Nintendo's decision, if at all. If Sega licensing costs are the main place to lay blame, this could trouble the subset of players who are only interested in the Expansion Pack's N64 games, and the same logic could be applied to Animal Crossing's Happy Home Paradise DLC for those that don't own Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Should Rogers be correct about the price being driven by Sega Genesis games, then it's a wonder if Nintendo is in any position to change the price at all without risking it's bottom line, but it's likely the choice to charge $50 to $80 for the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack was influenced by more than one factor.
Source: Emily Rogers/Twitter