President and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aimé, has said that Switch Online is the successor to the Virtual Console.
Launching in 2006, the service allowed players to download classic titles on the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS. It isn’t available on the Nintendo Switch, however.
In an interview with IGN, Fils-Aimé said:
“The Virtual Console successor is Nintendo Switch Online, right? With the mentality that says we’re going to be offering a slate of games, and it’s a slate that’s going to increase over time. For many of these games, there’s going to be additional online capability provided in those games. That’s the vision we have for how to best bring our legacy content to Nintendo Switch.”
It isn’t clear how many classic legacy games Nintendo are going to release for the Switch’s online service. Fils-Aimé seems confident that, despite that, players will not be turned off by the $20 subscription fee:
“We do [believe people will subscribe], and I say that because what we’ve laid out is a proposition where, yes you get the competitive play accessibility, you also get the cloud save, and you get access to the legacy content.”