Cloud Saves Won’t Be Saved Without An Active Subscription On Switch

With the current of news following yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, one that stood out was the approaching Online Service for the Nintendo Switch. Revealed in the service’s FAQ concerning saved data, all cloud saves will be removed if you don’t keep up with the duration of your online subscription.

As we covered last week that certain developers will have the option to support cloud-based saving for their titles, now even if the game you play supports the feature your saves are in jeopardy. The FAQ reads as:

Save data stored via the Save Data Cloud backup is available for as long as you have an active Nintendo Switch Online membership.

Added on to the subject, for NES games and their respected saves will not be affected by this as it is saved locally in the console and will need to be deleted manually. But there’s a catch, if you don’t have an active Online membership you won’t have the ability to access the game nor its saves.

As competing platforms like Steam and Xbox support cloud saves, the only console that is similar to Nintendo is Sony’s. The PlayStation 4 requires its online service, PlayStation Plus, for cloud saves as well. But unlike Nintendo’s Online Service, cloud saves won’t be deleted if your subscription expires.

On top of other complaints following the Online Service’s in-depth reveal like the revival of the Nintendo companion app, the cloud saves is one that bothers fans the most. Though not all games don’t support cloud saving, those who do use it for other titles will have another worry to have on their mind. As the internal storage is pretty minimal on the Switch, those who don’t have an external SD card will use the cloud storage as an alternative.

Source: Switch Online Service FAQ