On May 15th, we got to see a wealth of new information about one of the most anticipated upcoming games for the Nintendo Switch; Super Mario Maker 2. During the Nintendo Direct, details such as the co-op mode, which lets players experience crazy levels together with their friends both online and offline was revealed. At least, that's what many thought it to be, until an embargoed press event took place. During the event, publications were invited to play an early build of the game, and try out some of the new features of Mario Maker 2. According to one of the websites in attendance, Nintendo World Report, a Nintendo representative explained that online co-op play is limited to randoms-only, and that players will not be able to join up with their friends over the internet. The Nintendo rep stated that the reasoning behind the decision was because the competitive global leaderboards would be "compromised". Oddly enough, it wouldn't impact the co-op function, as those do not have a leaderboard, but the representative said that simple co-op would not be playable with friends online either.

If this is true, then you'll only be able to play co-op with friends over local wireless or through a single docked console, while the online mode is limited to lobbies of randomly picked players. Of course, Nintendo's track record for online games wouldn't make such a choice outside the realm of possibility, but it does seem an odd thing to exclude, especially for a flagship title that will help represent the Nintendo Switch Online service.

As this was a comment made by a media representative of Nintendo, and not from a Nintendo Direct, or straight from a press release, it's hard to judge the credibility of the statement. Other outlets that got to try Super Mario Maker 2 hands-on appear to make no mention of being able to play online modes with friends, making this possible, but not official. Should this be addressed by Nintendo itself, an edit will be made to clarify the situation.

Nintendo World Report - "Online Play in Super Mario Maker 2 Limited to Randoms Only"

UPDATE

Nintendo itself has confirmed this to be true. The company's official stance is, "This is true. As the game is now, you cannot create friend lobbies online. You can only play online with randoms. You can still get friends together and play with local play, and you're free to play with four players on one Switch system. You can also still challenge your friends to your creations, and take on their designs through Course UDs and having them follow your Maker Profile."

 

[Pipistrele]

To be honest, it's kinda fun seeing some people go from "PLZ NINTENDO GIVE MARIO MAKER I NEED THAT" to "You just saved me $60, you fools!" on a whim =)

 

[Oleboy555]

Maybe someone figures out a way to only connect to people you want to connect to instead of connecting to random people.

 

[mightymuffy]

Yep, Nintendo you done goofed again.... but I think they've already noticed this judging from the backlash, and I suspect, to massive fanfare of course, we'll get an update in a couple of months that will add online matchmaking/no leaderboard (and probably Amiibo support too judging by the similar backlash), so all is good.

 

[Bladexdsl]

Let's give the switch a headphone jack. But you still need a phone and separate app to talk to people.
Let's give the switch Bluetooth. But you still need a headphone jack because the Bluetooth is only for controllers.
Let's give the switch SD card. But saves are stored internally and you can't save/export them (now you can with online...).
Let's give SMM2 local co-op. But you still need internet.
Let's give SMM2 online co-op. But you can't play with friends over the internet.
And the list goes on...

indeed it does
Let's make people pay for our shitty online service but only give them two nes games a month
Let's make the switch portable but keep making all the real good portable games on the 3ds
Let's ignore real good 3rd party support and instead let all the idiot indy's into our e-shop so they can flood it with crappy phone ports, weeb games and pixel garbage games made in gamemaker
Let's DMCA the fuck out of anyone who even tries to recreate any of our games!

 

[Davidchao23]

I don't know too much about Switch hacking, but isn't there an way to use a homebrew or mod to make the local wireless option work online with others?

 

[Jiehfeng]

If this is true, then we are still going to have a worthless friends list on the Switch, and it's been more than two years. The 3DS even did better. Jesus.

 

[Pipistrele]

I don't know too much about Switch hacking, but isn't there an way to use a homebrew or mod to make the local wireless option work online with others?

There is, but it requires jailbreaking your console, which is a sure way to get yourself permanently banned from actual online gaming

 

[Varia]

To be honest, it's kinda fun seeing some people go from "PLZ NINTENDO GIVE MARIO MAKER I NEED THAT" to "You just saved me $60, you fools!" on a whim =)

Yup. I mean sure, stupid decision and all, but really, if this is a deal breaker to you, then you probably weren't too interested to begin with.

 

[VMM]

When seeing this as a rumour I was pretty sure it was true.
Only Nintendo could come up with this kind of stupid nonsense.

Also Nintendo online is pretty much a mess, friend codes, weird chat cellphone app.
In 2002 MS already had an online service vastly superior to Nintendo's current online.

I wonder if Nintendo will ever learn

 

[Davidchao23]

There is, but it requires jailbreaking your console, which is a sure way to get yourself permanently banned from actual online gaming

Ah, well then I guess the hackers have the upper hand with this situation!

 

[Glyptofane]

Geez, what the hell is Nintendo's problem?

 

[BlastedGuy9905]

As the game is now, you cannot create friend lobbies online.

As the game is now
As the game is now
AS THE GAME IS NOWWWWW

 

[Kioku]

They're trying to justify this with couch play and "challenging your friends"? What year is it, Ninty? I'm still buying this because I don't play online much anyways..

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Ah, well then I guess the hackers have the upper hand with this situation!

TIL gimping your systems features is having the upper hand...

 

[DiscostewSM]

Unfortunate, but prior to this last Direct, I don't think anyone expected any sort of multiplayer, online or offline.

 

[Refriger8tor]

There is, but it requires jailbreaking your console, which is a sure way to get yourself permanently banned from actual online gaming

Couldn't you make a NAND backup before making any changes, hack it, DNS block, then restore once you're ready to play normal online again?

 

[Xzi]

Odd decision to make for sure, but I'm still gonna buy it. I never had a Wii U, after all, and Mario Maker seemed like one of the most fun and challenging exclusives.

 

[Pipistrele]

Couldn't you make a NAND backup before making any changes, hack it, DNS block, then restore once you're ready to play normal online again?

Theoretically you can, but it's kind of convoluted process by itself - not to mention mechanisms behind console's telemetry and the way Nintendo approaches bans still aren't fully discovered, so even doing all above is a bit risky. I'd say it's too much of a hassle to go through all those loops just to play SMM2 with friends for a while.

 

[cots]

Weird. Sounds like a good way to get your friends to come over to your house. I can see some social benefits from this. Also, Nintendo usually does some weird stuff and a lot of it turns out to be pretty fun. Plus, it's not like their online service is in the same realm as Sony's or Microsoft's.

 

[reddragon105]

Weird. Sounds like a good way to get your friends to come over to your house. I can see some social benefits from this. Also, Nintendo usually does some weird stuff and a lot of it turns out to be pretty fun. Plus, it's not like their online service is in the same realm as Sony's or Microsoft's.

Yeah, and that's good in a way - great excuse to have your friends over - but there's a massive assumption on Nintendo's part that people live near their friends. Some of us don't - maybe when you're a kid your friends are the people you go to school with or live on the same street as, but the older you get the more people move around and your friends end up being people you used to live near, used to go to school or work with, or met at university, or even met online. The nearest friends I have (with a Switch at least) are 50 miles away, so we do see each other IRL pretty regularly, and sometimes it's for gaming, but mostly we keep in touch and play games together online. Not sure how much we'd play Super Mario Maker 2 together, but if it's not possible then chances are I won't even be buying it. I already have the Wii U version and the only reason I'd buy what is essentially the same game again would be for new features, like online.

So TL;DR - I'm old and have no friends and Nintendo isn't helping.

 

[MushGuy]

I wonder how it didn't occur to Nintendo to just...not let you rank if you play with friends online.




Oh noooo $12 a year. Better sell my house.
Get a job kid. 1-2 hours at minimum wage a year is pretty easy.

>Implying that what's offered with the online service is actually worth the money.