I pity those who say that can afford a $300 console but not spend the equivalent of $1.67 every month to play online.
Maybe you should realize that having online servers that won't run like garbage and neutralizing cheaters cost money. Everyone is doing it for at least double the price, so why are you being so harsh on Nintendo? If you ever owned a DS you'd know how much cheaters ruined online gameplay.
Oh look, the "you bought the console, so bend over and take it for a crap service" defense.
Here's the main problem. We've already
seen what Nintendo's online offerings look like. They're garbage.
For some idiotic reason, Nintendo thinks that defaulting to WiFi makes for a fun gaming experience.
It doesn't.
WiFi may be perfectly fine for internet browsing, but thanks to the simple fact that packets can be dropped between the access point and the device, requiring them to be sent again, it causes way too much lag.
Anyone tried playing even 4-player smash online? Yeah, it's like that. Unless you're sitting within arm's reach of the router, you're going to get WiFi lag.
Also, the fact you need a phone to do basic stuff like voice chat when the console is clearly capable of it shows that Nintendo is being lazy. People don't like to reward laziness.
Are you complaining about getting free, online-enabled NES games? Would you rather want free Switch games? That would cost a lot more than $20 per year. And seeing how much garbage there's in the Switch library, it's safe to assume that you won't get to play any Splatoon.
I'm guessing you're the same kind of person who bought Super Mario Bros. on every platform since the Wii for $5 a pop. Except here, you're getting to rent it and maybe a few other ROMs from early in the NES's life (since you don't get to keep them if you let your service lapse) for $20 a year.
PSN and XBox Live may well be more expensive, but at least the games they offer you get to keep,
and they're the same platform. they're not the same 30-year old games you've bought and rebought half a dozen times already.
As for me, yes, I will subscribe. Hell, maybe I'll even buy multiple years at once because of how cheap it is. I love online gaming and I hate cheaters.
Of course you will. You seem like the kind of whale that would happily drain's mommy and daddy's credit cards buying loot boxes and all the other predatory microtransactions mobile games can come up with if you could.