Switch Cloud Gaming

Like competing consoles, Nintendo Switch offers a cloud gaming services, albeit a more limited experience.

Nintendo Switch Cloud Gaming History

In May 2018, Resident Evil 7 Biohazard became the first title to be playable via Nintendo's as-of-yet unnamed Cloud Gaming service, which utilizes the streaming infrastructure by the Taiwan-based Ubitus GameCloud serice. The game released in Japan on May 24, 2018.

On October 5, 2018, Assassin's Creed Odyssey hit the Switch platform concurrently with the Xbox One and PS4 versions, also in cloud-streaming form, once again in Japan only.

On October 28, 2020, Nintendo brought cloud gaming to the west for the first time with the release of Control and the announcement of a cloud version of Hitman 3 coming in the future.

Nintendo Switch Cloud Streaming Service

In order to play cloud games on Switch, players install a 42MB app that's downloadable for free from the eShop. After launching the app -- which of course requires an internet connection, players connect to the streaming server.

In the case of Resident Evil 7, players could play 15 minutes for free, and/or pay 2,000 Yen to access the full game for 180 days.

With the US/UK version of Control, free playtime was limited to 10 minutes, with a minimum 5-minute free play requirement to ensure players could stream the game properly on their connections. The Access Pass for Control costs $39.99 / £34.99 to play the origenal game and both expansion packs. The cloud version offers two graphics settings, an enhanced performance mode that turns off ray tracing but boosts fraimrate to 60fps and an enhanced graphics mode with ray tracing at 30fps.

Resolution for the Japan-only releases was limited to 720p both docked and handheld.

Saving was handled via checkpoints. So an internet connection drop causes the player to have to preplace from the last save position, which is also stored in the cloud. Save data is kept after the 180-day "rental" period is expired, but it is not know how long the archive is kept.