When Nintendo Switch Online first went live, news media outlets were reporting that the service’s cloud save feature was a bit wonky in that saves were deleted immediately if your subscription expired without a resub. Today, Nintendo has finally come forth to clarify the situation revealing to IGN in an official statement that cloud saves are stored for 6 months after a subscription ends.
The confusion over the whole situation began when the Nintendo Switch Online FAQ was released earlier this month and included a section with information that seemed to imply your data would be lost as soon as your subscription ended.
Save data stored via the Save Data Cloud backup is available for as long as you have an active Nintendo Switch Online membership.
Classic games in the NES – Nintendo Switch Online collection and the save data for those games will not be removed unless the user chooses to do so manually. These items are stored locally on the Nintendo Switch system but cannot be accessed without an active Nintendo Switch Online membership.
It seems that portion of the FAQ was updated not too long ago as it now reads something entirely different. Under the question “After my Nintendo Switch Online membership expires, will my online save data and my Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo Switch Online data be erased?” it now reads:
If a Nintendo Switch Online membership expires, users won’t be able to access their Save Data Cloud backups. However, Nintendo will allow users who resubscribe within 180 days to access their previous Save Data Cloud backups.
Classic games in the NES – Nintendo Switch Online collection and the save data for those games will not be removed unless the user chooses to do so manually. These items are stored locally on the Nintendo Switch system but cannot be accessed without an active Nintendo Switch Online membership.
More likely than not, this wasn’t a move in their original roadmap for the service, and instead only came about due to the huge amount of bad press the issue received. Here’s another example and one more from Gamestop.
Whatever the reason may be, this new 180 day grace period is a much needed improvement to the service that should’ve been included from the start.
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