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  1. Platforms
  2. Nintendo
  3. Nintendo Switch

Nintendo is recruiting players to test a mystery "new feature" for Switch Online, and nobody has any clue what it is

News
By Jordan Gerblick
Published 9 October 2024

"Customers will need to download exclusive software to their own Nintendo Switch system in order to participate"

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Nintendo Switch console on black table, on to show homescreen with games and battery level indicator
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Nintendo is accepting applications from players to test out a mystery new feature coming to Switch Online, and don't worry, everyone's just as lost as you are at this point.

"We will perform a test called Nintendo Switch Online: Playtest Program related to a new feature for the Nintendo Switch Online service offered for the Nintendo Switch™ system," reads a page doing its darndest to explain what's going on here.

Nintendo has yet to give the tiniest hint about what this new feature is, but you'll need an active Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership and download an "exclusive software" to try it out ahead of its release. But first you'll need to be accepted into the playtest, and before that you'll have to apply.

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You have from Thursday, October 10 at 8am PDT until Tuesday, October 15 at 7:59am PDT to do that, but Nintendo says it'll shut down the application page early if "the number of accepted participants has reached its limit." On that note, Nintendo says it plans to accept "as many as 10,000" participants. To have a chance at being one of them, you just have to be 18 when you apply and live in Japan, the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, or Spain.

This is weird, but it's precisely the sort of weird that becomes not weird when you remember it's Nintendo doing it. The company is notorious for confusing its fanbase, although I can't remember anything like this happening before. There are plenty of theories going around about what Nintendo's up to, but frankly none of them are convincing enough to list here. I suppose only time will tell.

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CATEGORIES
Nintendo Switch
Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
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Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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