Nintendo Ends Subscription Service for Switch Repairs
Nintendo is discontinuing its subscription service, ‘Wide Care’, which was launched last year in Japan for Switch repairs. According to an announcement on its official website, the company will no longer be accepting new subscriptions or renewals starting August 31st, 2023. This decision comes just over a year after the service was introduced in July 2022.
Current subscribers will not be immediately affected and will continue to receive service until their contract expires. This means that customers can still subscribe for one year on July 31st, 2023, and remain covered until July 31st, 2024.
The ‘Wide Care’ service allows customers to request up to six repairs per year for their Switch consoles, Joy-Con controllers, dock, and AC adapter. The cost of the service is 200 yen per month (approximately $1.50/£1.20) or 2000 yen per year ($15/£12).
The reasons behind Nintendo’s decision to end the service so soon have not been clarified.
[source nintendo-sales.co.jp, via perfectly-nintendo.com]
What’s Next for Nintendo’s Subscription Services?
The discontinuation of the ‘Wide Care’ subscription service raises questions about Nintendo’s future plans for subscription services. With the growing popularity of subscription models in the gaming industry, it remains to be seen if Nintendo will introduce a new and improved service to meet the needs of its customers. Time will tell if this is the end of Nintendo’s experimentation with subscription services or if they have something new in store.
What do you make of this rather short-lived subscription service? Do you have any theories as to why it ended after just one year? Let us know in the comments down below.
– Author: Ollie Reynolds