Nintendo’s Japanese customer service Twitter account has issued some worthy advice to prospective Nintendo Switch owners ahead of the Christmas weekend. The company advises that anyone who is expecting to receive a Nintendo Switch system for Christmas should create their Nintendo Account now ahead of Christmas Day (Saturday, 25th December), when the company expects Nintendo servers to be hammered with users accessing the eShop with downloads etc. If you owned a Nintendo 3DS or a Wii U you will most likely have a Nintendo Account, but if you are new to the recent Nintendo ecosystem it makes sense to create your free Nintendo Account now while there are no issues.
This weekend, access will be concentrated on Nintendo’s servers, and it is expected that Nintendo Account will not be created immediately. If you are planning to use the Nintendo Switch family for the first time, we recommend that you create it in advance.
Translated
To be honest, you should set up all your Xmas console before you give them to your kids, especially to make sure they work in the first place.
Exactly, not just Nintendo consoles cuz everyone and their mom is gonna access the eShop at the same time creating a paradox of neverending suffering.
I don’t think I would trust some parents to set up a device for their kids. For neurodivergent kids especially it might cause a lot of disassociation and distrust if their parents set it up for them. Plus a parent might not know the kid’s preferred email (assuming they’re like teens or older and have their own) or even if their kid has an account already. Heck, some parents may not even be tech-literate enough to do this anyway. I would not trust my parents, for example, even if they had all the right information. It’s highly dependent on the individual situation, and while it sucks the servers are slow or down on Christmas itself, maybe that just means you should buy a physical game, or maybe it means you should go through setup with your kid beforehand. Taking away a kid or teen’s autonomy isn’t the answer though, ever. Even if I was like 7 (the age I was when I got my first videogames), I wouldn’t want my parents to be setting things up for me. I guess for a very young child it might be okay but I don’t think most older kids and teens who have a greater sense of what is “theirs” should ever have to deal with things being done “for them”. Just let them set it up themselves a few days early, or sit down with them. (Too late this year but general advice of course.) I just know if my parents decided to set up my consoles for me when I was a kid, I’d disassociate so hard and never even want to use it. That’s not to say it goes for everyone, but for some neurodivergent kids and even adults, it’s a visceral reaction that we can’t help. Plus, again, maybe the kid already has a 3DS and Nintendo account, but the parent doesn’t know to use the same email. Or even if they have an actual Switch account/profile on a friend or sibling’s system, a parent (or ANY third party) might not set it up correctly without that knowledge. Again I suppose it’s different if it’s a very very young kid (like 4 or 5) but if they’re old enough to have their own Switch, I don’t think it’s right to set it up without them even being there when you do it. It’s okay if a parent has to help, but they should never do the entire process FOR a kid, and especially not a neurodivergent kid.