By now, you’re more than likely aware of the news that Nintendo has officially announced a Nintendo Switch Online Playtest Program that is happening later this month. As of this article’s writing, Nintendo is accepting players that wish to take part in the playtest. Thanks to the registration form, we are getting a better idea of just how important the playtest is.
The contents of the playtest are apparently so important that, not only is Nintendo not saying what it is, but they are also requesting that those participating in the playtest not talk about it either. With up to 10,000 people being able to take part in the playtest, the odds of people staying silent are not that good. Nevertheless, you can see a social media post relaying the news down below.
[NSO – Playtest]
— OatmealDome (@OatmealDome) October 10, 2024
Note: players will not be allowed to talk about the contents of the playtest. You must accept an NDA before the software can be downloaded.
(Pretty sure there will be people who post to social media about it within the first 5 minutes regardless…) pic.twitter.com/uhvmwFs4Q9

Il be like, ‘reveal the switch 2 and I won’t say anything.
Lmao, are they serious? Between giving 5 days for a mere 10,000 slots to be filled and not expecting every nitty gritty detail to be posted online within mere minutes of it going live. It’s like they don’t know us.
I think it’s a Palworld beta test. Most likely Pocket Pair insisted that a monster catching game not be released on Switch without being thoroughly tested first so it launches in an acceptable state.
You don’t have to be worlds greatest scientist to know that they are either testing Nintendo DS or Game cube games.
You wouldn’t need a playtest like that for emulation. At the very least, it’s something that has online functionality.
In fact, PRAY that it isn’t Gamecube or DS games because that would imply it’s some kind of cloud service for some reason and… just… plz no Ninty. No cloud
@CFG
Well yeah, but say it’s Mario kart DS which originally had online functionality.
I know gamecube games originally didn’t have it, but games like Metroid prime 2 had a multilayer mode which Nintendo could make into an online player experience.
Don’t forget both the Nintendo DS and Metroid Prime 2 are celebrating their 20th birthday this November :)
Actually, some GameCube games did have it. You had Phantasy Star Online for one.
@shinygold2
You are correct, except that was the only series outside of JP with online functionality. The only JP exclusive being Homeland. The server itself wasn’t Nintendo’s.
Nintendo had LAN support for 3 titles, Mario Kart Double Dash, Kirby Air Ride, 1080 Avalanche.
It would be good if they added online functionality to Mario Kart Double Dash, and Kirby.
They still wouldn’t need a huge playtest like this just for online gamecube or ds modes. They can use their own QA to test those things.
It’s going to be something they anticipate a large amount of players using simultaneously. I really doubt it’s the return of Miiverse (or something similar) but even that is more plausible than them testing a Gamecube or DS app.
I guess in your grand assumption it would be pal world 😂
That’s obvious.
No, it’s foolish.
That’s why it’s funny
Exactly. They always do.
Nintendo should have mentioned this to them to begin with. They all going to blab about it on Twitch anyway. They always do.
Thankfully I did get in, won’t be blabbing about anything until after the NDA ends though, anybody else got in aside from me
I haven’t even try it myself but I’m planning on doing it today once I finish my 🍕
Uhh sonic the play test applications are close they filled up the second it went live
Ooooh I see. Gotcha.
You advertise the playtesting to the public, invite them to join, provide a pathetically small number of slots, and expect no one to leak anything?
Good luck with that.
Would you want to risk going up against Nintendo’s legal team for breaching an NDA? I wouldn’t
A small number of slots, but also way too large to expect that nobody is going to say anything.
i guess we’ll see how nintendo handles NDA’s
Yeah right. I give it 1 minute before the leaks burst forward.
That’s a rather generous estimate. My money is on 17 seconds
As usual on this site, some people don’t realize the risks involved if you violate the NDA…
In this scenario, it’d be pretty easy to leak the info without being identified.
You are Right