Name: Nintendo Switch Lite
Brand: Nintendo
Price: 170 USD

Summary

Some Nintendo Switch Online members want to see the service loosen its profile icon restrictions.
Rereleases of NSO profile icons currently come with some fairly restrictive limitations, like requiring players to own the games whose imagery they are purchasing.
Icons from different games also cannot be combined while designing a custom profile picture.

Some Nintendo Switch Online members have recently taken to social media to call for changes to the way the service distributes profile icons, arguing that the current system is needlessly restrictive. Their frustrations largely stem from the somewhat convoluted manner in which Nintendo Switch Online limits icon availability and usage.

Profile icons were originally added to Nintendo Switch Online back in March 2022. Since then, subscribers have been able to spend their Platinum points on a variety of imagery that could be used to customize their profiles. These digital goodies are added to the service on a monthly basis and are constantly in rotation. In most cases, previously released icons won't come back to NSO more often than once per year.

Nintendo Switch Online Members Want Profile Icon Restrictions Lifted

But their availability is even more limited when that happens, as any images offered as part of these reruns require subscribers to own the games that they are based on before they can purchase them. That's not the only condition for buying them, as recently pointed out by Reddit user WhispyWhirl, who just missed out on some Nintendo Switch Online profile icons based on Animal Crossing: New Horizons because the service insisted that they first had to play the game three times in the last 30 days before they could get them.

NSO Subscriber Labels Profile Icon Restrictions 'Anti-Consumer'

As it turned out, this unusual requirement didn't actually state that they need to boot the game three times, but play it on three separate days during a month-long period. By the time they finally managed to do so, the icons that they wanted to purchase with their hard-earned Platinum points had gone out of rotation. "This is one of the worst systems I think the Switch has ever had," the fan wrote, in addition to labeling it as "completely anti-consumer." WhispyWhirl's complaint amassed hundreds of upvotes and subsequently surfaced on the front page of the largest Switch subreddit in early October 2024, indicating that a vocal section of NSO subscribers shares their frustrations.

Some people who chimed in on the ensuing discussion have also used it as an opportunity to call for more freedom in how individual icon elements can be mixed and matched. According to these opinions, the inability to combine icons from different games while designing a custom profile image is needlessly restrictive.

This is one of the worst systems I think the Switch has ever had. This is completely anti-consumer.

The chances of Nintendo acting on these complaints directly are slim at best, as the company has a long-standing reputation for kind of doing its own thing, quirks and all. But that's not to say that NSO won't be seeing any changes in the foreseeable future, not least because the service could indeed be getting a revamp to accompany the Switch successor. According to recent reports, the Nintendo Switch 2 could finally be revealed as early as October 2024.

Image

Nintendo Switch Lite

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4K Capabilities: No
Power Source: AC Power and Battery
Brand: Nintendo
Screen: 5.5” Touch Screen
Processing Power: 0.
Storage: 32GB

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The Nintendo Switch Lite was released in 2019 as a low-cost, handheld-only game system. It's designed specifically for handheld play, offering a lightweight design as part of its portable offerings. The controllers are built into the system for handheld play, unlike the larger Switch models. The console itself retains full functionality as a standard Switch, but it does not support docked mode.

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