Wait, so there’s no way for my daughter to play her Splatoon account on both consoles? She’s like level a million, there’s no way she’s going to want to start over on the 2nd switch.
If the digital entitlement for the game isn’t on her Nintendo account, she’ll only be able to play on the console that the owning console has designated as their “home”. Or what Deadline said below - log in as you, if you own the game.
The good-ish news is that since you’ve got everyone the family account, Nintendo Online supports cloud saves, so (most games) locally-saved progress will follow from machine to machine. I dunno if Splatoon 2 supports or needs it.
She would have to log in using your account.
I don’t think this is anything special to Nintendo. If it were otherwise, my 3 kids and I could pool all of our games.
I appreciate the replies, but I’m more confused than ever now.
Let’s do a scenario: Daughter the younger wants to play Splatoon, but Daughter the elder is already using the primary switch (playing something else), so she grabs the secondary one. If she wants to play Splatoon 2, she must use my account (since I bought the game). In which case she cannot use her save, making it basically worthless.
So, let’s say I buy a second copy of Splatoon 2, using Daughter the younger’s account. Now she can play with her save on either switch? But Daughter the elder can still only play on her account on the primary switch. So if either kid wants to be able to play with their account on either switch, I have to buy three copies of the game? Would that even work?
Furthermore, I’m confused what even constitutes an “account”. As far as I know, I’m the only one with an actual Nintendo account that can log in to the eStore and buy games. The other accounts are just local to the console (in fact, Daughter the elder created a 2nd account on the switch for some reason). If I link a daughter’s local account on the console to a Nintendo ID, will they still be on my family NSO account? Or will they have to have their own?
It’s kind of like an Xbox Live sub. Anyone on my Xbox One, which is set as my primary or “home” console, can use the Live features. But on anyone else’s console, you’d only be able to use the Live features while logged in with my Live account.
That is correct. Since the second Switch is not the “home” console of the Nintendo Account that owns the game, no other profile/account but yours on that device can launch it.
She can now play on any Switch, even a friend’s (as long as she creates a profile on it tied to her Nintendo Account), since she owns the game. To avoid having to migrate save data back and forth, you’d also probably want her to have Nintendo Online membership. There is a family membership for ~$50 a year that allows up to 8 Nintendo Accounts to be linked to it. That’ll give you cloud sync for saves. And of course, online play and whatnot if they wanted that - something they wouldn’t have had with a local-only profile.
And yes, since Daughter the elder also doesn’t have an entitlement of her own on a Nintendo Account, to allow her to switch back and forth between - er - Switches, you’d have to buy her a copy once you got her an account.
Each switch has accounts which are local to the device. I guess calling them profiles might be less confusing. You and your daughters each have one. There are also Nintendo Accounts, which you need to buy stuff in the store and use Nintendo Online. A profile on a particular Switch can be tied to a particular Nintendo Account.
If/when you get a second Switch, part of the out-of-box experience asks if you already have a Switch and helps you with moving around profiles and save data and whatnot. On each Switch, you’d have a local profile tied to your Nintendo Accounts. The Nintendo Account’s ownership of digital games - and which console is set as the Account’s “home” - would be what controls what you can do on each console.
By default, the first console a Nintendo Account logs into becomes the “home” but it can be changed.
Digital - making everyone’s lives easier since ???.
I’m pretty sure Splatoon 2 doesn’t support cloud saves either. Something to do with cheating, apparently.
Ok, that helps, thanks. I really think getting a 2nd switch is not going to do what the kids want it to do, unless we spend a bajillion dollars buying the same games we have over again, possibly more than once :(
Looking at my Nintendo account online, it looks like I must have created accounts for them when I made the family NSO account. But it is still a bit confusing. It seems like we all have “Nintendo accounts”, but mine is linked to a “Nintendo Network ID”, whereas the kid’s accounts don’t seem to be. They are all part of my “family group”, so they get NSO access.
So there’s profiles, Nintendo accounts, and Nintendo Network IDs. Which can be linked to each other in some ways, and grouped into families. Simple!
Also, even though Splatoon 2 doesn’t have cloud saves(?) I think you can transfer your save to another Switch. Although I don’t know how big a hassle that is.
I think the “Nintendo Network ID” was a 3DS, and maybe Wii U, thing?
I dunno. Prior to the Switch, the only Nintendo hardware I ever had was a DSi. Someday I might even finish some of those games…
I just looked it up and you’re correct, no cloud saves. Transferring a profile is a fairly simple built-in process. As I mentioned above, the OOBE for a new Switch even asks if you have another one you want to transfer stuff from.
Nintendo are amazing at all this.
Already answered, pretty much, but since I’ve done this myself and the fam specifically for Splatoon 2, here it is in summary:
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You can only have your Splatoon 2 “account” (saves/progress/whatever) on one Switch at any time. Full stop.
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So if you want to play with each other all at the same time, each person needs their own Switch and a copy of the game.
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To move a Splatoon 2 account from one Switch to another, you have to transfer the person’s entire Switch profile from one console to another, because…
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…there are no cloud saves for Splatoon 2.
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If you just want one person to be able to play the game on his or her respective Switch while others aren’t playing, you can get away with buying one physical copy and sharing it as needed.
Thanks! Great summary!
This is actually a good point. I think you could get away with just one additional physical copy and both daughters could play at the same time.
- Whichever one is on the first Switch, can play because you own it and it’s your “home” Switch, so available to all profiles
- Whichever one is on the second Switch, just uses the physical copy.
Bingo. That’s what we do. Unfortunately, there are three of us and only two Switches. But if there were a Switch Pro coming out…
I guarantee you can play animal crossing with one purchase
I bought one switch and gave it to my sister
I bought a second switch and I bought animal crossing on it. I assume I used the same login
When I start games it does do an online check now to see if I can play but I’ve visited my sister’s island and we’ve played together at least a dozen times
Maybe dupe check is not enforced in animal crossing
A digital copy then, I assume :) Did you use the first Switch before passing it on to your sister? If so, did you re-designate the second Switch as your “home” console?
Yes it’s a digital purchase.
Yes, I used it for months then pokemon shield came out.
Let me check … second console I am logged in with my main email. I did not create a new Nintendo account afaik. I don’t know what designating a home console is.
The Swätch it bit my säester.
https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/22448/kw/Switch%20primary%20console
The first console you log into with your Nintendo Account becomes your “home” console. You can change it.
You’re both able to use the same digital copy because on the first console, which appears to still be your “home” one, your entitlements are available to anyone on it. You’re able to use it on the second one because you own the digital entitlement; no-one else logging into the second Switch with their own account would be able to play it.
At least we’ve confirmed that their server isn’t checking for already running copies.
And I see from Mellified’s link that I’ve been calling it “home” when it should really be “primary”. Not sure where I picked up “home”.
I think Xbox started using that terminology with the Xbox One onward.