Nintendo is removing a game from its Switch Online retro library, for the first time since the service launched.
Since 2018, Nintendo has been re-releasing classic 8-bit and 16-bit games, making them available to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers.
At the time of writing, there are around 315 games available on Switch Online, spanning the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64 and Sega Mega Drive / Genesis libraries.
However, Nintendo has now announced that for the first time it will be removing a game from Switch Online, rather than adding one.
On March 28, Super Formation Soccer will be removed from the Super Famicom (SNES) library, which is available to Switch Online members in Japan (or those elsewhere who download it from the Japanese eShop).
Super Formation Soccer is known in the West as Super Soccer, which is also available in Switch Online’s SNES library in North America and Europe. However, Nintendo has yet to announce the removal of Super Soccer from these regions.
It’s not currently clear, then, whether the removal is due to the fact that while Super Soccer was published by Nintendo in the West, the Japanese version was published by the now-defunct Human Entertainment (with the IP seemingly currently owned by Spike Chunsoft).
While it remains to be seen whether Super Soccer will be removed from Switch Online libraries in the West, the delisting of the Japanese version is nevertheless the first real indication that the Switch Online library is not a permanent repository, and that while it’s likely that every listed first-party Nintendo game will remain there until the entire service shuts down, there’s always a chance (however slight) that certain third-party games could be removed at some point.
Responding to the news on X, former PlatinumGames co-founder and current Clovers Studio founder Hideki Kamiya – who regularly posts about his love of classic games – criticised the move, asking for the return of the Virtual Console service, which was available on Wii, Wii U and 3DS and allowed individual games to be bought.
“Hey hey hey, I guess subscriptions are no good after all,” Kamiya wrote. “Seriously, bring back the Virtual Console… don’t be so mean.”
It should also be noted that numerous retro games were delisted from Virtual Console over the years too, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yoshi’s Cookie, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, Aleste, SimCity, Street Fighter II, Final Fight 1-3, Super Turrican 2 and Super R-Type.
Because the Virtual Console games were purchased individually, however, rather than part of a subscription service, anyone who bought those games before they were delisted were still able to play them afterwards. This won’t be the case with Super Formation Soccer on Switch Online.