Nintendo Switch Online NES & SNES Maintenance Suggests Direct Announcement

There is reportedly maintenance scheduled for the Nintendo Switch Online NES and SNES apps immediately after today’s Nintendo Direct live stream. According to Twitter account NinStatusBot, which regularly reports on Nintendo maintenance, the NES and SNES apps will be offline for updates from “09 Feb from 22:55 UTC to 00:00 UTC.”

The Nintendo Direct is meant to take place at 22:00 UTC and last for about 40 minutes, meaning that the scheduled maintenance will happen literally minutes after the presentation is over. The time suggests Nintendo might be planning to announce new games for the NES and SNES apps today. Perhaps the company will tell gamers to expect the titles directly after the Nintendo Direct.

The NES and SNES apps often go offline for a short time when Nintendo makes additions to the service, such as new games. The services went down when the company last added new games in July 2021, and the N64 app similarly when offline when it added Banjo-Kazooie on January 20. Of course, nothing is certain until after the Nintendo Direct takes place, but the timing of this maintenance sparks speculation.

Both the NES and SNES apps have undergone maintenance plenty of times without new games being added, so fingers crossed today is different. The SNES library was last updated on July 28, 2021, when Nintendo added Claymates, Jelly Boy, and Bombuzal to the subscription service. The NES library, on the other hand, hasn’t been updated since the addition of Ninja JaJaMaru-kun in May 2021.

While new games for the Nintendo Switch Online NES and SNES is just speculation for today’s Direct, there are plenty of other exciting rumors. Several franchises could be getting new installments from Mario Kart, Xenoblade Chronicles, Fire Emblem, and Zelda. Check out today’s Nintendo Direct at 2 PM PT and 5 PM ET.

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