Nintendo has been doing a bit of “cloak and dagger” recently across many fronts, but the biggest front has surprisingly been on Nintendo Switch Online. They opened up registration for a special “playtest program” that people in the US, Japan, and others could sign up for and help with, so long as they signed an NDA. Initially, there were no clues about the game or why it was being playtested in this way. That didn’t stop people from signing up, though, and soon, Nintendo had more requests than it had asked for. Fast forward to now, and there isn’t just information about this multiplayer title; there are people streaming it.
If you’re thinking, “Is Nintendo allowing them to stream it?” No, no they are no. In fact, in the NDA that they signed, Nintendo specifically asked them NOT to stream it. That’s why The Big N has been going around and taking down streams linked to the playtest program, as noted by VGC. More than likely, the publisher will continue to go after these videos, and players will keep trying to post them and keep them up for as long as possible so that others can see what the game is about.
As we noted previously, the Nintendo Switch Online Playtest Program seemed to highlight a specific kind of multiplayer worldbuilding game, where players would go out and construct things in a giant world and use special “beacons” that they had to help other players protect themselves from dangers and highlight more of the world that they could interact it.
There is some debate as to where the game is for the Nintendo Switch 2, and thus, this is just a test to see if something like this could work with so many players via NSO, or if it’s something that the NSO service will have going forward. Certain datamining seems to point to the latter, but it’s hard to predict Nintendo at this point. No one saw this playtest coming, or such a game being used for this test. Thus, anything is possible.
We must discourage this kind of thing, though, regarding the leaks because Nintendo has a history of fairly restricting content on certain levels when people break its trust. They clearly wanted gamers’ help to test this new project, whatever it is, and yet people have easily and readily been willing to break the NDAs they agreed to just so they could show it off.
So, don’t say you weren’t warned when the “Nintendo ninjas” come after you.
