Why Some Of Your Nintendo Switch Games Don’t Support Cloud Saves

Gamers have been looking forward to Nintendo's launch of the Switch Online service for over a year. While the big feature of the Switch Online service is the ability to play games online with other players, one very key feature of this service is online cloud saves. The reason that gamers want cloud saves so badly is that they keep you from losing all your game progress if something happens to your console. The Switch Online Service is supposed to launch by mid-September and scuttlebutt suggests that the service was to have been the big topic in the earthquake delayed Nintendo Direct that didn’t air last week.

While we are waiting for Nintendo Direct to air, there have been some details slipping on to the Nintendo website that presumably were intended to be talked about in the Direct. One of those tidbits of information was the slip of the Yoshi Crafting World game. Little details of the cloud save tech have also turned up on the Nintendo site, and one of those tidbits suggested that not all Nintendo Switch games will support cloud saves — that factoid perturbed many Nintendo Switch gamers.

Two of the most anticipated games for the Switch are Pokémon Let's Go Eevee and Let's Go Pikachu, and they are among the games noted as lacking support for cloud save games. The warnings including with those games state, "Nintendo Switch Online membership (sold separately) and Nintendo Account required for online play. This game does not support Save Data Cloud backup. Not available in all countries. Internet access required for online features." The same warning is on the bottom of the Splatoon 2 page.

Other games noted as lacking the feature include big name titles like Dark Souls Remastered, Dead Cells, FIFA 19, and NBA 2K19. So, what gives? Nintendo sent a statement to Gameinformer that read, "The vast majority of Nintendo Switch games will support Save Data Cloud backup. However, in certain games this feature would make it possible to, for example, regain items that had been traded to other players, or revert to a higher online multiplayer ranking that had been lost. To ensure fair play, Save Data Cloud backup may not be enabled for such games. To ensure that Save Data Cloud backups cannot be used to unfairly affect online multiplayer rankings, the feature will not be enabled in Splatoon 2." No cloud saves for these games to keep shady sorts from taking advantage of a loophole. Bummer.