Gamers in China can’t play online games on Nintendo Switch anymore

Players were able to play Mario Kart 8 DX and Splatoon 2 online until the launch of paid service Nintendo Switch Online

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Gamers in China can’t play online games on Nintendo Switch anymore

Josh Ye

Published: 10:35pm, 27 Sep 2018Updated: 8:40am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

The Nintendo Switch isn’t officially available in China… but it’s also available everywhere in the country.

Now gamers in China are reportedly finding that they cannot play online anymore, after Nintendo launched its paid online gaming service.

Nintendo Switch isn’t officially available in China… but it’s readily available on e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Taobao thanks to scalpers. (Source: JD.com)

Gamers in China told Abacus that they’re having trouble connecting to Nintendo eShop, and failing to connect to other players in online games.

Other reports seemingly confirm the issues, citing that players in China are encountering "black screens and connection failures" in games like Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

What’s notable is that those players say the service did work before -- they’ve been able to play online in those games up until the last few weeks.

So what changed? Last week the company stopped free online play and launched Nintendo Switch Online, a paid service. And some think this may be the cause of the issues. A widely circulated post says that Nintendo is using Google’s servers for its new service -- and Google is banned in China.