If you just picked up a new Switch over the holidays, a new deal on Nintendo’s Switch Online service may be of interest: As of this writing, both Amazon and Best Buy are bundling a 12-month Switch Online family plan with a 256GB model of SanDisk’s officially licensed Switch microSD card for $50. A 12-month family membership normally costs $35, so the actual discount here is on the microSD card, which has generally retailed around $35 for this amount of storage in recent months. We’ve previously seen bundles that pair a 128GB SanDisk card with the same membership for $35, but this is still a good value for those who’d like more storage to load up with Switch games. Just note that the subscription will be set to auto-renew by default.
As a refresher, Switch Online is Nintendo’s equivalent to PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold. It’s not essential for everyone, but the subscription is required to play the online modes of Switch games such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 3, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the like. A membership lets you backup your game save data in the cloud as well, plus it gets you access to a library of emulated NES and Super NES games, many of which are classics.
If you only need a Switch Online membership for yourself, you’re better off buying a 12-month individual plan, which retails for $20. The family plan included in this deal, however, allows you to spread the benefits of the subscription across eight different accounts in a designated “family group.” So long as you have at least one other Switch owner who is willing to jump on the plan, it’s a better value than the individual subscription, though one person will still need to be the group’s admin and manage your collective membership.
Note that this deal only applies to Switch Online’s standard family membership, not the upgraded “Expansion Pack” tier that Nintendo introduced in late 2021. That plan adds a (somewhat limited) library of emulated Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games, plus built-in access to DLC for games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but it costs $50 a year for an individual plan or $80 a year for a family plan.
As for the microSD card, it’s the model we recently recommended in our guide to the best Switch accessories. It’s not the absolute fastest card you can buy, but it’s reliable, and since the Switch only supports UHS-I bus interfaces, any technically-faster card carries no benefits on the console anyway. The Switch OLED has 64GB of internal storage, which can fill up after a handful of game downloads, while the standard Switch and Switch Lite only include 32GB. The most important thing to look for in a microSD card here is getting as much space as you can for the money; if you’re looking to buy a Switch Online family plan already, this bundle can help with that.
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