Let’s face it, Nintendo’s online service hasn’t always been the best. While it has always worked, it is not always necessarily a completely stable experience in every game. While we won’t be listing specific titles, you probably already know the ones that don’t run that smoothly.
With this in mind, it looks like Nintendo’s online services are finally getting an update – with dataminer Oatmeal Dome (through thomasnet_mc) detailing how Nintendo will replace its multiplayer server system, which has been around since the Wii U and 3DS era. It does this by switching from ‘NEX’ to a newer system called ‘NPLN’.
The recent Monster Hunter Rise demo was apparently the “first game” to use NPLN, and was apparently a great way to test how it worked under pressure.
Nintendo Everything further explains how ‘NEX’ was originally created by a company called Quazal (at the time the technology was known as Rendez-Vous), Ubisoft bought them out in 2010, and this followed with Nintendo licenses and renamed it to ‘NEX’ .
Nintendo has been using ‘NEX’ for “about ten years” now, but the technology itself is “about twenty years old” and the “Splatoon 2 version has an unused feature to check if it runs on Windows 98”.
So, will this improve things? Probably not, according to OatmealDome. The dataminer then points out how Nintendo’s “primary goal” in this case is to make the transition “as seamless as possible” to ensure users don’t even notice.
“When they are done, they can add new things or improve existing ones.”
If we hear any updates on this, we’ll let you know for sure.