The Nintendo Switch Online Playtest program appears to be for a cooperative MMO where you work with others to develop a planet. It also doesn’t appear to be related to the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 in any way, as we initially speculated.
Participants accepted during the application phase have now been given access to a Nintendo Switch app with information about the playtest, which officially begins on October 23.
X/Twitter user Ethan_ThisGuy appears to have been the first to post screenshots of the app, in an answer to a Wario64 update on the playtest. The user’s screenshots have since been deleted, but user Nintendo Prime she managed to save.
We have three screenshots to look at here, with each screenshot accompanied by some text that somewhat describes what kind of game this is going to be. The first screenshots describe an area known as the Dev Core, where players can socialize with each other, as well as “level up your character, obtain items you need for your journey” and more.
The main thrust of the game – which remains unnamed at the time of writing – appears to be a huge collaborative project between players. “In this game, the goal is to work with others to fully ‘develop’ a huge, vast planet using creativity and agricultural resources,” another screenshot reveals. “As you progress across the planet, you will discover new lands, enemies and resources that will become essential to your journey.”
To develop the planet together, players will work individually on their own Beacon Zones. Another screenshot shows the higher a beacon is placed in a zone, the greater its range becomes. Presumably this will allow players to travel further into the world and eventually connect to other Beacon Zones and therefore more players. It’s all a bit Death stranding, right?
There’s little else to do at the moment, but if you’re lucky enough to be selected for the playtest, you can start playing from October 23 to November 5. You also need 2.2 GB of storage space on your Nintendo Switch console. We hope that the next Nintendo Direct – whenever that may be – will shed some more light on this very interesting project.