Nintendo Switch online plans revealed: Release date and price of multiplayer service confirmed by company

Some of the features will be rolling out earlier, for free

The Nintendo Switch being played in New York (Getty)

Nintendo will finally unveil its online service for the Switch next year, it has confirmed.

The full launch will happen in 2018. When it does, Switch players will pay $20 per year to get access to a range of new and existing features.

Until the service rolls out, Switch owners will be able to play online for free. But they also won't get access to the features that will come at the full launch, which includes proper matchmaking and a phone app.

But perhaps chief among the features of the online service will be a games library that will be available to all subscribers. Those games will feature a range of classics – Super Mario Bros. 3, Balloon Fight and Dr. Mario – all of which will have new online features added so that they can be played with friends over the internet.

Players will be able to play as many of those games as they want, whenever they like, so long as they are signed up to the service.

The classic library will include games from the NES console and Nintendo is considering adding Super NES games.

Some parts of the new features – like an early version of the mobile app, which will let people find friends to play online – will be available later this year. But the full launch will happen at some point next year, Nintendo said, without giving any further details of when exactly it would be released.