In a recent interview, Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils-Aime has clarified that games played for free as part of the upcoming premium subscription service for Switch, will not remain available in your library indefinitely, as is the case with both PS Plus and Xbox Gold.
Simply put, you'll get access to a classic Nintendo game for a limited period of time, then access will be removed and the title in question will be replaced by a new one. Rinse and repeat.
Reggie Fils-Aime explained the company's position to Wired: "It means that essentially you've got access to that game for a period of time, and then after the month there's a new selection. You'll have the opportunity to buy it, but [after] that month we've moved on to another game.
"I think it would be helpful maybe to step back. Because I think it's important there's an understanding of the bigger vision. The bigger vision is that we are going to provide an overall online service, subscription-based, that not only will capture the multiplayer opportunity, but also the voice chat capability that we're going to provide through a global app. We think that that's just as important as access to Virtual Console content."
The subscription service is going to be free at launch, although Nintendo will start charging a yet-to-be-determined amount of money in the autumn, at which point online gaming, voice chat, and limited-time access to classic games will fall behind a paywall. The question is, then, will people pay extra to play online when the free trial is over?