Canceling Your Nintendo Switch Online Account Is a Pretty Straightforward Process

It's true that Nintendo has long been one of the biggest names in gaming. And it's for good reason. The company is unlike many other game manufacturers. The brand has published a series of long-lasting and ridiculously fun intellectual properties that are beloved around the world.

But the company has been "late to the party" when it comes to online functionality, and even when its Switch Online package debuted for customers, it was criticized when it was stacked up against the competition.

If you have the service and want to know how to cancel it, here's how to go about doing that.

First, you'll want to start up the Nintendo eShop application on your Switch.

Then, select the user profile icon, which is located on the upper right-hand side of the eShop menu.

Go down the list of menu options and highlight and select Nintendo Switch Online.

Then, just hit "Turn off automatic renewal," and you're good to go!

There are a few things to note, however.

The cancellation of automatic renewal needs a solid 48 hours before the next billing cycle to ensure that you're not paying for another month. So if you disable your automatic billing under 48 hours before the next billing cycle, don't be surprised if you're charged for an additional month of service.

If you don't have your Switch on you, you can also cancel the subscription from a web browser. The steps are very similar, with a few differences.

First, you'll want to navigate to Nintendo's website.

Then, in the upper right-hand corner again, you'll want to click on your profile.

That's when you'll be greeted with a pop-up panel listing a bunch of menu options. Click Settings.

Another screen of your account information will come up and you'll see an option that reads Shop Menu. Click it.

This will bring up all of your payment data that's been logged with Nintendo. Hit Your Subscriptions.

You'll then be presented with the option to check Your Subscriptions. Click on that.

Another window will pop up that reads Check Nintendo Switch Online membership status. Hit that.

You'll be presented with the Turn Off Automatic Renewal option. Hit that and you'll be good to go. The same 48-hour window rule applies to the browser as well.

NSO has been criticized by gamers for not having as many perks as Xbox Live or Playstation Plus, but it's hard to really judge Nintendo for that because Sony and Microsoft have had a head start in the online gaming realm.

Those additional years of experience have shown a wide gap in the type of options one gets for the paid service. Let's take Cloud Saves, for instance. Nintendo doesn't offer it as a standard, so if your Switch breaks or you lose it and get another, if you're not paying more for cloud backups, well, you're screwed. On top of that, not all titles support cloud saving either.

Then there's the fact there isn't a native voice chat option ... seriously. While many could argue that this was done to keep younger children who play online safe, the fact that folks need to download an app to their phone and use a headset there makes listening to game audio while chatting impossible.

While Xbox Live and Playstation Plus are always bundling more recently released games with its service, Switch Online only comes with old-school titles from the SNES and NES days.

What's more is that if you want to get more features for Switch Online, you'll have to spring for the $49.99 a year expansion pack. It should be noted that the base Switch Online yearly pass, however, is only $19.99 ($3.99 monthly), less than half of a Playstation Plus annual membership.