Friend Codes are back
Through various means, a lot of you have a Nintendo Switch early. Whether it’s by way of a review unit, an early retailer release, and early shipment, or Japan’s soon-ish midnight launch, you can now grab the first big system update.
It can not only be completed in the background, but it’s super small and doesn’t take more than a few minutes to load up and install. All online features are in, including online play/friend codes, SD card usage, the eShop, and sharing screens (but not video) to social media. You can also link your Nintendo accounts and bring over your current balance. To merge your funds you need to click the profile picture at the top right of the eShop, click “hear more about merging funds,” then enter your password. My eShop cash transferred without issue, and my SanDisk 200GB microSDXC card (provided by SanDisk) was implemented directly after another reboot — a process that took around five seconds with no formatting and ended up clocking in at 183GB of free space.
Having loaded it up myself early this morning, I can confirm that you can visit/browse the eShop (which has no music!) while a game is loading — but if you want to actually apply the update, you need to close your current application. It was probably the smoothest day one online update I’ve ever been a part of, though it is technically a day before the most of the world has access to the Switch. Granted, it’ll probably still be smooth due to the small size and background download feature.
The most important bit of news? It’s ready for you when you pick up your console tomorrow.
