Nintendo has announced a second round of its super-top-secret Playtest Program “related to a service for Nintendo Switch Online.” This time there’s room for four times as many applicants, a total of 40,000, for the playtest taking place from July 28 to August 10. If it’s anything like last year, those spots will be snapped up in seconds.
Last October, when planet Earth was losing its collective mind over Nintendo’s refusal to give us any useful information about the still-unrevealed Switch 2, the Japanese company made everything even more confusing by announcing a “playtest program” for a mysterious “service.” Everyone naturally assumed this would be something related to the upcoming new console. However, participants were under strict instructions to keep it all secret, so we still don’t know what…it was some sort of Minecraft-like MMO. Everyone leaked it immediately.
Top secret testing program
Nintendo remains just as enigmatic about it all this time around, despite the huge numbers of people last October releasing screenshots, and even streaming the product on Twitch. “This is a test of the same service for which we performed a test in October of 2024,” the official site says, with the ambiguous severity of a government nuclear testing facility. And once more, the company impresses upon the 40,000 unpaid volunteers that they have to extra-double pinky swear that they’ll not even tell their mom what it’s all about.
We learned pretty quickly last year that this is some sort of MMO, in which players work cooperatively to farm and create on an entire planet. The game’s leaked descriptions read, “As you progress across the planet, you’ll discover new lands, enemies, and resources that will be come essential to your journey.” Dataminers soon claimed that this was coming from Nintendo Production Group No. 4, the utilitarian name for the incredibly imaginative people who created the wonderful cardboard Labo products for Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo obviously went wild removing copyright-infringing screenshots and videos of the project, but it was bizarrely naive to think that making 10,000 unvetted strangers sign an NDA would have any effect. Still, it’s happening again, but this time with 40,000 people!
For a chance to take part, you need to have had an active top-tier Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription on July 17, be over 18, and be in Japan, the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, Brazil or Mexico. It’s open to both Switch and Switch 2 users. If that’s you, you can then fill in the form on the official site, either as an individual or as a group, and send it in once applications open at 6 p.m. today, Friday 18 July. You’ll likely have literally seconds to click—unless you’re in Japan where they’ll use a lottery program.
Good luck! And shhhh, it’s a secret.
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