Yesterday, Nintendo announced that a Switch Online playtest for some mysterious "new feature" would be accepting sign-ups from October 10 through October 15. At least, that was the plan. Less than seven minutes after those sign-ups went live, Nintendo said they were all filled up.
The sign-ups launched at 11am Eastern on the official Nintendo website. "Registration for this test is now full," Nintendo of America tweeted at 11:07am Eastern. "Thank you for your interest and participation!" The site now notes that "we have reached the limit of accepted applicants, so we are no longer accepting applications."
There's a seven-minute gap between the opening of registration and NOA's tweet, but all indications suggest the playtest filled up much, much faster than that. Players have reported getting turned away mere seconds after sign-ups began, and folks within the GamesRadar+ office had much the same experience. Nintendo previously said it planned to accept "as many as 10,000" participants, and only Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack members were eligible.
We still don't have any idea what this playtest is for, beyond the fact that it's for a Switch Online feature. According to accepted testers, Nintendo's saying the playtest files will require 2.2GB of free space and that you should be using a wired connection in TV mode for the playtest. Given that you can only plug an ethernet cable into a Switch with a separate USB adapter, that might be a bit of a sticking point.
The popularity of this playtest likely has something to do with the fever pitch of Switch 2 hype. There is no indication that this test has anything to do with Nintendo's next console, but given that Nintendo's confirmed it plans to announce the "successor to Nintendo Switch" by the end of March 2025, the timing of this playtest has generated more than a little hype. Yet there's no surer way to disappointment than by waiting for Nintendo to do what you expect.
