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Nintendo is accepting applications from players to test out a mystery new feature coming to Switch Online, and don't worry, everyone's just as lost as you are at this point.
"We will perform a test called Nintendo Switch Online: Playtest Program related to a new feature for the Nintendo Switch Online service offered for the Nintendo Switch™ system," reads a page doing its darndest to explain what's going on here.
Nintendo has yet to give the tiniest hint about what this new feature is, but you'll need an active Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership and download an "exclusive software" to try it out ahead of its release. But first you'll need to be accepted into the playtest, and before that you'll have to apply.
You have from Thursday, October 10 at 8am PDT until Tuesday, October 15 at 7:59am PDT to do that, but Nintendo says it'll shut down the application page early if "the number of accepted participants has reached its limit." On that note, Nintendo says it plans to accept "as many as 10,000" participants. To have a chance at being one of them, you just have to be 18 when you apply and live in Japan, the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, or Spain.
This is weird, but it's precisely the sort of weird that becomes not weird when you remember it's Nintendo doing it. The company is notorious for confusing its fanbase, although I can't remember anything like this happening before. There are plenty of theories going around about what Nintendo's up to, but frankly none of them are convincing enough to list here. I suppose only time will tell.
