Nintendo is slowly but surely updating its Nintendo Switch Online apps to new servers, OatmealDome has spotted.

The NES NSO app has been updated to version 7.0.0, which converts it from NEX (the old servers) to NPLN (the new servers).

This follows in the footsteps of the Genesis / Mega Drive NSO app, which was also recently updated to the NPLN servers.

NEX dates back to the 3DS and powered a few launch apps, like the console's Friends List. Splatoon 3 was updated to NPLN back in 2022.

"A few people have asked what the benefits to NPLN are," says OatmealDome. "For the NSO apps in particular, the benefits are really more for the devs than the players. The biggest player-visible benefit I can think of is that internet connections with poor NAT types (C, D, or F) are now compatible. The benefits are significantly easier to see in a "real" game like Splatoon 3, which uses NPLN features extensively. For example, stuff like the Big Run egg counter and Pools would have been more difficult to implement with NEX (used by Splatoon 1 / 2)."

Speaking at the end of November, OatmealDome says that the NPLN servers have slowly been rolling out over the past few years, but it's unknown if Nintendo will convert games (rather than apps) to the new servers.