Actually, hold up. I think I understand what @Towels is saying, and I agree to an extent. I still think the digital promotion is a nice bonus, but he's speaking some truth.

Wii U games in the UK will be priced £49.99. So, say I buy five Wii U games at that price, the total cost would amount to £249.95 - and naturally, I'd get 10% of that (£24.99) free from the digital promotion.

However, because of the afore-mentioned limitation to 500-point increments (£5 for a 100 points), I would only be able to claim £20 out of my bonus, because £4.99 is not a full £5. Therefore, it's somewhat useless - I can't get a 500-point block with only £4.99.

It's sort of a rip-off at only 8%, if you look at it from @Towel's perspective. We're essentially not getting to take advantage of the full 10% we were promised, and that's why he's somewhat disappointed.

And seeing as Wii U games in the US will be most likely be priced $59.99, not a full $60, US buyers may also face a similar problem.

Yeah, but so what? Would you rather they not offer anything?

@Towels
I think I understand Towels frustration. For him it's like if you had £49 in your bank account and the stripper is demanding £45 for a dance but the ATM will only dispense £10s and £20s so you're forced to go home empty-handed, so to speak, or at least until payday next Friday....or something like that?
Let's chill and take it easy on Towels, he's been dealing with numbers all day and I want to buy this guy a lager for his troubles. Just take the free lager, please.

@Master_Ryno: That's besides the point. If we're promised 10% discounts, they ought to deliver 10% discounts. We shouldn't be expect to just sit here, loll about and go, "oh well, better than nothing."That's a mindless argument for something we were fully essentially entitled to (or supposed to be, anyway).

I personally am not very bothered by this entire hullaballoo, but it shows that the problems with eShop spending still reflect with this digital promotion.

Man, am I the only NintenDude on this site who actually got the Basic Set?
Whimsical White's getting schooled by Phantom Black.lol

I'd be happy enough with the basic model if there was a black version of it. But since I want it in black and kinda wanted NintendoLand (or ZombiU if i get that one) anyway.

I don't care that much about the 10% promotion since I doubt I'll use the eShop that much.

@GameLord
The fact is that you still have £4.99 credit in your account so you still earned the full 10% and that is not lost(the frustration is not being able to redeem it until you surpass that 500 point threshold). Clearly this is in place to maintain incentive to continue buying online (and is no different than the past 6 years with the Microsoft points or Wii Points, etc, when the conversion of cash to points was always skewed to set blocks that didn't always translate to clean round numbers - for the exact same reason).
The difference with this is that it is still credit, not cash that came out of your pocket that is on hold until you reach the 500-point bench, it is free 100% credit that cost you nothing. No matter what the argument, that is the value at the end of the day. You get more.

I agree that getting instant access to the full 10% cash value is a better deal, but I refuse to say that having to spend that free 10% bonus in £5 increments is a bad deal.

@ei8htbit: Sure, I got my 10% back in cash value but I'm meant to be able to use that full 10% in credit value. That's what the digital promotion revolves around - 10% back to spend on the eShop. Rather, I only get 8% back in credit value, and an invisible 2% discount remaining. That's not how it should be, and that is the end of it. Full stop.

Besides, with £4.99 laying around, how do you think it'll be possible for me to pass the 500-point threshold while I'm still accumulating unusable cash by buying other things ending with 99p? It's darn near impossible to redeem what you've been promised at 10% with that. You can keep buying and buying, but at the end of the day, you still have that useless 99p figure hanging around that you can't redeem. It's just another invisible discount that I can't appreciate fully with the promotion.

It's a never-ending loop, and that's why it's somewhat annoying.

@Towels
Also that Lager on me still stands...you'll just have to accept an exceptionally Canadian variety because that's all that's on tap..

Which is why I said this:

And then this:

I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH YOU ON THIS POINT:

That's all I was looking for. It's still annoying that you can't claim your 10% all at once, as the promotion essentially dictates, and you probably never will be able to. But it's not that much of a bother to me, and I doubt it will be to you either.

@ei8htbit
Thanks. That's very kind of you. I'll be on the next plane

And in response to still having that £4.99 in hand...(after spending £499.90 and using £45 of the £49.99 given back) its actually £4.99 lost

If I buy another game at £49.99, and receive another £4.99 back, I'll then have £9.98 cashback credit.

And then again, I use £5 of the £9.98 and am left with £4.98....

So in effect, in order to use that £4.99 left over credit, I'll have to buy another 499 games priced at £49.99 each

@GameLord
Trust me, in North America at least (not sure how it worked in Europe) XBOX Live used to be structured such that you would have to buy points (like 20,000 for $20) but you had to buy in increments like that. So if the game or content cost 1250 points, I would have no choice but to actually pay them $20 out of my pocket in order to get access to that $12 game and then I'm left with a relatively useless balance of 750 points so the next time I want to buy that 1250-point game I have to shell out another $20. That to me, is evil. Just this past year they switched to an exact cash value system (like PSN had since the start).
I guess for me the difference with this promotion is that the points you accumulate never actually cost you anything, they are always free credit so in a way it's easier for me to accept it for what it is, a nice bonus that I will take advantage of when I can. But it certainly won't make or break my decision to purchase the deluxe bundle.
The rest was just me getting carried away.

Hah, I see your point. On the flip, you would have earned a little under a Quarter Million points in that process which should be worth another 49 free games (worth 49.99) but I think you would still have another 499 points worth of credit leftover after all of that;)

If you are really just below the threshold when the promo is coming to and and, just buy a cheap $5 or whatever game to make sure you get that last $5 credit — not a huge problem.

Yes, if you have £4.99 remaining, you can spend £5.00 on something small, in order to get £0.50 back, thus pushing you over the £5.00 threshold.

The only problem with that way of thinking, is that I have spend £5.00 (possibly on something that's not really wanted) just to be able to claim back £5.00

I would spend the $5 to get the last $5, since I'd consider the $5 game effectively free in that situation, knowing I would ultimately spend the $5 credit on something.

One thing I'm wondering is whether the credit they give us is actually the same as regular credit from an eShop card, so maybe we get 10% back from spending the credit too. If it is, then maybe your first $49.99 game gets you squat, your second $49.99 game gets you a $5 credit, and then spending that $5 credit on a $4.99 game puts you over the threshold to get your second $5 credit, in which case it's actually slightly better than 10% if you got $10 credit (and some change towards your next credit) for really only spending $99.98.

Are people really complaining about having £5.00 credit left they can't use? If you can spend £300.00, then you definitely can manage without that £5.00. Besides, that credit goes towards a new purchase before your cash is deducted.

@iphys

From what we know, we get credit based on the full price, not the price after credit is deducted.

I would REALLY WANT to get a deluxe, because black looks better and also I want 32GB with a game bundled, who doesn't? But I'm in college right now, and my money would be better spent, so I'm just waiting for that price drop.