Since the launch of My Nintendo in 2016, Nintendo fans have benefitted from a range of rewards, including in-app items, exclusive discounts and more. But lately it's been a bit tricky to find anything useful to spend the points on, and many folks have just left them to expire in desperation, like this humble scribe.
Nintendo have heard your cries however and an update to the service is coming soon which will reward Nintendo Switch players in a new way.
Starting in early March, you’ll be able to spend any Gold Points which you’ve accumulated in My Nintendo when purchasing Switch software. You can pay for the remaining balance with Nintendo eShop funds, or any other payment method available in Nintendo eShop.
Once earned, Gold Points remain valid until the last day of the month in the following calendar year. For example, any Gold Points you earned in March 2017 will remain valid until the end of March 2018.
This is certainly a welcome development, we are sure you will agree. Let us know your thoughts with a comment below.
[source nintendo.co.uk]
Comments 244
Wow, took only like a year.
WHOOOOOOOO
Technically its been coming soon for months >:v
Before anyone gets too excited, check the conversion rates. You'll get 5% of the eShop price of a game in Gold Coins, 1% if you're registering a physical version. That's barely anything, I'd rather take discount coupons over this.
The coins you have accumulated so far are worth 1¢ each, btw.
Yay!!!
Is it really 1 cent for 1 gold point??? I can't believe, too lame to be true
Whoa impressive, come march we can finally start longing for the "good old days of pre-Switch MyNintendo". Darn shame that Goldpoints will become even more worthless. Again, an impressive feat!
Praise the god of gaming value! His name is Marcus, and he loves a bargain.
Awesome. As some one who is going all digital I have racked up a good amount of gold coins with the 12 Switch games i’ve purchased. Will be great to finally get some value from all those coins.
Edit: Judt read some comments and the conversion rate is a bummer. Maybe I’ll hold on to my coins for the eventual discount coupons
Please tell me the estimates of 1 Gold Coin equates to 1 pence or 1 cent are incorrect. If that is true it is an utter insult by Nintendo and I hope they get significant flak for such a miserly approach to rewards. As much as I love Nintendo and the Switch, it is growing increasingly hard to ignore just how (lazy/ignorant/greedy) they are when it comes to pricing/rewards etc.
I'm sure many of us have invested a small fortune into the Switch and its games since launch. All of that money to Nintendo and riding on such a success. I may be a fool but I expected more of them in terms of My Nintendo since its creation. Business or not, surely all these Gold coins we have accumulated would be at least worth the cost of a full price Indie eShop game or perhaps half price off a 1st party digital game.
Seems greed is all that matters to business and I'm stupid to ever think it could be otherwise.
Friendly reminder that you can shop around the eShops of different countries to find the best deal possible and still get some coins anyway.
Finally, hopefully the exchange rate on these gold coins will be good.
I have 115 gold coins expiring in April, I'll be using them in eShop purchases for sure.
@jimi I don't think the normal rewards or discounts will disappear, this just gives more options to spend your gold points. If there's nothing interesting to get, it's better to get a couple of euros than to get nothing.
Cool except it's only ~5% for digital content and ~1% for retail purchases. Remember the Wii U digital deluxe promotion? Sure it wasn't on retail purchases but for digital purchases you effectively got 10%.
Though with that said something I think some people are not realising. You'll earn ~5x as many gold coins for purchases now. So I'm sitting here thinking it's utterly ridiculous that I only have what is effectively $2.50AU of gold coins. But then I realise that my last purchase under this new system would have been 100 points rather than 20.
Either way, hopefully there are also gold-reward discounts on eShop games also coming soon. Because those will inevitably save you more at the cost of being "less flexible". Who cares though if it was something you were interested in anyways.
It was my birthday this week (yay me!) and Nintendo sent me an email to say happy birthday and gave me 300 coins. Sure it’s marketing from a giant multinational but It did make me smile.
Oh well, never gave a crap about My Nintendo anyway.
for once, something useful.
Oh thank God!!! My gold points are the only ones that didn't expire!
@skywake Thanks for pointing out the the rate of earning them has gone up now otherwise I would've quickly jumped on the "this isn't good enough train".
It is essentially just a 5% money back scheme now which whilst better than nothing, is not something that will get people to sign up.
And don't forget that the online subscription service launches this year which will have its own discounts as well.
I don't understand the whole 1 gold point = 1 cent thing. I followed the link and it took me to the Nintendo website, which tells exactly the same that this Nintendo Life article. Where did you see those exchange rates?
NEVER MIND: I found it. It was on My Nintendo website.
I'd like to know what kind of discounts would we getting, because right now I have a couple discounts on 3DS in my crosshairs and was going to spend some of my Gold Points on those, namely a 1,99 bargain for Kid Icarus Of Myths and Monsters (originally for Game Boy) and 3,99 for Shantae (originally for Game Boy Color and f*cking expensive on physical).
@jimi Show me a proof that says there won't be new rewards added later. Sure, there's not much right now (except discounts), but they may be added later.
There is no reason to believe this is the only reward system in the future.
Also, as @skywake mentioned, gold points will be way easier to get in the future. I don't see a problem.
@Moroboshi876
I logged into my My Nintendo account and it states there 1 point = 1 cent.
Well, it's not bad for a made up reward system. They are not entitled to give us more than what we pay for (the game) and they still do, and now we will have flexibility as to where we can spend that made up points. Not bad...
So do I register all my cards before march or will they be worth more afterwards, I don't understand the disparity between what you get now and what they are planning, it's got to be wrong,
5% back is actually generous.
Complaining about 1 cent per coin? It's no different than Credit Card rewards at 1 cent per point. What's important is how many you're getting now.
You buy a $60 game, you're gonna get 300 gold coins in return. So $3 back. 5% isn't as good as 10% with the old DDP for year one of Wii U, but it's permanent, and we at least get 60 gold coins for each full physical purchase.
See this I can do. This is as good as Best Buy and Amazon store credit card puechases.
Actually I see that if there's anything interesting right now in the reward system, better use the points to get those discounts.
In the future it will be 1 gold point = 1 cent. Right now I have 202 Gold Points, which will be a 2 euros discount on anything on the eShop. So hardly earned points will go away for just 2 euros off.
But... right now I can use 15 Gold Points (which is 15 cents) in order to obtain a 1 euro discount on Kid Icarus (GB) on the 3DS Virtual Console. It's more worthwile.
Basically getting money back from purchases already makes it more generous than pretty much all the other reward programmes I'm apart of.
Yessssssssss
That's cool!
Thank you for absolutely nothing, Nintendo!
Well, finally some use for the coins. If the alternative is never using them, you won’t heard complaints from me.
Ooh. Discounts for Switch games we already bought.
I doubt that 100 Gold Coins will equal 1$. Considering how hard it is to get them anyways.
@MrGawain And Switch games you didn't, and Switch games that will come out in the future. Also theres a chance you could even buy a full switch game with the points you have, so its more than just a discount
This is what I'm thinking right about now.
@Luffymcduck Exactly my thoughts. The conversion rate is stingy and it's crap that the points expire so quickly.
I'm already losing some gold points, by the time Nintendo makes it possible, I won't have any left
Feb 7th, 2018: "so many useless Gold coins! I just let them expire!"
Feb 8th, 2018: " I can use them on anything now? That makes them worth so much less! WAAA!"
Are... are you guys serious? You’re complaining because Nintendo is giving you discounts based on purchasing their products, which they don’t have to do, because they’re not giving you enough? Unbelievable.
I literally don’t care about the exchange rate. I have nothing to spend gold coins on right now. They have zero value if there’s nothing for me to buy. Wii-U DLC and desktop wallpaper? Come on. Whatever the coins exchange for now, that’s a CASH discount that I didn’t have before. This is a gain no matter how I look at it.
5% back is pretty good, better than most credit cards, and considering we were getting ZERO back before.
@jimi
Uh, that's not right. You get 300 coins now on a $60 purchase. 250 coins on a $50 purchase.
Before, you got like 10 coins on a $10 purchase. It may have gotten you a higher dollar value via coupon, but it had to be a specific pre approved game coupon, and it had to be a 3DS or Wii U game.
5% back that can be used as real money on any game purchase is easily the better deal. This is what people wanted- coins to go toward purchases. And 5% is typically the going reward rate for reward programs.
Ok so if Super Mario Odessey is a 60$ game and I got 12 Gold coins from it being 5% of the games actual worth. Then you would need 120 Gold Coins in order to buy another 60$ game. Which makes sense when you look back at how Club Nintendos Platinum Points added up when you bought new games on there as well.
So this is basically a 5% off all digital sales. That's good. I buy all digital, so I value this kind of reward scheme.
Will my current balance be able to be spent? I have over 2000 gold coins.
@jimi You’re arguing about rewards no one wants anyway. How many people still own a Wii-U and are saving up their gold coins for Luigi-U DLC and 3DS themes? Your point is moot.
The people saying the current coins will be devalued as of March aren't wrong, I just don't see the issue with that if they're currently useless for 99% of members
@patbacknitro
The system is changing.
You'll get 300 gold coins for purchasing Odyssey as of March.
This is actually a pretty bad deal when you add it up. I hope they continue with the special discounts and rewards as well as turning it into a basic loyalty scheme. I suppose it’s not too bad if you buy all digital, but for everyone else it’s not so great.
Now heres the thing people are forgetting. This is a "Rewards" program. They are rewarding you for buying software. So I can imagine that just because a game gives you 5% back, that doesn't mean the coins you get will only be worth 5% of any game. Rather the gold coins you get may be far greater than what you payed, similar to Club Nintendo
@KIRO 300 “silver” coins... not gold coins, right? You can’t change silver coins into eShop credit...
@JaxonH Where does it say that?
Am I getting this right, I can use my gold coins for any purchase?
That would be the first useful reward since those 5€ coupons we got for registering games and filling out surveys during the Wii U era!
OK, I got a Switch at launch, March 3, and have no other Nintendo consoles. This means all my gold points for games bought in the launch week expire in the first week of March - Nintendo are cutting it fine, here, to give me a chance to use those gold points on anything at all. But I'm pleased there is finally some kind of reward scheme here. As others have said, 1% cash back is a fairly standard reward scale. It's better than nothing. I only get 0.5% on my credit card.
Edit: Apparently the points expire at the end of March. Thanks, @JamesR
@JaxonH honestly, I don't get the devaluing thing. I am able to take my current gold coins and get a discount right?
I'm really not seeing the problem. The end of every month, I spend all my coins that are about to expire, and put the codes on twitter or Facebook for any friends who might use 'em. I've purchased everything on there (outside of the app stuff) and still have over 550 Gold Coins. Other than a couple of 3DS themes, I've never used any of it myself because because it's all discounts on games I own or don't want. Changing it so i can use them towards games I'm gonna buy anyway is fantastic, regardless of the exchange rate. Coins I'm using are always worth more than coins I don't use.
@Krull no, last week of March
Finally! My Nintendo Bitcoin can finally be decrypted and spent.
Wow a discount. Bring back where you can actually get games free.
@JamesR
They get devalued because right now it would take thousands of dollars of purchases to get 300 coins, which as of March will come with a $60 purchase.
So 10 gold coins now is worth a dime as of March.
Thing is, nobody cares about gold coins right now. Nobody is spending their coins right now anyways because all the rewards suck.
@patbacknitro
https://nintendoeverything.com/ability-to-pay-with-my-nintendo-gold-points-on-the-switch-eshop-coming-in-march/
@jimi Yeah, it's hard to say how this affects the pricing of future rewards. The prices don't need to be 10 times bigger, but around 3-5 times.
Right now 50€ purchase gives you 70 points, but on the new system it will be 250. 5€ purchase gives you 10 points, but it will become 25 points later.
Of course, it could be that Nintendo keeps the prices as they are, approximately. For Luigi U (100 gold points) you would still need to pay 20€. It all depends on the content, though. For old games and DLC that people wouldn't buy otherwise, it's not too much asked. For new games, the prices need to be higher.
@JaxonH OK. Understood. I actually preloaded Kirby and got 70 coins. Had I waited, this would have been 250. So there is an edge effect here. I suppose it is better than they honour "old" gold coins rather than launching another type of coin next month.
But to be honest, there is nothing to spend gold coins on. As it stands I value them as completely worthless. After the change, I'll have £20 of eShop credit and 5% off all subsequent software. I think this is a good move overall.
I can use my gold coins to get discounts on Switch games I want to buy rather than being spoon-fed discounts by Nintendo for games I either already have or don't want. That's all I care about!
All this whining over exchange rates makes it clear that some people are never happy...
@jimi why don't you understand that 20 gold coins for a theme I don't want or a discount on a game I already own is completely worthless. Any cash value I can put towards a game I want is worth infinitely more.
This is good to pay for the dlcs and indie purchases with gold points. It will benefit the digital owners most
@jimi I think that pre change the gold coins were worthless. After the change, they have a cash equivalent value. The fact that the rate at which you are earning changed doesn't really matter if you assign zero value to them at present.
My example is that before my 2000 gold coins were worthless. They now become a £20 eShop credit. That's good, right?
@JamesR
Precisely.
5% back, and can be used toward Switch purchases? That's about as good a deal as we could have reasonably hoped for. There's a reason most CC companies only give 1-3% back. Anyone expecting 10-20% back as permanent rewards is just naive.
As of right now, the coins are USELESS.
All those coins, sitting their ROTTING AWAY. Because nomatter how "good" someone tries to make the current system out to be, this is the truth of the matter. Even with the new system, EVEN AFTER INFLATION, this will still = $20+ I can spend. And Over 60 physical games I can cash in under the new system.
@JamesR exactly. Now as I understand you can use it on anything on the eshop
@JaxonH we are in complete agreement.
@jimi
I mean, getting coins for full price on a sale isn't the status quo to compare to. Just cause you lucked out on a game or two doesn't mean that's the norm. And nobody cares about discounts on already played 3DS and Wii U games or mobile wallpapers.
Nobody cares. You aren't gonna convince people this is bad.
@daveh30 I think that is missing the point entirely. Looking at the comments, I'd say plenty of folks around here considered MyNintendo a downgrade on ClubNintendo. The way the system of MyNintendo is apparently adapted for the Switch coming march ... now that some folks consider a downgrade on the existing MyNintendo ... which, remember, most view as a downgrade on ClubNintendo.
While your point is in essence not untrue, so to speak, it just comes at it from a completely different perspective, and thus arrives at a completey different conclusion. Yours being that people are owed nothing, and thus should be grateful for anything, while most around here feel entitled to the status quo, which in their view, is once again changed for the worse.
Just saying ...
@jimi
could have gotten rewards... sold them
I've got every single reward they offered and NOBODY WILL BUY THEM. Mario Kart DLC, Pikmin 3 DLC, old VC games on 3DS... I had to give them away cause people wouldn't even buy them for $2 on eBay.
They're worthless. Everyone already has them, already played them, or just don't care about games on Wii U and 3DS anymore
@jimi Boy, you know you're the poster child for gamer entitlement if you think any situation where you get money back for digital purchases is a "scam."
If you pay for a game, Nintendo is only entitled to give you access to that game. You're entitled to nothing else.
Even if coins are devalued by this move, they'll be much more useful, because we can actually spend them on software we want as opposed to some pre-selected group of games and themes that half of the audience either already owns or doesn't want.
Hopefully one day they’ll do discounts on games.
Gold coin discount on switch games
@jimi your sense of entitlement is through the roof....
@jimi
What? Don't tell me incorrect. I literally had to Give all those codes away.
Dude, just leave it. Nobody cares. Your arguments are wack. You wanna be upset, fine. Knock yourself out.
The rest of us will be celebrating. Good day.
And early March is actually soon!
Wish NL articles such as this included more opinion and / or analysis though, rather than what feels like little more than free advertising for Nintendo.
For example, I shouldn’t need to read the comments section to discover the exchange rate.
The exchange rate is a bit lame, but it beats the current model. My coins are entirely useless at the moment.
So for the1% people that managed to expend the gold coins in the current offers this is a bad deal for all the 99% of the community Hell yeah this is awesome news!!! I am fine with it
Well, this makes me smile if only for the fact that I was smart and waited till almost October to buy my Switch, and because of that I scored a deal, paying only $248 for the switch, and many games had come down in price then too. 😉 So my coins will be valid for quite a while yet. It pays to not run out and buy a new system on day 1 just because it's NEW.
@jimi There's some problems with your math, but whatever. That's not really that important.
About you selling games from My Nintendo, I'm not even sure if it's allowed on Terms of Service. But I assume you have read them?
So everybody spend your gold coins before their value drops!
I have only 202 points (and I don't know how people got 2000 or so), and even so I don't know how to spent all of them. I'm not really interested in much of the rewards. Which, let's not forget it, most times are just discounts, so you have to spend money on the discounted games anyway.
@jimi I must be the only person here that agrees with you. The naïveté of everyone here is disturbing. If they could just wipe those stars off their eyes for one moment and read the TOS on every single digital purchase they would indeed see that they are simply a license to play the game they think they are purchasing and they are never actually owning the game, and that the license to play can be revoked at any time, and you're agreeing to that the moment you purchase any digital game. That's why I only pay for discounted ones too. I'm a firm believer in physical copies of games all the way, because that is something tangible and you're free to do what you want with those games, even if you simply choose to play them in a different system 20 years from now.
@Moroboshi876 I admit that I've gone a little crazy and bought around 60 games (all digital - something like 20 retail, 40 indies) for the Switch over the past year.
I still have game cards that I haven't claimed the gold points for (made no sense to me, as there was noting to spend them on and they would just expire). I wonder if I get more gold points for them if I claim them when the new system has arrived. So complicated
So the game cards I've been deliberately not claiming gold coins for, should I do it now or after the change?
EDIT: I'll answer my own question. 16 points now or 50-60 points later.
@Kiyata we are not naive. Personally, I value the ease of access of digital games far in excess of any savings on purchase/resale.
Different strokes for different folks. That's all.
"Eligable Switch Purchases" ie all the games no one wants
@Kiyata
Trying to shame people for buying digital games is never a good approach.
People have heard the fearmongering plenty of times before. But "might" and "in theory could" isn't a big enough detractor for some.
You wanna buy physical, people will respect that. But there's no need to slight those who like digital. Maybe respect others decisions and realize there's more than one side to the story. Digital is convenient, can be backed up to PC, and I personally have never I my 25+ years of gaming lost a digital game. So theory and practice are two different things.
I'm a HUGE advocate of physical. But digital has it's merits too. And trying to preach holier than thou toward those who like digital will accomplish nothing. Accept that not everyone sees things your way, and they'll respect your physical and you respect their digital.
But trying to paint digital as evil is a waste of time.
@JamesR I have about 30 games, but that's counting the 11 in Namco Museum. The nice thing about digital games is that you can buy them in other eShops for less money, but the awarded points are the same that you would get paying the full price in your eShop.
@chardir @Paperboy
It's not really complicated as you say.
Yes, more coins as of March. You can cash in now for like 5 coins, or wait and get 300. There's zero reason to earn coins before March unless you like wallpapers and 3DS indie coupons.
edit
Sorry for the triple post guys, mobile errors on the site
@Kiyata So what? You can put anything you like in a TOS. Yes, you can literally make people sign over their souls to you. All of that is null and void if doesn't hold up in a court of law once challenged.
Also, what is the point of revoking digital licenses in this day and age? All that would get you is a clusterfu** of a social media s**tstorm that will cause PR damage at the very least in 7-digits range.
Plus, as in any case when folks roll out horror scenarios, when has this ever happened, and what reason is there to believe, that this will change in the future?
Digital games are about convenience (at least to me), and that goes double for the Switch as a portable system. Having said that, I have terabytes worth of games on my Xbox and PS4, and not a single physical game for either system. I'm not even going to get started about my steam library. There is not even a feasible way for me to own these games in a physical form, as I simply lack the accessible space to store them all.
This has absolutely nothing to do with naivete. People are naive about all kinds of things, like how everything they do on the web, be it shopping or social media activity, leaves track they will never be able to get rid off ever again (I'm not kidding when I say I saw people organizing protests against govermental micro-zensus, which are used to e.g. determine federal subsidies for cities, on Facebook - that is stupidity paired with naivete if you ask me). Digital games are really not the issue here.
This comment thread got dark. I'm "okay" with the change. Be nice if they gave you more gold coins for being an early adopter and adding gold coins when you'd get less of them, but as it stands I'll have just over $2 discount on a thing. Better than nothing. To all those rambling that Nintendo is a souless corporation that only cares about our money: keep in mind that they're providing a service. Entertaining fun memories. When was the last time you felt as joyful and happy as you did during Mario Kart, Odyssey, or Breath of the Wild on an Xbox One, PC, or PS4? Nintendo delivers on good experiences that are the norm for their company while the others produce fun on accident.
@jimi Modern games are so utterly reliant on patches, updates, etc. that, even if you own the base game on cartridge when "the servers go down," you'll just be left with a buggier shell of the full experience.
Moreover, you're just letting your weird prejudice against digital distribution bleed into your feelings on this new reward program.
And no, it's not a "scam." Something isn't a "scam" just because you don't think it's a good deal.
@jimi
1 All storefronts from early days of digital. Current storefronts will last much longer if not indefinitely (see STEAM)
2 Even if a storefront went down, the games are still on the system, and could be backed up. And could last even longer than the data on a cartridge (which is just digital on storage medium, no different than digital on SD)
3 Most people probably won't even care about the games 20 years from now anyways
4 People are well aware of the "might happen, could happen, in theory will happen" fearmongering. And yet still buy digital. Not because they haven't heard your arguments but because they rationally deem those theoretical cons to be outweighed by the pros, and preaching isn't gonna suddenly make someone say "aha! I've seen the light! You're right! I'm never buying digital again!" so stop wasting your breath
5 I'm not getting into this debate with you. People like digital games and you need to accept that reality
@Alikan I agree, I've thought about for a while now, and I think this is "okay". It's not a great benefit, but it's also not pointless, as in 'not even worth the hassle of making and linking an account'. It's pretty much on the same level now as the rewards schemes on Xbox and PSN, and in some ways even more convenient to be honest.
I would have wished they had improved upon the existing scheme for the Switch, like offering full content (DLC) or significant discounts on games, for a small'ish Gold-fee, but with more frequent updates, a broader selection, and definitely for more new'ish titles, but that was an unrealistic hope, and I can see how this is as good as any can expect.
As for the rest ... I dunno, I'm not sure Nintendo is really any less soulless than Sony or Microsoft. Just feels like an arbitrary distinction to make, that I for one could only really get behind on an emotional level, seeing as Nintendo links back to my age of innocence much stronger than Sony or certainly Microsoft - hence, I WANT them to better, but what I want - unfortunately - doesn't shape reality all that much ^^
Plus, I disagree that there are no games on X1 or PS4 that are as joyfull as the very best than Nintendo has to offer. That is not a strike against BotW, which I loved, or the likes, but I also adored Bloodborne or Life is Strange and dozens of other games. Again, that strikes me as an emotional argument, that I for cannot second once closely examined.
Well it's about time. The real kick in the teeth though will be that those of us who bought things off the eshop at launch will have coins expiring by the end of March, and I guarantee the games that will be discounted are ones we already have.
@jimi I think the issue here is that the assumption that digital purchasers are not informed. I know:
-I pay more for a digital download than for a physical copy
-In (let's say) 10 years the infrastructure may not be there to recover old games
-I cannot sell my digital game
-I forfeit the chance that my game becomes super rare and valuable.
I also know that by buying digital, I am hurting the retail distribution sector that might leave us without games stores.
Despite this, I choose to buy digital. Others can disagree with my choice but I am not wrong or naive or missing something.
@jimi I don't understand where this became a digital vs physical debate. I stated that using Gold coins toward a game I'm gonna buy anyway is more valuable than using them for discounts on games I already own. Your response is to tell me I'm "naive" and dont understand because im buying overpriced digital games like a sucker..... For your information, I always buy physical when available. Doesn't change the fact that some games aren't available physically. So again, which is a more valuable use of my current 500 gold coins? Discounts on digital versions of games I already own the physical version of (especially since you and I both prefer the physical), or $5 towards a $10 indie I was gonna buy anyway? and there's so much good stuff available right now, it's easy to wait for sales... So its easy to imagine getting that $10 indie for a buck or 2, or even for gold coins alone (I'll avoid the use of the word free, to avoid triggering you further...)
@Ralek85 yeah, the second I posted the last comment, I was like: really should not have insulted the body of work on Xbox, PC, and PS4, but figured if I editted it out, someone would call me on that. Admittedly I've enjoyed the Dragon Age and Fallout series on X360 and Xbox One, but many AAA games have lost their appeal to me. Nintendo Switch has been the breath of fresh air I needed to get back into enjoying modern gaming. With the amount of sales on so many other consoles, clearly I have a more unique outlook than many other gamers who do still enjoy COD, Gears, Halo, and other franchises that once brought a smile to my face, but their latest iterations no longer do.
This news is much better. Sucks for existing coins but it’s great for new purchases. N are Really pushing digital rewards over physical which is a bit of a shame but much better than before. Some of the comments above are a bit off. We’re getting a 5% return on new digital purchases. Hello? that’s great!
@Alikan Oh, I totally agree about many of those big name franchises having lost their lustre to me as well, hence I am entirely grateful for new IPs, new "AA" games and certainly the indie scene plus kickstarter.
For intance, I really loved Life Is Strange, as I said, one of the best most enjoyable and genuinely touching games I ever played. That game brought tears to my eyes on more than one occassion. I also loved Invisible Inc. by Klei Soft, first on Steam and then on PS4. Despite the completely different atmoshpere, it reminded me of one of my eternal Top5 games, Incubation by Bluebyte, on many levels.
Halo 5 though ... that was just a hollow experience to me. Not bad, but also entirely lifeless. It starts the same way it ends, and it has really nothing to offer beyond what the last game had. Many of these franchises have become "soulless" to me.
And yeah, the Switch was a breath of fresh air - the title for BotW in particularly really being apt - but again, I think that was due to the game, not necessarily the platform. Although, I feel like the Switch was also a revigorating force for my hobby in a sense that it unshackled it from the TV and the living room.
Not all the games that make and will make the Switch great are Nintendo games though, that is my point, and some of these games, or comparable ones, exist on other platforms as well. I had a jolly good time with Ironcast on Ps4, and I had still more of that on the Switch for instance
Keeping expectations low, though pleased this has been introduced.
Bought some pretty pointless stuff for my 3ds recently to use up expiring coins.
Awesome! Hopefully they keep offering 3DS and Wii U games for a small price on My Nintendo, as I've gotten a few 3DS gems from there.
Finally! It will be fun to see what deals are on offer. I'm sure with time it will get better than the initial offerings.
The exchange rate is bound to amount for less than traditional discounts, but on the other hand, those were "traditional" for Wii U and 3DS by now - naive to expect that Nintendo would eagerly bargain the new hit platform's library down that much already. XD
More curious is that the point earnings actually seem to go up, at least for eShop. The current "tier" system, when calculated at 1 coin per ruble spent, yields 3-4% of the spent sum (including VAT) and deteriorates towards the tier's higher end. So coherent 5% sounds like a symbolic bump indeed.
As someone who's made some use of MyNintendo lately (from nice small giveaways like Mighty Switch Force to discounted investments like Xenoblade Chronicles 3D), I probably look forward to that side of redemption catalogue more - unless Nintendo promptly adjusts the redeeming rates for those discounts/themes/games as well. XD As for Switch eShop, it might come in handy with some impulse purchases as well... although the ability to add the necessary sum via Visa cards regardless of country makes those impulse purchases more likely as it is (yes, PSN, I'm staring at you while saying this).
My points are especially worthless as they all expired on 31 Jan
And this is RETRO ACTIVE yes ?? Because i will start to lost point by the next month.
So, wait...
Why aren't the coins one gold to one dollar, and you just earn a bit fewer of them per purchase?
I know that sounds like asking for a lot, conversion-rate-wise, but people, you gotta keep in mind that we still have to spend a LOT MORE THAN WE GET regardless.
With the conversion rate at $1 per gold coin, and just a few less gold coins per purchase [say about ten or twenty], we'd still have to buy three to six fully-priced [$40 or $60 respectively] retail games just to earn enough for one single free $60 purchase.
Some might say that what's going on here is still generous, but I don't agree.
A cent per coin is too little value; they're literally treating these gold coins as if they were as worthless as MatPat from Game Theory kinda-sorta-proved Mushroom Kingdom's gold coins are, in one of his Mario-related videos a long while back.
At least make it 50 cents per coin. AT LEAST.
@Xaessya I came here to see if they just reemphasized the "coming soon" part. Glad to see they have a "date" for it though.
I assume there will be a system update of some kind too. Curious if it will add anything.
@jimi
Oh my goodness, you're kidding me right?
I don't have the time or patience to read that wall of nonsensical text.
Be upset, knock yourself out. Nobody. Cares.
Coming soon = a year. Noted
About time.
@jimi
Please don't!
After reading your extremist responses and rants, I don't care if you read another one of my comments again
We're going to get 5% back permanently for all digital purchases. I love it, anyone with any shred of sense loves it too. Because this rewards the actual spenders, not the cheapskates who look for $5 Sale purchases to skim a discount coupon for old dried up games.
The spenders are now being rewarded. I buy an eshop card for 10% off via Target Redcard promotion, then get another 5% back on eshop... that's dang near as much as my 20% GCU discount buying physical.
Loving it 😁 Certainly better than what we have now, that's for sure
For what it's worth, if you have most of the games you care about or can get them cheaper at retail, those 30% Off max discounts are hardly of any value. And those "free with Gold Points" games arent that expensive/high demand to begin with.
While I wish the money back was a bit higher, being able to use use those points when and how you see fit, instead of at Nintendo's discretion, makes them more valuable, IMO.
@jimi nobody is ever obliged to buy digital regardless of charged price (although no publisher is obliged to make their game physical just so everyone can buy it either - no, sometimes they really don't want our money if they think it won't amount to the worth of the contextual trouble). It's as obvious as the "digital traps" you're describing, so what's the point in dramatizing some alleged consumer blindness?
Games are bought to be played; digital games are bought for convenience of storage and access at a time. Everyone is aware that the digitally bought game will be impossible to download in the future when the servers go down, but said future normally gives TONS of room to have milked the purchased game of all it can give by then (backlogs may get in the way, but backlogs are a consumer's own first world problem) - all while emulation catches up to provide alternative collector options if the game goes vaporware on the official fronts. I don't even count systems like Vita which allow full game backups to PC.
Not everyone's appreciation of digital content can be brushed off as naivete about "digital rentals". It's more about what people seek and expect for their investment in such rentals - and resell value or plastic hoarding aren't everyone's defaults therein.
I miss Club Nintendo.
If only you'd get these things when buying physical 3DS games too. But nope. Nintendo just had to childishly punish those who prefer to hold 3DS games in their hands and who don't entrust Nintendo with their entire game collections.
@JaxonH I still say that $1 = 1G would be a better rate.
It would still take six $40 [10G] games or three $60 [20G] games in order to earn a free one, that way, and plenty of gamers would be happy.
Plus, I'm pretty sure that they aren't going to give us gold coins for literally EVERY purchase on the E-shop, meaning this new conversion rate still doesn't help us in regards to a lot of indie games we buy.
I dunno, even if it's free, it still feels like they're being purposefully stingy.
It feels kind of like those games that lower the drop rates of decent gear so that you'll be incentivized to go and spend money on the MT's in their cash shop to increase the drop rates.
If it takes so long to get enough coins for a freebie that either your old coins will expire, or you'll forget the system for it even exists in the first place, then what's the point of even having the system there in the first place?
Yes, it's nice to have free stuff, but this is far from user-friendly.
If we were getting a single free old game per month or something then I'd have no complaints about this at all, but that's not what we're getting here.
We're basically just being given another reason to ignore the rewards program, because it feels like we're going to be earning any substantial amount of coins too slowly for it to constitute an actual reward.
People complaining about this: remember how much Trophies get you on PSN on that US Rewards system. You need hundreds before you get ANYTHING
It’s about time, but given how disappointing My Nintendo is I can’t say I’m excited.
@YummyHappyPills
On the other hand, take this into account:
Right now, Nintendo has the lowest expectations, from gamers, in terms of doing their online right in the near future.
Doing better than PSN does by a massive, or at least substantial, margin with the rewards program in the here and now, would give them some measure of credibility when claiming that they're going to do something worthwhile with their online services come the tail-end of this year.
It would, in essence, give their online-systems reputation a small boost.
It'll make people think "Hey, if Nintendo can do this well with their rewards program, then maybe they can do just as well with their subscription service."
My Nintendo is just a bad version of Club Nintendo. Even with this new idea they are pushing digital and with multiple Switch consoles in my house I almost won't buy digital unless I have to.
So it's now effectively a 5% cashback service? Good stuff, especially as I have no interest whatsoever on the themes or games for old systems and other tat they currently offer. I do buy plenty of digital games on Switch (using discounted prepaid cards) so this could work out well.
So I get $2.22 from all the coins I got? Way to reward the loyal customers, Nintendo...
@smashbrolink I just looked it up how Sony does it
Bronze - Worthless
100 Silver - 100 points
25 Gold - 250 points
10 Platinum - 1000 points
1000 points - $10 off.
US only
So yeah, to get a $10 discount that is at minimum 10 games (that have Platinum trophies, not all do) and full completion.
For $10
How about that? The "coming soon!" message on My Nintendo will finally change!....
...Soon.
@YummyHappyPills You'll have to forgive me for #1 being bad at math under even normal circumstances and #2 being tired, because both mean I can't calculate that right now in my head.
Is that better or worse than my $1 = 1G idea, and is it better or worse than Nintendo's planned exchange rate of 1cent = 1G?
@smashbrolink
5% back is about as reasonable as any conscious adult can expect.
That's what most reward programs offer. Because getting 1 free game for every 3 you buy is reducing their entire bottom line for Digital sales by 25%. Would you take a 25% pay cut to reward your employer for providing you a job? Or even give 25% of every paycheck to charity?
That's a LOT. 5% back is reasonable from a business and consumer perspective. I can't think of a single reward program I'm a member of that offers more.
Well, BestBuy credit card actually gives me 6% back instead of 5%, but that's because I'm an Elite Plus member which requires spending $3,500 per year
Just after most gold coins expire. You go Nintendo!
This is exactly the sort of reward program I was hoping for!
I'll be sure to register all my physical games after the program goes live and reap the rewards.
@YummyHappyPills Wait, I get rewarded for completing games?! It's almost been a year since I got my PS4, and I never knew this! I'm about to platinum Kingdom Hearts Final Mix HD!
@JaxonH But wouldn't that difference be negligible considering they don't have to spend as much to put out digital games, which is what these gold coins will be used towards?
If they were sending out physical versions of the games then I could understand your point, but digital costs less to produce which should make up the difference without issue...
Of course they did this after my gold coins expired.
Why can't they last forever? Why do they need an expiration date?
Eh, they should have just got rid of their rewards system altogether after eliminating club Nintendo. All this program seems to do is bring out the most entitled wimps from the depths of the tr0nz
the majority of my gold coins are expiring at the end of the next two months and ive already had some expire so this is useless. 1p per gold coin is also insane considering the inflated prices on retail games on the eshop
I have no issue with 5% back that I can spend on anything, that's pretty decent. I buy nearly all my games digitally so I should be able to rack up quite a lot of free games . However I'm not best pleased that the points I've already accumulated are now worth effectively 5 times less than what they will be next month. For example, a $60 digital title I bought previously earned me 60 gold coins, next month I'd earn 300 gold coins. Those previously earned coins will only entitle me to 60 cents off a purchase instead of $3.I have around 1500 gold coins just now, so all those will give me just $15 off a purchase instead of the $75 I would have got if I had waited a year.
Nintendo should adjust our current gold coins total to the amount we would have got under the new scheme.
@smashbrolink Depends. Lets say the typical game with a Platinum trophy costs at least $40. Complete 10 of those and get $10 off something.
In some ways uts better...but promotes buying titles with certain trophies because not all have them for some reason. Its seemingly random.
Sonic Mania doesnt have a Platinum yet some $5 game does. Couldn't say why.
It depends. Your options are thusly.
Do you live in the US and have a lot of trophies to collect (As previously collected trophies dont count btw, only ones you get from when sign up) for $10.
Or do you want every Gold Point you own currently and in future to be usable as part of a discount of any value no matter how small (It can be $10n or $1.50, or anything in between) on any software, not just limited to the US?
One is global and can be used whenever and includes retroactive points.
One is US only, is only redeemable at certain high thresholds and doesnt include previous purchases.
So one may be a higher value but it far more restrictive
@KayFiOS Trophies you already own dont count and you only get the discount once you hit 1000 points. So unlike this you cant use it whenever.
So you get more coins both physical and digital: (EDIT)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/305335261443784714/411168768102760448/IMG-20180208-WA0009.jpg
@YummyHappyPills
Sony's program has been worthless.
I've been playing PS4 since launch, over 4 years ago and only have 1 platinum and 10 gold trophies. And I've bought over 75 physical games and 100+ digital games.
Never seen a dime in return. Even their previous reward store I couldn't muster enough points for anything. Wasn't even getting points for my purchases for years. Not sure why.
Xbox, still have never gotten a single reward to date.
Nintendo's reward program was also ultimately useless despite the promising start. This is the first viable reward program for gaming as far as Im concerned. No strings attached. Just 5% back, spend on anything. It's not groundbreaking, but it's cash back and that I'm ok with.
@YummyHappyPills Wait, don't you also have to be signed up, and paying, for something with Sony, before you can take advantage of that? PSN or something tied to it, IIRC, right?
The amount of people complaining about a free loyalty reward program is insane. The fact that they do anything in this era of capitalism is amazing.
An effective %5 reward is solid.
Especially considering gold coin values were all over the map depending on what you were buying. Sometimes worth 10 cents a coin and sometimes worth less than 5.
As wel you earned coins on this weird tiering system. Now getting a straight % back based on the $ amount spent is simpler and easier to use.
Would I like more incentives? sure but hell if I am going to complain about an effective 5% back. Heck buy your Eshop points with a cashback CC at another retailer with rewards and you can certainly pile up multiple rewards for your purchases
The amount of people complaining about a free loyalty reward program is insane. The fact that they do anything in this era of capitalism is amazing.
An effective %5 reward is solid.
Especially considering gold coin values were all over the map depending on what you were buying. Sometimes worth 10 cents a coin and sometimes worth less than 5.
As wel you earned coins on this weird tiering system. Now getting a straight % back based on the $ amount spent is simpler and easier to use.
Would I like more incentives? sure but hell if I am going to complain about an effective 5% back. Heck buy your Eshop points with a cashback CC at another retailer with rewards and you can certainly pile up multiple rewards for your purchases
@maruse you can’t? That seems a bit tight. Specially given the amount of actual coins I’ve given to the Switch . Well, thanks for the intel anyway.
5% is a nice discount. Buy my eshop cards with my cc, get rewards for that, then 5% on eshop. win win.
@smashbrolink Trophies are free. I think the rewards program is too.
But you have to be a US citizen.
You have to sign up.
It only counts trophies you get from the moment you sign up onwards.
So I have 1450 trophies. Worthless. Even then Im not in the US.
@JaxonH yrah Ive only ever gotten rewards from Nintendo. Sony does none, unless you count free games with PS+, as does Xbox.
Yeah I’m sorry but Iike others have stated that’s disgusting. Nintendo mise we’ll not even have Switch content. I spend upwards of 500 bucks on games, but in return I’d be lucky if I could even get enough gold coins for 10.00 game. That’s awful, especially when you look at the fact that Club Nintendo actually gave you physical items for less .
@OorWullie
Yeah, that would definitely be a nice gesture and a good PR move by Nintendo. When one website I shop at implemented a reward system and gave out points for any purchases made a year before the program went live (even though they were in no way obligated to do so), it did a good job of ensuring I would be a loyal customer to their store for many years.
@YummyHappyPills Ouch. That sucks.XD
On the plus side, Nintendo's saying they're going to be offering free games like PS+ and XBox do, as well, once their subscription service starts.
They've yet to prove the games will be worth the subscription [Mario Bros 3 isn't really what I'd call a subscription incentive.XD], but hopefully that will change.
In the meantime, I still honestly believe that the rate of money-to-gold needs a readjustment to at least 50 American cents per GC.
$1 = 1G would be the ideal, since we're talking digital rewards that cost less to produce in the first place, but that'd be like hoping for a miracle...
@smashbrolink @JaxonH "See this I can do. This is as good as Best Buy and Amazon store credit card puechases."
Except BB GCU and Amazon Prime offer you a 20% discount on top of any CC cashback ponzi scheme. And GCU also gives you a points system taht ends up as coupons (that's how I got DQ: Builders for $35.) The eShop is offering no such thing, so for retail releases it's still easier to save a lot more going physical. Which is kind of a facepalm and a half since you're getting actual local storage memory for less money than data that eats storage memory. At least use a valid example for regardless physical retail. Like GameStop.
@smashbrolink "[Mario Bros 3 isn't really what I'd call a subscription incentive.XD], but hopefully that will change."
Why not? With Nintendo it would have a higher MSRP than most full price indie titles
@smashbrolink $1 for 1G is unreasonable Im afraid.
Thatd mean you can buy BOTW, get $60 Gold Coins....and then spend those on another game and another....they lose money.
It has to balance incentive and potentisl loss.
@smashbrolink
Profit is profit. Doesn't matter if it costs them less, that profit is essential in making their bottom line each quarter. They depend on it. It's been factored in and it's not just extra cash to liberally squander at their heart's desire.
Games also cost much more to produce nowadays. So even selling digital they're probably making less profit than they used to. And other companies are profiting from digital. Not to mention this applies to all games, 1st and 3rd party.
They're probably not even making 25% profit off of a 3rd party game on the eshop. And if they are that's ALL they're making. Giving it all away free of charge makes zero financial sense or business sense. They'd be out of business in a decade just handing all their eshop net profits away free of charge just because a few consumers think they're entitled to massive discounts just for buying a game or two.
It's not feasible. This 5% is probably costing them tens of millions of dollars as is. Money they weren't previously handing out. So imagine their bottom line just being slashed by 25 million dollars, all over a complimentary reward program they don't even have to do in the first place.
And that's key. This is just little bonus. A little than you. This is not some new pricing structure for Digital games. They cost what they cost. And they're only just recently starting to turn a profit, and that's with a massively successful system loads of multi million selling games. They can't afford to just give away 25% of their digital bottom line, which in terms of profit would probably be 95% of their net eShop gains.
@NEStalgia
That's beside the point completely.
We're talking reward programs. Not annual memberships and discount perks.
Nobody is disputing the advantages to making a physical purchase or the benefits of GCU, which you know good and well I am the biggest advocate. But that is beside the point entirely.
I assure you, the $350 I got back from my BBCC Rewards (just the 5% back alone) last year was no "ponzy scheme". Money back is money back. If you're spending it anyways, who in their right mind would be against money back?
Nobody is making you buy digital. Do what you want. But this is rewarding people for money they are spending anyways. Get off the "physical is superior" trip. Nobody wants to hear it. We're getting money back, it's good news, nobody wants a lecture on the merits of physical right now. These are rewards, nothing more. You don't want em? Give em to me. I'll take em.
@Saego no, digital will be 5%, physical 1%. That picture shows that the Coin value of physical games will go up, but so will the coin value of digital purchases. Under the new system, BotW digitally at $60 would get you 300 gold coins ($3), physical will get you the 60 cents shown in that image.
@Moroboshi876 Where on the My Nintendo site does it say the 1 point = 1 cent thing? I'd like to see and I can't find it
@flapjack-ashley Well, follow the link of this article and it will get you to Nintendo website. There, at the end of the explanation, you have a link to My Nintendo's explanation.
Alternatively you can go to My Nintendo and you will find it in one of the banners.
This is AWESOME news!!! So basically, I'm getting a 5% back cash reward! And I don't have to pay some annual membership fee for it either...that's so cool. I definitely prefer this style of reward system. Thanks Nintendo!!!
On a side note, I wonder if the Paid Online Service coming will add extra perks like, 2x gold coins or something like that.
ITT: Whining about free stuff that can be used as a cash equivalent on the eShop
@YummyHappyPills Sorry, I think I wasn't clear enough with my $1=1G example.
By that, I meant that each gold coin would be roughly $1 in value, but it wouldn't mean that you'd earn a gold coin for every dollar spent.
In other words, I didn't mean that you'd automatically earn a gold coin amount matching the purchase value of what you'd just bought.XD
To give you a clear example, using the way I'm talking about, a $60 game would net you precisely 20G.
I don't know what that converts to in percentages, but it would definitely not be a case of losing money hand-over-fist.XD
Ecstatic! My Wife and I have accumulated some gold coins in the last year since the Switch launched. We have been thinking of some eshop purchases and this is great! #goldNintendo
@JaxonH The problem with your example is that that's exactly what they were doing with the physical rewards on the previous Club Nintendo, yet it didn't put them out of business any faster than a slightly higher conversion rate here would.
Plus, you're forgetting to factor in the subscription fees they'll soon be raking in, as well as the earnings they get from other merchandising sources.
And as far as development inflation goes, much of that comes down to attempting to cater to graphics lovers.
Something that Nintendo doesn't really do as much as the other two, in their games, these days, which cuts down the expenses massively in comparison to some other projects, with maybe the exception of Breath of the Wild.
All in all, that 25%, given Nintendo's steady earnings since the explosive increase in Switch sales, are enough that they could easily afford to give us a measly 20 gold coins per every $60 game bought, and it likely wouldn't even dent their bottom line, let alone be a concern for bank-ruptcy.
Uh, oh! SELECT games! (For us in the US)
https://twitter.com/nintendoamerica/status/961616031872700418
I'm not dealing with this now, I work overnight tonight. I gotta get some sleep -_-
This was exciting news... until I found out that my 300 Gold Points that I haven't been able to use on anything I want will be worth $3... hopefully they will also have some percentage discounts for Switch software with a better conversion rate?
@daveh30 You're right, my bad. Makes your current coins decrease in value. But you get way more coins atleast.
Man... Remember back in the day when you spent $600 in a calendar year, you attained Platinum Status, which netted you a free mail order item that could be valued at over $20, AND you also had enough points to get about 6 downloadable Nintendo games at no additional cost, valued at around $40 - $50? About 10% back on what you purchased? ( Actually more than 10% back because you got EXTRA points for surveys and preregistering purchases. You could get up tp 60 points for a $40 game! Plus a lot of times you got huge points bonuses for console purchases )
Now if you spend $600 in a year, Nintendo will give you a $6 discount on one downloadable title. Which is now only 1% back on your purchases. This is more than 10x worse than what we had before.
Also remember when people used to complain about how much they hated Club Nintendo and those surveys? Man... I guess we shouldn't have complained.
"for select digital games"
So probably only on some shovelware indie titles, would be my guess.
I've said this before, but Nintendo has gotten seriously greedy under Kimishima.
1GP = 1p (Sterling) wow what a complete load of pants, NINTENDO YOU CHEAP BA$TERDS!
I just don’t get why we get peanuts for buying physical versus digital. I don’t want to fill up my SD card with full retail games. I miss Club Nintendo and selling the physical rewards on eBay.
So as an early adopter you get 25% of the regular award the first year? Well that's kind of a weird thank you for supporting the system. Oh well, at least the coins will be useful soon. 5% cashback isn't bad.
a 5 % discount is pretty good on digital games. but the Wii U digital deluxe program back in the day effectively gave you an 8 % discount on digital games, so now you only get 62.5 % of that.
@smashbrolink
No no no. Their physical rewards were like one cheap item every year. And ocerstocked Wii supplies that would have ended up in a landfill.
The fact you are trying to argue Nintendo can afford to give 25% off their entire digital revenue is absurd. That's not how businesses make money.
Wise up guy. It doesn't matter how much they're "earning". They're not charging fees to finance giving you 25% off all your purchases. They're charging fees to get the company onto a profitable course and make money. You are the customer, not an investor or shareholder. You pay them, not the other way around.
They don't have to give jack squat to you in rewards. Complaining about free money back is beyond senseless, especially when you think you "deserve" a mind boggling 25% off because they can "afford it" due to new membership fees, as if that is somehow related.
@JaxonH I'm wise enough to know that that 25% is more than made up for by their many other profit sources, and that even without them, the Switch is doing so well on its own that they could easily afford to give us 10 gold for a $40 purchase, at the very least.
What's absurd is believing that this would come anywhere close to making Nintendo bankrupt, when even the Wii U didn't draw them close to that point.XD
@chardir Oh, cool. I was wondering the same thing! So many people throwing numbers and "facts" around on this thread that I'd lost track of it all. So I should wait and claim my couns on physical games till after this goes live then?
I'm just happy that I'll be able to actually use my gold coins for discounts on games I want rather than just have them expire or buy yet more 3DS themes that I don't want.
@smashbrolink
25% is more than made up for by their many other profit sources, and that even without them, the Switch is doing so well on its own that they could easily afford
You're totally missing the point.
Even if they could afford it, that doesn't mean it's something they should do, nor does it make it something you deserve.
I can "afford" to give you $8000 right now. Life would go on. I would not be bankrupt. Does that mean I should give you $8000? Hell no.
Reward programs across the world are 1% to 5% back. That's the norm. That's the INDUSTRY NORM. You're complaining about 5% and trying to argue they should give you 25% simply because the company can survive it financially?
Dude, come back down to planet earth.
@Shinnos You should wait. The exception is that gold coins for retail games can only be claimed up to 1 year from the release date. So for launch games that's 3rd march, which might not be late enough for the new thing to be in operation.
@JaxonH It has nothing to do with physical being superior or not. The point is with this program you're still paying more in most cases for digital than for the same game physically with the available combination of rewards, kickbacks, and membership programs. I'm not talking superior formats, I'm talking lowest cost for same product at same time. I assure you if digital were working out to be the cheapest option for this I'd praise that being an advantage of digital at this moment in time. (Want to see my past month of PSN purchases as proof? My little cord cutting exercise didn't work out for the time being so I'm loading up on some sales while I'm back on the wire. I now have more PS4 games than Switch which is a little frustrating.)
My point is: I'll follow the cheaper option in most cases, and this digital rewards program isn't it while there's no membership discounts program for the eShop and there are multiple for retail. Is it a terrible program? Not entirely. But it's not especially good either. It may be "industry norm" for the credit lending industry, but that doesn't make it a great retail program.
It doesn't deserve to be slammed, but neither does it deserve praise. It's a very very modest cash back program for a retail outlet (what the eShop is) that is very far behind its competitors in actual sales, discounts, and promotions, both compared to PSN/XBS, and Amazon/Best Buy. It's kind par with GameStop. So, yay?
About.Damn.Time.
@NEStalgia
Of course you're still paying more.
The rewards program was never meant to compete with actual paid membership programs such as Gamers Club Unlocked, and I don't know anyone who thought it was, so...?
Digital costs what it costs. This in no way is supposed to "lessen the cost of digital". At least now we get money back as opposed to before getting no money back. Is that supposed to not be a good thing?
This will net me a free $60 game every year. Free. For nothing. As opposed to not getting a free $60 game every year. And that's bad.... how?
This makes me miss club Nintendo and those stupid surveys.
@JaxonH I'm not sure if I get your angle. If the argument is for someone who knows digital costs more, doesn't care, and just wants to be all digital no matter what so something is better than nothing, I guess you have a point. But last I checked, that's not you, you prefer physical when you can get it anyway..... You seem excited that you can lose a little less money buying the version of the game you'd prefer not to buy?
@NEStalgia
Wrong. I prefer physical but buy digital for all top releases. I own every major game on Switch digitally.
Not to mention all the indies, Neo Geo games, etc. Probably have 100+ digital games already. Dragon Quest Builders preloaded. Bayo 1 and 2 will be day 1. Kirby day 1. Dark Souls day 1. DKC day 1.
Of course this is for people buying digital already. Who did you think it was for? That's how it worked before, the only thing that's changing is what you get in return and how much. Money back is better than 3DS indie coupons, no?
5% is a fine reward... but my 300 Gold Points cost way more than $60 to earn (probably closer to $250)... so I am not getting a 5% reward.
Maybe Nintendo will retroactively adjust Gold Points earned to be equivalent to 5% of what I spent digitally? Probably not... oh well.
I don't like the idea that physical is 1% only. Why not the same as digital?
5% is somehow low as we could get some bigger discounts on "selected" games, but at least you can use them on whatever you like- basically cashback, which is not so bad.
@Kiyata sadly your argument was only true in the past. nowadays games have huge day one patches sometimes adding massive amounts of content that's not on the disc. so yeah, a lot of your physical games will only be half a game when they shut down the servers and you won't be able to download those patches anymore. the only reason i prefer physical these days is because i can sell them again.
@jimi game of the year releases also aren't what they used to be. in many cases you will get the old disc with some download codes for the season pass or whatever thrown in.
@manu0 Season passes are usually download codes. But DLC is often baked in.
@JaxonH Err...you prefer physical.....but buy digital...? So you buy a format you don't prefer? I thought you bought mostly physical? You even bought the MHW PS4 Pro that didn't come with MHW because you love collecting this stuff! You're a bigger collector than even I am!
"Of course this is for people buying digital already. Who did you think it was for? "
Usually incentive programs are used to offer....incentive. Nintendo makes more profit off the eShop than retail. They cant underprice digital games below MSRP since they can't undercut retailers and harm the relationships, we all know how that works and the conundrum of digital. Digital was supposed to introduce cheaper products and instead it's the premium option because of that, and nobody can fix that. We get it. But the rewards programs and incentives would be a good way to end-run that by charging MSRP but offering loyal buyers a kickback to save versus physical and encourage higher (and thus higher margin) eShop sales. But...no, this isn't that. Digital remains the premium option here. Mock my preference of physical on Switch all you like....I'll head off and load up my PSN cart with games that are, you know, actually discounted and incentivized, even without Plus required or a 5% kickback program, while you do...
You know I love Switch, and physical games, but in this case I'm just following the money...and which one takes less of it. And oddly it's the format that offers more actual value in the form of physical storage included free of charge.
@liverpoolvk I can see physical having less reward. They get less margin off it. The cart and distribution etc eats into costs. Digital is vastly overpriced in general (because like I said to Jax, they can't undercut retailers MSRP....it would ruin retail relationships.) so they can't give you as much reward for something you've already claimed more value of the total cost in (physical memory storage and a display box.) And you retain resale value while digital buyers do not.
@jimi i suggest you take a look at microsoft's "reward" program. i've been a member for years and haven't gotten A SINGLE THING out of it because the requirements you have to fulfil are ridiculous. for starters, you have to spend an insane amount of money to even be eligible for a 1 % discount on games ($300 within a year). and the kicker is: not everything you buy counts. they have these missions where you have to fulfil very specific things. (e.g. they might have an anime mission where you have to spend a certain amount on anime and anime games within a month..but only certain items will be eligible). it's basically an absolutely worthless program. so yeah, nintendo's rewards programs now and of the past are much better than microsoft's. and sony doesn't even offer a program in europe.
@NEStalgia
??? If I didn't prefer it I wouldn't buy it.
Of course I prefer digital. Love digital. I prefer physical- can't go without it, but I love the convenience of digital especially on a portable system.
You think I buy games twice for any other reason then preference? Come on dude.
What's your beef anyways. You like 3DS indie coupons instead? Which were ALSO from digital purchases? I don't get it.
And... they are offering a kickback. Hence 5% back as opposed to 1% There is no way on this planet digital will ever compete with physical for price. Not gonna happen and no "incentive" will ever change that. So Idk what you want man.
We got 10% back with DDP and people hailed it as the best thing since sliced bread. But a permanent 5% back is somehow bogus? What are you smoking man?
@jimi oh and btw: your gold coins aren't getting devalued. first of all a 5 % discount on EVERY digital purchase is great. look at what i just wrote about microsoft's offer: 1 % discount after you spend $300 within a year. wanna guess how much you have to spend for a 5 % discount? it's not $1500 but a whopping $1800. and remember that this is not the total amount you've spent in the xbox store, that's what you have to spend WITHIN A YEAR. so when you spend less within a year your discount will decrease (or go away completely) for the year after that. and of course you won't get any reward for physical games. so being able to spend gold coins for discounts on any game ADDS value to your gold coins.
secondly you're assuming that all other gold coin rewards will go away which you have no way knowing. if they do go away then yes it would devalue them somewhat but we'll just have to wait and see.
@JaxonH I see you have over 2000, I have 1500 so I take it is that not worth much at all? You said yours equates to around £20?
@JaxonH Wait....you don't buy two copies of EVERY game you buy, do you?? I knew you sometimes did that. Heck even I've sometimes done that (Splatoon, Kart, ARMS, Pokken, probably smash when it lands.) But...you're not saying you always do that, right? You buy more games than anyone here, and USUALLY I hear you say you're getting physical....I thought it was either-or with preference for physical?
No I didn't even know 3DS digital coupons were a thing. To be fair I never used my Club Nintendo points from physical, and haven't claimed any of my coins from Switch physical yet either. My gripe is that this does little to incentivize digital purchases from the eShop over physical purchase that includes both lower cost and additional value, and since I thought you were someone that mostly bought physical anyway, I thought you'd be looking at it from that angle as well.
I mean if N were looking at it as something for people who were going to buy digital anyway, they wouldn't offer this kickback at ALL....why would they if they were guaranteed your money anyway? The whole point of this is to incentivize buying from them. But it falls short in doing so. If you are all about digital (which I'm still stunned about, I know you buy so much physical) then they really don't care what you think about it, they had your money already. It's not about you. It's about everyone else that ti's going to fail to entice.
You don't put Doritos on sale for people who were planning on buying Doritos this week. You put it on sale for the people that WEREN'T. The reward isn't a kickback to thank you for buying digital often. It's supposed to be a lure to convince me to do so.
CC's give kickbacks to increase your chances of owing interest by encouraging additional card use where you otherwise wouldn't.
I like that DLC is included, but I'm still going for physical where I can because I can still save more than I would benefit from going digital. Then there's resell value and I'd still have the game when eShop servers shutdown and it can't be downloaded anymore (at least most of it, though patches would still be a problem if they hadn't already been applied).
It's better than it was, but still won't make me go digital.
@jimi again, you're assuming that rewards like the luigi dlc, that have a higher value than what you would get with spending your gold coins for a discount on an arbitrary eshop game, will go away completely. but you don't know that. (and i doubt they will go away.) using your gold coins for discounts is just another option in case you don't need that luigi dlc or whatever else they offer.
10% off already overpriced games! WooHoo!
@jimi well then just continue to buy physical games (which is what i'm doing too btw) and enjoy your 1 % in gold coins. where's the problem with that? it's not much (it's barely anything really lol) but no other company is offering you ANY reward for buying physical games. right now you're getting 16 gold coins for a physical 59,99 EUR game. starting in march you'll get 59 gold coins. i don't see any problem with that.
@NEStalgia
That's the problem right there. Of course it doesn't incentivise digital over physical because thats an impossible ask. And will never happen.
It's not meant to incentivise digital over physical. It's just meant to make customers happy and invest in loyalty. Nothing more.
Finally! Jeez...
@Kiyata Nobody goes out to buy a brand new system just because it’s “NEW” hahaha, BOTW on your tv or on the go was what made people pull out their wallets.
Nothing wrong with waiting to buy a new console and nice that you got it on a sale but don’t place yourself on this high pedestal because you were “smarter” than everyone else in waiting for the library to build up and for sale prices. Plenty of people did that and what works for you doesn’t mean it’s superior. Only you can decide what a game and system is worth to you.
I decided it was worth paying $321 for a new console and BOTW (with Odyssey later In the year) because the trailer sold me on it, LoZ as a franchise has never let me down, and because, to me personally, it wasn’t worth waiting for a price drop or sale.
Neither of our preferences is better than the other, it’s how bad you want it and if you can afford the investment, or in some cases if you can sacrifice other things to put up the money for it. What works best for you, is for you, but it doesn’t make you better than anyone who decided paying full price was worth it to them.
So Nintendo once again fails to properly incentivize digital purchases. I'm not sure how they managed to take steps -back- from Digital Deluxe Program and Club Nintendo, but here we are.
@SethNintendo
??? Are you totally clueless?
It's not meant to compete with the prices physical offers via 20% off memberships. You get more for Digital because they control the sale price. No guarantees physical game gets sold full price.
Seriously guy, YOU stop trying...
@jimi
Dude please stop replying to me. I'm done hearing your arguments
You wanna be dissatisfied, KNOCK YOURSELF OUT. Be dissatisfied. I really couldn't care less.
I'll be over here happy I'm getting money back.
Well I’m already getting 20% off and 5% back on all my retail game purchases at Best Buy, so this is just that much more I guess.
@jimi
Are you smoking crack?
I've repeatedly ignored your responses. Get off it dude. You're worse than my crazy ex girlfriend.
[slaps me in the face...]
Promptly tells ME to stop hitting HER.
@jimi
IGNORED
Goodbye
@SethNintendo
Dude, games are cheaper physically and everyone knows it. Trying to cherry pick a few evergreen sellers doesn't change that. Amazon prime and GCU even further the gap.
And for the record, I don't have "an argument". I just came to comment how nice it is getting 5% back on purchases and suddenly the comments are inundated with complaints that it's not enough, as a REWARD PROGRAM that's called "Loyalty Program" for a reason. It was never meant to turn the digital market on its head and suddenly convince the world to to buy digital. They've had rewards on their digital purchases for YEARS. Nothing has changed. We're just finally getting what we wanted with coins that go toward purchases
But no. I'm stuck in some endless philosophical debate now about how digital is worse than physical and digital should compete with high retail and we should all get 25% off digital purchases and let's rage because it's not 25% rewards
What a joke of a comment section
ummm I'm not excited here... coins will be use to get discounts, so what is the diff. between that and getting a regular weekly discount? in addition, the majority of games in 3DS and wii U that used coins are games you already own, so it will be interesting to see what's in the pipeline, or how can Nintendo allow to use coins to get actual games instead of discounts...
@MisterPi oh man I forgot about the Digital Deluxe Program, they should bring it back! that was awesome, you get to spent on whatever you want not just discounted games....
@jimi the only one bad at math here is you. and you're making wrong assumptions that have no basis in reality.
Just buy all the Neo Geo games.....that might get you a free retail download.
@jimi Digital games being more expensive than retail isn't going to change soon on console. Not for new games not on sale anyway. Retailers don't accept being undercut by the vendor's own store and having MSRP devalued. They could stop stocking the products, or demand the same base pricing themselves. Particularly a titanic retailer like Walmart who can throw their weight around (and trust me, they do, crazy demands....basically you can't afford to not sell consumer goods to Walmart, and they know it, therefore they demand pricing on such thin margin you don't actually make money selling through them. Same for Amazon.) So if Walmart says "we want in the contract that your own pricing will never deviate from SRP or we don't sign", then that's what you do.
Where this falls flat though, is they can have other programs that add value. We all know the reason digital is priced higher rather than lower than physical is the retail market...and it makes sense. But rather than dropping prcing below SRP they can drive continued sales to be more competitive for frequent buyers via rewards. I'm glad physical is the cheaper way to go....lower price, more competition, more value added. But Digital was introduced to the world with the promise of saving....and that's not how it's going. It's not doing for games what it did for music and movies. Though industry-wide that may not be a bad thing. It's decimated music and movies.
@JaxonH But it is meant to incentivize shopping on the eShop. They're not doing it because they're just nice people. It's business. If they give you something it's because it is to entice you. Nothing about this does that when physical is cheaper, and it's not like you can pick a different store, the eShop is the only digital store (you can buy codes elsewhere but you're just redeeming them on the eShop.) So if they aren't using it to incentivize their store over other stores, they're doing it to incentivize digital purchases.
Is it a neat bonus for indie games? Sure. But it doesn't incentivize eShop over other outlets, which is surely a large part of their intention.
BTW If you're seriously buying 2 copies of every game you buy, that's some next level stuff surpassing even my level of obsession....which is no easy feat
@NEStalgia
Nobody said anything about doing it because they're nice people. But that doesn't automatically mean it's meant to compete with high retail.
If eshop was all they cared about they wouldn't be offering rewards on carts at all, would they?
Yet... they are.
It cannot compete on retail price, will never compete on retail price, and is not intended to compete on retail price.
Incentive and brand loyalty are two totally different things. Everyone does reward programs. It's not all about "the eShop".
They CAN NOT out price retail. Do you understand this? PC does not have a retail presence. Games do. Anyone, including you, who somehow thought a LOYALTY PROGRAM was going to compete with physical on price is sorely mistaken and will be feeling the bump from that smack for years to come.
What more do you want? Seriously? 5% is generous, it's permanent and half of the temp. DDP program. What more do you want! Seriously, what more do you want.
I can understand some of the kids and more naive here to expect some miracle reward program that gives a full $15 off every single game purchased, but you? Come on, you've got more sense than that. You know how the real world works. You know a reward program is not a major thing. You know good and well what reward programs tend to offer (1% back on every dollar spent! 3X points at restaurants!). I expect more common sense from you. Not from the others but certainly from you
The entitlement in some of these comments is hilarious. I still prefer CN, but this isn't that bad
Meh, better than nothing
This has been the funniest comments section in ages. Proper laugh out loud stuff straight from fantasy island.
@JaxonH I think a few different conversational streams are crossing (never cross the streams.) But an interesting take away from this is: for ages people have been promoting that physical retail is dead and digital is the future. Sadly, they are likely right though I'll never stop resisting. That much you know already. But then we come back to "digital will never compete with retail on price".....and there we arrive at an industry conundrum. They WANT to get rid of retail (maybe not Nintendo but most others), yet they're caught in the digital pricing conundrum with their retailers.
Like I said to jimi, they can't drop their MSRP on estores. Not when games are new....and mostly not ever. BUT they can deliver on the original promise of digital via incentives. So long as it remains "digital price can never compete with retail" my dream of physical forever and ever is secure! I'm happy. But I don't think the companies are
Nintendo falls behind though in overall eShop value. They don't do sales quite like the others do. They don't have a membership reward program. And at $20/yr I doubt they're planning one. So this kind of had to complete with Plus/Gold in terms of how you can save digitally. And it doesn't do that.
I don't disagree with the "1% cash [with limts and exceptions] back 3x restaurants" (which I also completely ignore as useless) Cheap marketing to entice the masses. But again they are using it as incentive. If I had a dime for every time I heard "just use your card, why leave free money on the table!" for 1%? But why do they want you to? Transaction fees! And increased interest! There's a backend to CC rewards programs. There isn't to this if its only for those that were going to buy anyway. I'm not expecting $15 off all games. Digital CAN do that. Walmart and Amazon alone are eating $15+ from profits on games. Throw in a cartridge and used, boxes, and the very clear wholesale discount that's demonstrated in Prime/GCU, and what is Nintendo actually making on a sale through Amazon or Walmart? A $60 shelf physical game...Amz/BB cuts $12 in consumer discount. More when we factor in BB points. Retailer cut won't be less than 10% (4.80), cost of cart and box, let's say another 4. Whatever cut the dev and Nintendo share....we're talking a cut from an ACTUAL 40 or less wholesale price. There's $20 MINIMUM of margin gain on digital.
Again I know why they can't utilize that room to manipulate customers through base pricing. Retailers. And if they want to make physical look super appealing, I'll support that enthusiastically! I'm just looking at the angle of how they want to move people to digital and what methods are more likely to succeed. Sony is convincing me weekly to dump more money in their store by offering clear savings. Nintendo is not doing that. Meanwhile XBox is putting all their (few) exclusives on their $10/mo Netflix for games.
My point is if this is a Nintendo bid to look competitive or influence purchasing decisions, heck even on indies with no retail angle, it's not doing so. If it's "lets reward people for giggles" I guess it does that ok.
@jimi
The DDP program only lasted a few years, not to mention it was for a console that never got off its feet. So it makes sense why they would offer an insane cash back deal to maximize software sales.
This new MyNintendo deal is obviously less, but the Switch has been a success so they don't need to be as desperate with the cash back deals. Makes sense really and to expect something more, well, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.
Ffs.. I bought every new release during the launch window.. ffs!!
@KryptoKrunch the digital deluxe program was introduced when the wii u was first released. so they couldn't have known it would perform badly.
@jimi i've told you like a million times now (and others have as well) that your assumption that rewards similar to the luigi dlc would disappear beginning march aren't based in reality. we simply don't know yet how they will handle these types of gold rewards yet you keep claiming OMG GET IT NOW, THE ONLY REWARDS FROM MARCH ON WILL BE DISCOUNTS AAAAAHHHH!!!!!
@jimi Well Walmart and Amazon are strange bests. You'd be surprised the things they can do, and the way they've influenced not just the sales, but the actual products on the market. Suffice it to say they've shaped more of your world, especially Walmart, than you may think.
Retailers make almost no money on harware. Be it Switch, PS4, or iPhone. They make money on games and accessories. They use that as leverage. That's probably the only reason retail games even exist still. You'll sell us your games at x margin, or we dump your whole brand, no hardware sales. Maybe those sales go to competitors. But can Nintendo afford to lose Walmart carrying and displaying their brand? The store that still accounts for over 40% of all US retail next to even Amazon's paltry 18% (38% if you include Marketplace.) If Nintendo's THAT demanded people will seek it elsewhere. Some won't. Not when Playstation is at Walmart. Walmart also demands ever increasing cuts of the margin. They don't back down. you WILL find a way to offer it to them cheaper. Period. But who can lose Walmart? And even if it's fine during the Switch years...then the relationship is at a disadvantage for the next console. And then you have to sell your soul to win them back.
Remember the years Amazon sold no Nintendo consoles? But still got software? THAT is how far Nintendo will go to not be purged from mega retailer brand space.
So, yeah, they really CAN'T discount MSRP on digital. It's just a reality they and we have to deal with. BUT they can make better use of their tools if they really want to to benefit digital consumers, at least frequent ones, without threatening their retailer relationships.
@NEStalgia
Nintendo simply can't afford to lose retail. Even less so than MS or Sony given how much of their revenue comes from families and the big gift buying season.
They also fell so far behind the other two during the Iwata era in terms of how they use their digital library they've a lot of catching up to do. This is at least a step in the right direction and it should be interesting to see how it ties in with they Online subscription service if it ever materialises.
@jimi discussing this with you is pointless at this point. just go ahead and spend all your gold coins on a bunch of 3DS themes that you may or may not actually want. I for one will be spending my gold coins on discounts beginning in march (and also on future 3DS themes for TWENTY coins that they will most likely continue to add to the service even in march and beyond which is something that according to you will not happen and instead you will have to spend 200 coins on a theme (which again, is what you're assuming and will not happen.))
@jimi you simply need to understand that companies value "get this specific first-party theme or dlc" and "get an arbitrary discount (up to 100%!) on any game you like, even third-party" very differently. in the first case it costs nintendo practically nothing. in the second case they need to reimburse the third-party if you choose to get a third-party game. that's money that nintendo has to take directly from their own pocket and they need to account for that possibility. so yes. they will absolutely continue to offer 3DS themes for twenty coins.
@JaxonH Thst's cool, but it's messed up for people who bought Odyssey before the change.
@Lroy how many gold coins do you currently have?
Had 136 Golden Coins and was not looking forward for those to devalue to 1,36€. So i got myself NewSuperLuigiU. I reckon lots of people will do the same...
@jimi There's no money for RETAILERS in hardware. The manufacturers either lose money on the hardware (PS3, X360), or break even (PS4), or make a tiny profit (Switch...or so they claim...) But ultimately the hardware wholesale price is at or close to MSRP. Retailers make little to nothing moving it.
For Nintendo, the goal is to get the retailers to move their hardware (because it's something they NEED distributed by retailers while games they can sell directly via digital and more easily via other outlets.) So for Amazon to be selling the (profitable for them) games, and not the (not profitable for them) hardware, the usual retailer leverage of "give us the deal we want on games or we pull the hardware" had no leverage. They pulled hardware anyway, but Nintendo let them carry games still. Too important to lose.
As for switching to another retailer....for the Wii, maybe even the Switch...that's true. Though not so much for pseudo duopolies like Walmart and Amazon. And that's the point. They know they can get away with threats AND make good on them and not be impacted. People will buy their one Wii elsewhere, and still go to that store for everything else.
@electrolite77 I also agree with you, Nintendo can't lose retail, at least not yet. People originally thought Switch would be digital only....and they were so convinced....I thought that was funny.
@Deathwalka Apologies. I haven't kept up with this thread. I was pretty grumpy and disappointed with the announcement as once the 1 Gold Coin equals 1 pence had been revealed. I just feel it could have been a lot more generous but who knows. Let's see how this new system evolves. As for my coins. I can't even remember. I have been trying to use the Gold coins up as they expire each month. Basically, very little option but to redeem them against wallpapers for laptop and iPad, iPhones. I also grabbed the Pikmin 3 DLC and some 3DS themes. I'll have Gold coins expiring over the coming months as I bought stuff pretty much monthly since Switch launched last March. Heaven knows how many £ that outlay is in total. It will likely only net me a pittance in actual cash off future purchases. Anyway, I'll stop rambling as plenty here feel strongly the other way and that we should be extremely grateful to get anything off for our loyal and substantial financial custom we have given this company. I've no desire to spread any more negativity about my feelings regarding this matter. So I'll sign off.
@NEStalgia
I think you're overanalyzing the crap out of this.
This isn't some bold, novel, daring move. They've had a reward program for a decade now. This is not something that needs discussion. It's a "oh cool I can put my coins toward Switch purchases" and move on with your day.
The question remains of what you actually expected. Did you truly, honestly expect more? Did you truly, honestly expect 10% permanently? 20% permanently? Forget physical We're talking rewards. Did you expect the rewards to exceed even that of the Digital Deluxe Promotion?
If people wanna discuss digital pricing that's a totally separate discussion. This is just loyalty rewards. 5% back to go toward other games. Nothing more, nothing less. Just like Sony's rewards or MS's rewards, neither of which even offer this much. Don't confuse two separate issues. We're talking rewards, and Nintendo has no interest in sacrificing massive chunks of their bottom line for nothing.
Digital costs what it costs. It's not even part of this discussion. Nintendo was never going to swoop in with some massive reward program that completely undercuts retail and flips the digital market upside down and suddenly convinces millions of people to start buying digital.
It's rewards. That's it. A "hey if you buy a game you get a little something for it". Makes the storefront a tad more welcoming and consumer friendly. This is no change from what we had before. This is not some new thing. We've always had rewards. Only difference is now, we CHOOSE the games we want to get in return instead of having them dictated to us with a monthly short list. That's the only difference. Anyone expecting more... Idk what they're on.
@chardir Ah cool. I didn't get a Switch at launch (I got Breath Of The Wild for Wii U) and only took the plunge with Mario + Rabbids in September to ensure I had a console in time for Odyssey, so my coins will be good till whenever in March this launches.
You can’t redeem coins for imported games... I knew that was going to be the case but still I had hope.
Last November I couldn’t wait and imported Skyrim and Doom from the US. Today I tried to redeem those points but “you can’t redeem the points for this game with a Japanese account” message popped up. Oh well... Not a big deal but still a bit disappointed.
@Lroy thanks for reply anyway
I was asking as I have never used the rewards, and have 1500 gold coins...is that quite a few? Or will it hardly be worth it?
Eh, mostly just a way to save a few bucks. I miss when they used to just let you spend Club Nintendo coins (a few, not a ton) on old NES title ports once a month. It was simple, it was humble, it was a fun way to discover titles you might not have otherwise tried.
@jimi - just wanted to chime in here, although I very rarely post, to say I agree with pretty much everything you've said in this thread.
The My Nintendo program is a joke compared to Club Nintendo, and the fact that it discounts digital purchases only is useless for me except for the few indie titles I get.
I also don't understand why anyone is arguing about the devaluation of gold coins. It's pretty clear that is happening as soon as this change goes into effect. Spend any gold coins you have, now, before it happens. When it does they will be almost valueless. My current 150 gold coins will get me a whopping $1.50 off a digital purchase after the change goes through. Whoopee. I'd much rather get a bunch of free digital games NOW for myself or to resell.
Wow so many comments!
I made a FAQ of sorts for people who are interested. It addresses a lot of misconceptions and confusions I read here. I tried to be as concise as possible while also thorough. If someone has more questions feel free to ask.
– Just 1 cent per gold coin, that's a really small exchange rate! Why not 1$/€ per coin?
– The real reason for setting this exchange rate is to align the coins with local currency to pay with them on the eShop. Since it's impractical to create "gold cents" (can't use platinum coins either) they decided to set the coin value to the smallest unit of local currency. That way you can pay exact amounts in coins and also easily combine the two payment methods.
Example: a game with a 30% discount to 8.74 local currency can be purchased in full with a whole number of coins (874).
– Won't it take ages to earn a decent amount of coins!?
– The amount of gold coins earned per game has increased as well. On average you'll earn 3.4x more coins for physical and 3.85x more coins for digital games compared to now. You'll also now earn coins for every (registered) purchase instead of from a certain price since that bottom minimum to earn coins has been removed.
– What will happen to the gold rewards?
– We don't know for sure but gold rewards will probably not go anywhere. However, the additional coins earned per game implies there also needs to be an increase of the amount of coins you exchange for future gold rewards. The current amounts would be laughable otherwise. It makes sense to simply let the old ones expire (most will do so on March 1st, the rest April and May) and have the new ones be balanced to the new system.
Keep in mind that, as a smaller, limited time selection of games, gold rewards are promotions as well. They don't directly reflect the exact value of gold coins.
That's why they will likely stay pretty good deals, having more bang for your coin compared to directly exchanging your coins towards a less limited selection of games in the eShop.
– Does this mean my old coins will be worthless!?
– Well, it depends. At the moment it does seem like they're going to be "worth" "less". Unless Nintendo is going to "upgrade" or "convert" them to the new system (which they might), your old coins will be significantly less valuable. "Upgrading"/"converting" them is the best and most member friendly solution I'd say, but that's more complicated (and confusing for the end user) than you'd think.. Again we don't know for sure yet how this will be handled.
– But isn't 1% and 5% is too little?
– Remember this is effectively a free and standard discount on every single game you buy (unless it's used). And with download codes and physical games sales or discounts won't affect the amount of coins you earn. So you'll earn back an even bigger percent of what you spent in those cases.
I'd say see it as effectively a small but nice default discount on your games.
– This is confusing.
– Yes, it's pretty complicated.. It's pretty much a fundamental overhaul of how the system works. However, this is probably how the coins should have been designed from the beginning in order to make purchases with coins possible in the future. It's a good thing they are fixing that now. In the end when it's implemented it'll be much clearer how it all works, and you'll see: it won't be as bad as some of us might think.
It’s about time!! And to me it’s just wrong the Gold points expire in the first place! Stop being cheap Nintendo!! Jeez!
Sounds decent, the conversion-rate is quite a blow, but as long as they're more useful I'm fine with it. I haven't used MyNintendo in forever because the rewards are so bad, hopefully this fixes that.
I'll take increased utility over pure dollar value any day of the week.
Anybody else think it's funny that Nintendo paid DeNa all this money to help them make a rewards program. Then the rewards program is basically let's take DDP (a program you used to have in place) and cut the rewards in half because they were way too generous?
@KIRO
Lucky you. For my birthday they offered me 20% off of a selection of 3 games that I already had. Needless to say I had to pass on that deal.
@jimi
DPP overlapped ClubNintendo for a while too. So you could get 10% and points towards free VC games or other rewards.
Great probably all expired...
When they said soon. Its even worse than if someone said now soon it be xmas lol. I think coins will give discount but don't expect higher than 20 percent off anything big. Smaller indie games hopefully will be free with a set amount of points.
I'm really dissapointed. My 765 golden coins will worth less then 8€... Really?!!!!
I will wait with my future buy/register until a new coin system will be activated. Bad idea Ninty
Lol, paying coins for discounts...just what we needed. On the Wii I could turn my stars into e-shop credit. That way I downloaded a few games for free!
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