Topic: USA Club Nintendo New Season.

Club Nintendo has been going on since December in the USA and they still haven't added any new items to redeem. I was hoping that the new season would bring new merchandise but I still haven't seen one new reward. And on the other hand Europe is getting all this nice stuff which I don't think is fair. All I can say is they better relese something new soon because I'm losing my patience.

I agree, the prizes are very weak at the moment.

I want Nintendo Points!

I'm betting we'll have to wait until December...watch for the one yr anniversary.

I also wonder how much actual interest there is in the program. I mean, with the plat/gold reward, we've already seen a lot of folks who don't even registar there games and those people are gamers.

Basically, if they sell 1 million Galaxies and they only see 10,000 of them registered, what's the point of having the service if no one is using it? I mean, in that regard, they found out something they already knew. Club Nintendo does not increase the actual sales of Nintendo's games. They can see the same return on games without losing money on the Club, if not more of a return....I mean, this shouldn't be a shock to anyone that the point of Club Nintendo is to sell more games...

Of course that would all be in house market research and I don't know the actual numbers but five people having a 1000 CN points, doesn't really mean a whole lot except to those 5 people.

I'm hoping for a good platinum status prize, which isn't likely because I'm sure lots of people reached Gold or Platinum.

Yeah I guess Nintendo thinks the US sucks.

i dunno, i always thought the point of Club Nintendo was the surveys. there are companies who will pay good money for completed surveys about their products, and considering the amount of people who actually reach gold/platinum status within a given Club Nintendo year would probably be slim (after this year, at least; i know there were probably plenty of people out there like me who stumbled upon CN and decided to finally register all the codes for the eligible games they had lying around), Nintendo is in essence gathering desired information without paying most of their userbase (in merchandise) maybe a fraction of what other companies pay for the same information.

I just checked the European Club Nintendo a few minutes ago and it appears Europeans are getting to vote for their favorite Animal Crossing songs to appear on a custom made animal crossing CD that is coming it on their stars catalog. I still don't understand why they don't give the USA more Club Nintendo items because I know for a fact that Americans waste a lot more money on Nintendo Merchandise then Europeans do. I didn't raise 1850 Coins last year to get nothing back in return except Game and watch gallery, and a DS case...Scratch that last part they did give me a few things...

It'd be nice if Nintendo released some new items along with the Gold and Platinum rewards.

I'm expecting some new prizes this summer or in October/November.

All well made points, and I used to work for a market research group, so you're right, they are expensive, but they still put money into it via the prizes you get for the coins. And, granted, the surveys are more in depth than any other companies, have none of us ever filled out one for Square Enix, Konami, etc? I know I have...stupid waste of time? Maybe...but I bet thousands did it so it returns, does the loss that comes with the prizes justify keeping the program going? Like I stated, I have no idea the number, but in their budget, they have a set amount that they'd like to see. In the corporate world, if that's not being met, then it's going to get scrapped. I mean, on top of all that you also have to take into account, production costs (probably pretty low), staffing (could be pretty high depending on website maintenance, customer service revolving around the club), storage of the goods which can be high, and most importantly, shipping isn't cheap...after all that, I'm thinking behind the scenes, the return they get off the US CN just isn't as great as EU and especially Japan.

So it's better than what you've been stating?
And by "it's" I mean the Club Nintendo, and not World Nintendo, or a Store!

People, just state you'd love to get Nintendo merchandise! (You can find out where to get them at store.nintendo.com!)
For now make up a list, if you have to, and call or send a letter to Nintendo with your thoughts, ideas and feedback,
on Club Nintendo and it's Rewards! club.nintendo.com wii.nintendo.com nintendo.com

What if the prizes stayed exactly the way they were, and the only new ones would be for certain statuses? That would just suck and maybe that may happen...ahhh I don't want to give them any ideas.

@J Bittles: If the return on the American Club Nintendo isn't as good as the European and Japanese verions, it could be because our prizes suck in comparison. If the prizes were better, I'm sure more people would bother to register their games.

I already got the hanafura cards, and I have over 1000 spare coins with nothing worth spending them on! So yes, I want some new prizes added already, dangnabbit!

Stuffgamer, here's where your arguement falls apart...actually in two areas. We never had Club Nintendo, Nintendo had no real reason to institute it in the US, but they did, and it is what it is. Now, there are 24 million Wii's in the US. To even get a small sample size of that group, they would have to have 2.4 million people registered in Club Nintendo. That's only 10% and is barely a sample size or cross section of actual Wii owners. If they haven't even reached that number of people registered, then, in Nintendo's eyes, what's the point? Now based on systems sold vs population, EU and Japan probably have a greater percentage of Wii owners vs Registered Club Nintendo customers, and that's why it's better supported.

Also, better prizes may not work because we all know the rap on the Wii. So say they do have that 10% or are at least around that, it's not like Club Nintendo is heavily advertised so have the greatest prizes in the world, you'll never get the HUGE population of casual gamers. So, again, in the end, why should they support something that doesn't make them ANY money when the US gaming public doesn't support them?

Plus, they can add more items and I'm sure everyone here on the messageboard will still complain...have you seen some of the requests? Max out the points for WiiWare and Virtual Console? Nintendo can't combat the lack of realistic expectations that a lot of rubes out there have...

Personally, I have no unrealistic expectations of Club Nintendo. Not unless wanting SOMETHING new added is "unrealistic" to you. Fact is, we don't KNOW how many North American Club Nintendo members there are. Also, it's between the Wii AND DS owners, which I will admit probably makes the percentage seem even worse.

IMO, Nintendo has been trying harder to advertise Club Nintendo than you give them credit for. "Join Club Nintendo" e-mails from the Nintendo news e-mailer (even after I already HAD joined ), putting the "Join Club Nintendo" ad/code papers in FRONT of the manuals in game boxes, Club Nintendo links prominently displayed on all Nintendo websites, and that "link your DSi with Club Nintendo" promo that worked hand-in-hand with the free 1000 DSi points.

Fact is, unless you give me strong numbers, I find it hard to believe that the North American Club Nintendo is doing as badly as you say. Nintendo brought us Club Nintendo in the first place because we kept bugging them to until they gave in (shame that method doesn't work for other things like VC releases). So why shouldn't bugging them for more/better prizes also work? It's a similar enough goal, right?

It could be better. More, cooler prizes. I think that the prizes are a bit overpriced.