One of the big draws for the Wii U Premium Pack is its reward scheme which allows users to gain money back on their eShop purchases. It was originally claimed that eShoppers would gain 10% back as a reward but it appears this is not the case - it’s a little bit less.
Nintendo UK has revealed a little bit more information on how all of this will work confirming that for every pound (or euro) spent on eShop purchases you will receive 8 points. Once you’ve amassed 500 points you can then apply for a £5 discount code, which can then be redeemed in the eShop for more downloadable goodies.
Time for some maths, then. To get yourself up to 500 points you’ll need to spend £62.50 in the eShop, which may be £63 in reality as Nintendo hasn't confirmed that you’ll get those much-needed 4 points for 50p. For example, if you purchased a game worth £7.50 it’s unclear whether or not you’ll receive 56 points or 60. Either way it seems that users will receive 8% back on their eShop purchases, which is not to be sniffed at.
Naturally there are other benefits to owning a Premium Wii U such as the inclusion of Nintendo Land and the 32GB of storage space (which is really 25GB after all the necessary formatting and built-in data has been taken into account).
This limited storage issue can be resolved by attaching a USB storage device of up to 2TB. Nintendo will be addressing this with an update in December although bizarrely, though it will allow larger devices to be recognised, 2TB of space will still be the maximum amount that can be used. This means a 4TB storage device will still be formatted to the Wii U console but will only have half its space available for storage.
What do you think about all these developments? Are you happy with the eShop reward scheme? Let us know in the comments below.
[source eurogamer.net, via nintendo.co.uk]
Comments 49
It's a little sad they are only offering 8% refund instead of the 10% refund like they said.
So, they just took 2%? That's nasty..
Obviously I'll have to buy lots of SD cards...
So they lied?
They did not lie, it was in the small print in on on the European Nintendo Direct videos, its 10% off the price excluding any tax, and in the UK we pay 20% VAT.
That's kind of dirty.
I didn't even want the Premium bundle for that anyway,but that is a bit mean.
Not really worth it unless you spend hundreds of pounds a month. You need a HDD either way so both sets are good.
Wasn't the 10% only promised in America?
Also, this fine print is kinda funny: "Points are only earned on purchases over 10 cents and at 10 cent increments." Does this hint that there will be $0.09 games?
8% is better than nothing
Better than a punch in the a$$ and a kick in the face.
@MultiMariosonic You can't save Wii U downloads on an inserted SD card, only WiiWare/Virtual Console. And you don't get the points rebate from Wii downloads, only from Wii U eShop purchases (which don't include WW or VC).
If it's between 8% and 0%, i'll take the 8%! It's still a great offer! I have pre-ordered the ZombiU pack, does anyone know if this deal is included with that too?? I'd hope so as it's the most expensive bundle and still comes with the 32gb Black machine!
Why not just give 10 points for every Pound? Why?? So Euro folk will have it a bit better. One Euro is a lot less than one Pound.
@Mahe you CAN use SD cards, you just need to use a USB adapter for the WiiU to recognise it and allow it for WiiU stroage
@MadAussieBloke Paper punch or pin-punch ?
@ThePoms putting b_willers post another way, you can't expect Nintendo to give you a discount for money that the Government took from you
w8 so 8% is UK only right? the rest of europe get's the 10%?
@THENAMESNORM Obviously, that's why I specified "inserted SD card". For external storage, it's better to use a USB drive with a separate AC adapter.
@MadAussieBloke Hahaha. I think for PAL owners digital downloads of full retail titles isn't really worth it because you will be able to find any retail game for less than 8% off of the RRP. However if you buy alot of eshop titles you are essentially getting something for nothing so that's nothing to scoff at.
Does this apply to NA, or just EU?
Not cool Nintendo :/
@seronja I would imagine that would depend on where you live and what rate of tax is applied to your purchases
<a rel="external" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_value_added_tax">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_value_added_tax</a>
(see table near the bottom)
This is still better than most other reward programs out there. Reward programs like webmiles or loyalty cards in shops usually only give you 1%
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nE4hLZDg88&t=5m28s
Skip to 5:30
You guys are still getting money back, stop complaining.
Just a note - Nintendo Land is NOT included in the ZombiU Premium Bundle.
At least Premium owners get back something.. but if Nintendo said 10% they should keep it 10%..
In NA if we buy $100 but then pay $15 tax, we only get $10 credits (instead of $11.50). Sounds like it's the same everywhere, just advertised differently overseas.
So in other words, people in NoA get 10% off while people on Europe get 8% or a bit more depending on the tax, or am I misunderstood?
I think 8% is pretty good and in reality no one was expecting such a scheme so it's all a bonus! While it may take a while to be able to redeem a free game, when it finally does come to pass I will be happy to score a freebie!
Considering how much money I have spent on the 3DS eshop, I expect to redeem a few games over the course of owning my Wii U!
I realize now how stupid Nintendo was designing Wii U ports: SD port almost useless and no cheap Ethernet port at all even with HUGE games and OS updates. And don't say you can use Wii LAN adapter because that's not a decent solution.
8% eshop store credit on all purchases is quite generous.
Let's ALSO not forget about whatever cashback you can get by default from using your Credit/Debit Card to purchase said content in the eshop or through the purchase of the physical Wii U Points cards or digital codes. In addition to purchasing said Wii U Points cards on sale or via any other types of promotion.
When all is said and done you could be saving a whole lot more than 8% depending on the cashback rewards offered by your payment type and/or through the purchase of discounted physical points cards.
Duh.
I don't care either way because I prefer to buy my games at retail and online where they're usually £5 - £10 cheaper than the RRP. Plus, I'm not even considering buying a Wii U until I see what Sony and Microsoft's next generation consoles bring to the table. I guess it's a cool program for those people that don't enjoy owning physical media, for me though I'd much prefer having a hard copy which is easily lent or sold.
@PixelatedPixie
Remember, NOT all eshop games are going to have Physical releases, a la Xbox LIVE Arcade.
Hard copies aren't necessarily always going to be an option particularly for the smaller "Arcade" games, retro past console (NES/SNES/64) games and those made by Indie devs.
This is especially going to be the case if Publishers ever decide to go 100% digital for the $40-$60 games sans a physical reelase, which may very well happen during the Wii U's life cycle.
@grimbldoo
Nobody's Getting Money Back. What We Are Getting Is Intellectual Coercion To Buy More Stuff Of Them.
@luminalace
...When you Will Buy More And More Games That You Wouldnt Have Bought If That Scheme Wasnt In Place. Am I Right?
It's true that retail versions of digital games will likely become cheaper in time thus making the 8% rebate not worthwhile. However, for those who like to buy indie and similar 'little' games online this will be a nice little incentive.
@b_willers #5 ''They did not lie, it was in the small print in on on the European Nintendo Direct videos, its 10% off the price excluding any tax, and in the UK we pay 20% VAT.''
Oh yeah, I missed that! It makes sense now.
In terms of external HDD storage that's more than 2tb, I'd suggest partitioning your drive, then you can still use the rest for other things if necessary.
I don't know anyone who owns more than 2tb though
@Beta If what jDarrell says is correct, then NA WiiU owners get 10% back BEFORE tax(TAX is not normally included in prices in the USA until the checkout whereas in the UK and Europe it IS) so if the tax was added the same way it is elsewhere then it would be less than 10%. So we all appear to be getting the same deal, which is still a great deal.
@Molotov
You wouldn't necessarily be buying games that you wouldn't have before. You could use the extra cash you get back to get a game you already planned to get for cheaper/free. Essentially, it's rewarding your patronage with extra games.
The tax point is good and all but how come Japan gets 10% off. I'm pretty sure their prices are after taxes too.
@THENAMEISNORM there's a slight difference in tax paid on pre-discounted and full RRP.
Pay tax on full rrp first leaves you more out-of-pocket in terms of recoverable cash - which would you prefer to pay, tax on $40 or tax on $36 ?
@Molotov
It may be credit that is limited to the Wii U eShop, but it's still currency.
@b_willers: 'They did not lie, it was in the small print in on on the European Nintendo Direct videos, its 10% off the price excluding any tax, and in the UK we pay 20% VAT'.
Thanks, this fact should have been on the piece of news.
Sounds like it's 10% pre-VAT. I don't know the VAT rate, so someone do the maths and see if I'm right.
Wow ive spent atleast £1000 over on VC titles ... I have over 130 games and they go right right up to page 13 on the SD card. i wonder how much i will get back if i bought the premium edition .. Shame im getting the Basic. Could anyone help me out here ?
Jogurt, it's not retroactive and as far as I know, it doesn't include VC titles, just Wii U eShop titles. Spend like you have in the past, and you'll save a bunch going forward.
It would make no sense for Nintendo, economically speaking, to offer this as a retroactive discount.
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