Brand New My Nintendo App Lets You Buy Games, Watch Directs And View Your Playtime

Sounds pretty cool. Hopefully they bring it west.

I hope the store page works better in that app than on the Switch itself, eshop on the switch is a nightmare, it's slow and if sales are too big your Switch has a hard time to scroll through it with all the hickups and stutters (fix that Nintendo, the hardware is easily capable to run such a simple store)

It forces me to use sites like PSPrices to search for sales.

Wow and only 6 and a half years after Playstation did such a thing

I really hope this app comes here too if only for play record viewing. Finally we'll be able to view our play times for our Switch games without them being necessary to be one of the last 20 played.

Why not display the proper play times of Switch games on the actual console itself?

@RupeeClock I think My Nintendo is especially underwhelming because we had Club Nintendo beforehand. Many of those physical rewards were so much cooler than printable pdfs and screensavers. Simply put, you were rewarded in a superior fashion for taking surveys and buying Nintendo products with items that fans would actually enjoy. I thought My Nintendo was heading in that direction somewhat with those Splatoon 2 posters and shirts for the last splatfest, but there hasn’t been too much beyond that disappointingly.

If I could just do those things on the MyNintendo website, I'd be a happy camper. But it's rather confusing to me what I can expect to function as advertised around there.

If the app does come around here, I'd appreciate the functionality.

@NintendoWiiDS
The physical rewards always looked so cool, but you needed to buy A LOT of games, and they never started shipping to Denmark, so I never got any of it, which made me feel I'd wasted a lot of time registering all those codes.

Now, I at least get gold coin discounts, making it essentially free candy whenever some weird/wonderful indie game I've been eyeing out is on sale.

What does it mean "to view your playtime"? That you will finally be able to see THE EXACT time you spent in particular game on Switch? Or it will just copy the same "over 50 hours" from activity log?

I want new NES/SNES games!!! Is it really such a difficult task for them to release some new goods?!!

Hope the store front works better than the PlayStation one. That one just opens the website itself which is super slow and has a tendency not to pick up my clicks making it practically worthless.

Would like to have a faster and easier way to browse the store though.

I would love to watch Directs
IF THERE WHERE ONE

why do we need an extra app? Just add the switch functionality in the Switch Online app. It's so barebones, it could use some more meat on its bones.

@RupeeClock I mean, the concept of using gold points as eShop currency was pretty appealing but the amount of credit you get for the purchases you make is rather lacking. You hit the nail on the head with the emphasis on mobile games; the issue there is that Nintendo’s mobile efforts either lose relevance shortly after launch or they are promptly discontinued (in the case of most Pokemon apps other than Go). Also I find it pretty weird that the discounts you can earn with points are all for Wii U and 3DS titles. 3DS is more understandable because Nintendo is still selling 2DS/XL systems and games for it, but they literally discontinued the Wii U before the Switch launched and said it was dead, so in 2020 who are those rewards benefitting? It’s kind of ironic that My Nintendo is pushed with the Switch when the majority of rewards and means of earning points are associated with Wii U, 3DS and mobile games.

@El_Scorpio I also would like to know how accurate the time keeping is. Is it down to the minute (like 3DS) or updated in 5 hour increments (like Switch)? I currently use the Switch parenting app which tracks in 5 minutes increments. However, it’s barebones in that you have to add up each day’s time to see total play time of a game. I’d be very interested in this coming West if it tracks accurately.

@Pod Club Nintendo was fun while it lasted; I’m sorry you couldn’t experience the physical side of the service! I’m happy you can use gold points as eShop currency now, but it feels like you aren’t necessarily rewarded as much for your loyalty as you would like. The disappointing thing about CN being discontinued, was the fact that Nintendo was actually using the service in exciting and clever ways, with the Smash 3DS demo being given away early to some, the Smash 4 soundtrack CD for registering both versions of the game and Mewtwo being distributed for free before it released. I just wish My Nintendo could be as exciting today.

@El_Scorpio Even if you can see the exact playtime, I'm not sure how accurate it will be for people who play on more than one Switch system.

Currently each Switch keeps its own internal playtime counter and when you view your playtime on your Profile page it only shows the higher of the two.

For example, if you play Zelda for 50 hours on one Switch system, your profile will say 50 hours. If you then sign into another Switch and play Zelda on your account there, your profile will still say 50 hours until you play the game for more than 50 hours on the new system, at which point it would start showing the time for the new system. So if you play 55 hours there, it'll say 55 hours, instead of the 105 it should display.

On top of this, if a game isn't in your top 20 the first time you play it on a new system, it'll revert to saying "First played X days ago" for 10 days after which it will show the higher playtime of the two.

It's mind-boggling that all this mess came from the same company that gave us the 3DS's robust and exhaustive Activity Log.

Would love to have this for the play times
Don't know if eShop would be better organized with this application

I use the Xbox, PS, and Steam apps quite often, and I just don't use the Switch Online app at all. It's just useless.

I do however have the Nintendo site pinned to my phone. Because it allows me to buy and browse games, which is part of the functionality that the other apps have.

Which begs the question, why are these separate apps?

There should just be one app. It should just be a Nintendo app. That allows game browsing and purchasing. Tracking friends and personal game progress. Messaging and partying. And account settings etc.

This is how the other platforms do it, and it works great, much better than whatever this is what Nintendo is trying to do.

Nintendo loves making useless apps.

"In a nice touch, it also lets you view your Switch, 3DS, and Wii U play records."

This is all I want. Why is it exiled to some rando app instead of somewhere centralized?

@Richnj I hate the psn app.. it is basically a webapp shoehorned into an app.. store access is afful… but agree the Nintendo shop is okay to browse the shop by browser..

(even though still bare bones)

Once again, I hate that I kept my US Android account when came here to Japan. Curse my freakish need to stick with the same accounts for nonsensical sentimental attachments!!!!!!

@NintendoWiiDS
I hear you. Seems they're trying to move all those special offers over to paying Nintendo Online users. Which seems a little pushy, and they aren't really offering much of anything interesting yet anyway.

@Pod Yeah just the right to buy NES and SNES controllers and Tetris 99 (which I love to be fair)

Awesome I want it

Honestly, I find my Nintendo mostly useless. It starts and ends with the gold coin discounts. Besides that, there isn’t a thing to do with it as a Switch owner.

I’d love to see Nintendo get more creative with it: Game discounts (Gold coins or %), NSO subscription discounts, maybe be able to cash coins in for a weekly game trials (like how they made Mario Tennis free for a week to try), discounts on physical items. Let me cash in some coins for a coupon that gets me a % off on joy-cons or other accessories via the Nintendo online store, etc

If it's anything like "Activity Log" on 3DS, please bring it to the West. I LOVE that app. I've actually logged a lot of hours in that app over time. It's fun to see detailed information of the games you played over the years, organized with graphs and everything.

@ryancraddock

Hi Ryan, might be worth updating this line:

“Currently available exclusively for Android users in Japan”

I can confirm it is available on Apple devices as well.

Way more useful than that switch online app or whatever it was.

I had the feeling that Nintendo was prepping to focus less on MyNintendo. All its really been useful for with consumers is the Gold Points system. Maybe Nintendo is getting more market research from all the account data than they're letting on, but surveys aren't really a focus for the platform and they've strayed away from using it in their mobile games.

It felt like they had this idea primed and ready, with their mobile division and Super Nintendo World aimed to keep the platform alive, but Nintendo couldn't find a good way to have MyNintendo feel relevant to most consumers. I mean, Iwata stated he wanted 100 Million MyNintendo users by the first year, but as their mobile games kept getting delays and relatively quiet launches, the need for the service has felt faded.

Hope this ends up being the beginning of the second wind for the service, because Club Nintendo has proved that Membership services can be synergize well with the game platform

Nice! Can't wait for the US release of this!

It is dumb that there's currently no way (other than setting Parental Controls??) to view play records on the Switch right now.

I hope they add a feature where we can add friends to our Switch via the app rather than needing to give out friend codes, or add a feature where you can add friends to your overall Nintendo account and, when you next access the Switch, you add your friend via a "My Nintendo" section or just replace the 3DS and Wii U section with a "Nintendo Account" section.

I wish we just had an Activity Log like the Wii U or even better yet 3DS' to begin with

@Rayquaza2510

But maybe it can't be much faster?
I mean, eShop sure isn't the fastest webb based shop in the world, but its still like a rocket engine compared to PS Store on a base PS4, that thing is like browsing the web back in school at year '95.
They could categorise the games more though so it doesn't have to load 300 titles on sale. All indie games should be in its own category...

The competition already has such apps available since 2013. Come on, Nintendo...pick up the pace, it is 2020.

I would love to have this app in North America .

For anyone curious, I installed the app on my Android device and tried to log in with my North American Nintendo account it and rejected me.

@Rayquaza2510 It's cause the eShop is basically just a website designed for Switch controls. They did it to save resources on the Home Screen, but man does it make using it suck

@NintendoWiiDS
Oh yeah, don't get me wrong. BIG fan of Tetris 99, which I play every single day. Gotta get that 999 tickets badge.

@Pod I love all the themes they’ve been adding to the game. They remind me of Tetris DS if you’ve ever played that.

@NintendoWiiDS
I did play that an UNREASONABLE amount.
That game was the reason I bought a Nintendo Wi-Fi dongle.
It was the reason I cursed the Wi-Fi dongle for being a piece of garbage. It was the reason I cursed Nintendo for never updating the Wii to act as a preconfigured hotspot for the DS.

@Pod Yeah I loved the presentation with all the classic NES sprites and music. It was cool how it was actually developed by Nintendo

@JasonLee99 @El_Scorpio I've downloaded the app on my Japanese Android and I can confirm that it does not show detailed play times. It has date first played and number of times played, but the play time is just "only a little while" or "over 5 hours", even for Wii U and 3DS games.

Nintendo is doing something cool with their rewards program, but only in Japan? Color me surprised.

@RainbowGazelle That’s disappointing...but thanks for the feedback!!