PSA: Switch Game Vouchers Won't Be Sold After January 2026

I'm assuming we were never given a reason as to y this is stopping

Shame it's going away. I was more of a physical purist for Nintendo's 1st party games during the Switch generation (with the sole exception of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, for whatever reason) so I never really used these. I had planned to buy it once for Pokemon Legends: Z-A and then probably also TOTK but then I just forgot and paid $10 more than I needed to for Z-A. Shame I never got to take advantage of this perk.

Best case scenario, Nintendo brings back Nintendo Selects. Actual scenario, discounts will just get smaller over time.

was more of a physical guy anyways, but it sucks that we get Gold Points taken away first and now Game Vouchers.

I know this is 1000% a non-problem but I can't decide whether to buy two more vouchers when I don't know what switch games are coming out this year and I already have one.

I might pick up another set just in case but seeing as I just sat on one for a year up until eventually settling on, "Fine, I'll use it on Xenoblade X before it expires I guess, whatever," probably better to not bother.

I used vouchers to buy so many games! And now I wish I had physical copies instead haha

I'm cool if vouchers go away cuz I never used them, I do miss the gold system though. I really hope they give some other discount/ rewards program.

Kind of disappointed that they're going away, I actually got them twice back when I was going completely digital during the years of 2023 and 2024. But in early 2025, I decided to get a mix of digital and physical going forward, with digital being only for some games that I want digital DLC for.

I'm more sad about the death of the gold points system because I actually used that all lot more than the game vouchers since i don't have an NSO Subscription yet (and I don't think i ever will tbh) i can sorta understand the reason for the death of it but I'm not sure why these are dying out I'm assuming that it wasn't as popular as gold points mabye idk I'm just speculating here. (I might be a little bit out of the news loop here with this topic)

The vouchers were a good deal for superfans who were going to get all of Nintendo's big titles anyway, HOWEVER, superfans like me also want physical copies, so I never took the bait.

@Drago201 Reason? Simple – money. Nintendo fans will swallow it and Nintendo themselves know this.

Physical is trash, welcome to the future. Let the past burn

I used the voucher system a good few times with the switch.
It’s a shame they are going along with gold points which I used as well.
I wonder if the silver points will go in a years time as I have a massive collection of items purchased with the silver points.

And yes it’s all about tightening the purse strings on the money front.

@Vyacheslav333 I mean it's what $20 there games are extremely successful it can't be that simple there literally doing better than ever

Strictly physical here. Doing my small part. Will never connect my Switch to internet. Have at least 2-3 years worth of sealed Switch1 games to play. Then I will catch up to Switch2 but only games offered in full on cartridge. That should be around when a new 3D Mario or Zelda is out, and maybe even updated hardware.

I remember waiting in line all day hoping Switch Vouchers would still be available when it was my turn. If they were that meant I was able to feed my family that night.

I have no Idea how my loved ones and I will manage without them.

I'm hoping this is in preparation for the release of a budget range.

I have been debating if I should buy a pair or not but the thing is any nintendo game I want I want physical but the only digital game I want is the Famicom Detective Club collection. So it is really just a waste of €40 for me.

I don't like nintendo's strategy on software pricing. I mean, they never do meaningful price drops, even for their older games and now they are removing stuff like gold points and vouchers. I hope they'll reconsider.

I only buy digital and have used these a few times since Nintendo first party games rarely go on sale. I’m tempted to have one last pair. The only 2 games in the catalog that I don’t have and that I would want are Pikmin 3 Deluxe and Metroid Prime 4. But I have only played a bit of Metroid Prime Remastered and Pikmin 4 and haven’t returned to either. I likely will at some point but both games may go on sale before I get to them. First world problems…

eeesh, Nintendo is making everything, so no one could buy the games with discount, want the next 3D Mario, pay $80 and you can play it.

@Galaxy2IsTheGOAT I'm curious; why won't you connect your Switch to the Internet? I understand the desire to only buy physical games, but by not connecting to the Internet you're denying yourself updates that improve those games.

It was a bad deal anyway as much cheaper ways to buy games. Bring back the gold points though you cheapskates

I assume that this is because Switch 2 games are now 10 bucks more than Switch 1 games, and Nintendo didn't want to be out an extra 20 bucks. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Honestly, I never even bought one, I way prefer physical games anyways

@Galaxy2IsTheGOAT are you ok?

@Drago201 It’s the same reason why Sony got rid of the Playstation Hits line as PS5 approached, PS5 remasters with upgrade paths are rather cheap when you can get a big discount on the original PS4 version.

In Sony’s case, they even increased the price of PS4 versions that were already part of the Playstation Hits line when PS5 version approached like Horizon Zero Dawn.

@drykho
Gold Points were nice, but physical owners got completely shafted!

• 1 year from release and they didn't work.
• Some games never gave gold.
• Points for physical were way less than digital
• They expired

@Markatron84
Don't some games actually require a firmware update to even play?

Why are Nintendo taking away such incentives? They are making more than enough money.

I usually go physical for first parties and digital for third parties so I never really used this, they should’ve kept em though

I have never used these as only buy physical, which still works out cheaper, but it's a shame for those who do use them regularly

They got rid of the five percent back. Getting rid of vouchers. Between the big three, they have the absolute worst paid online subscription, dribbling out around 1 old ROM a month. It’s no wonder my switch 2 library has grown significantly slower than switch 1.

@charliecarrot Genuinely wonder, why do you regret having the games digitally instead of physically on carts? The reasons I can think are that you have space issues with the storage on the Switch 2 but that can be fixed with an SD card express, I have a ton of games on cart that I absolutely wish were digital because genuinely they just all ended up in boxes on a shelf and never played because I can't be bothered to go get them and insert them into the system.

Or was it to sell them on to others, that I understand is something not possible with digital stuff.

• As for the withdrawal of these... I don't get it, I never understand a reason why a company wants to have LESS ways for us to give them money. I'm sure over the past 5 years as well there will have been thousands of game vouchers that people bought, forgot about and that's just a free 50euro for Nintendo... I really do not get why they would find it profitable to remove this money avenue for them.

For those confused on why this is ending because vouchers are only for the switch one and Nintendo will be abandoning the switch one pretty soon, most likely by the end of the year. Plain and simple.

@Spider-Kev I'm pretty sure you're right. Don't quote me on that though.

Yeaaahhhh just another sign of the times. I've been genuinely so disappointed with Nintendo's trajectory. If they think they are untouchable or that there isn't growing competition, they aren't paying attention. We're rapidly approaching a point where people will be able to grab a decent linux handheld for less than a Switch for themselves or for their kids and have a massive pc gaming library to play anywhere. Heck, we're approaching a new horizon in which the average phone will be able to play a massive amount of the Steam catalogue, so all you need to do is buy a decent controller for a device you already have on you at all times. If they think their library is filling a niche, they are also wrong. What was my favorite family-friendly coop game of 2025? It sure wasn't anything we got from Nintendo- it was POPUCOM.

@Markatron84
"@Spider-Kev I'm pretty sure you're right. Don't quote me on that though."

Too late...

@Spider-Kev that's the opposite of what I said to do! You're such a rapscallion.

@Grumblevolcano yeah I forgot sony did that slimy ***** man we can't really have good benefits anymore can we 🤔😅

@Stormcloudlive The main reason I'd prefer to have physical at this point is that I really like having physical representations of media on my shelf that I can pick up and hold. It's not necessarily a preservationist thing - I just like holding game cases and looking at pretty boxart.

Because of that, I've ended up double dipping a lot and buying physical copies of games after I already own the digital copy. It's kinda like how even though I have an ebook reader, if I really like a book, I pick up a physical copy so I can see it on my shelf and make it part of my physical environment. I'm more likely to remember something and think about it if I see it around my space as opposed to having to open up some device and scroll through a list.

I went mostly digital on switch for the exact reason you say - I wanted the convenience of having everything on the system ready to go instead of having to swap out cartridges. However, I found that as I amassed my library, going through the list of games became sort of overwhelming for me. With physical cases, I can organize them how I like, keep a section visible near my entertainment stand for games I want to have in active rotation, etc, but with digital games, if they fall outside the main switch menu I often end up forgetting about them. I wish you could choose to "keep games in home" like you can on PS5. That works well for me since I'm easily distracted and have a not-so-great memory haha. May not be as much a factor for people who can actually stick with one game all the way through and then move to the next.

There's also something about owning the physical media that makes it feel more "real" in a way that's hard to describe. For example, it's very easy for me to play loads of retro games on my tablet or PC, but I'm more likely to form a connection with a retro game that I obtain a physical copy of and play on original hardware, and I'm more likely to stick with the game all the way through when I do that.

@Markatron84
I have played about 50 physical games start to finish zero issues. Why would I need to connect my Switch online?

@Nintendontyouknow
I’m great. I have a yard if you need to come walk on it and touch it.

@Galaxy2IsTheGOAT I'm not saying you need to; just that games get updates to - for example - improve performance or fix bugs.

Again, I'm not saying you need to connect, but I was just curious why you wouldn't, that's all. You do you 🙂

On the subject of connecting a Switch to the Internet, I'm surprised that nobody has chimed in with "STABILITY!!!".