Nintendo Account Registration! Miitomo too.

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Opened February 17!

It's finally here: The long-awaited Nintendo Account. You can check out the page at accounts.nintendo.com. You'll get this if you aren't logged in:

Sign in with your NNID. The rest of those options are for people who don't have a Wii U or 3DS.
...Good to see that Google+ is considered centrally relevant, though.

No one is logged in at the start, because your Nintendo Network ID and your Nintendo Account aren't exactly equivalent. When you do sign in with Nintendo Network ID, you'll be brought to the Create a Nintendo Account with fields already populated for you, depending on what you registered into your Nintendo Network ID. There's nickname, e-mail address, date of birth (which you cannot change once it's auto-populated, so if it's wrong you need to call Nintendo or create a new account without associating it with your Nintendo Network ID), country (also cannot be changed), gender (it's binary plus you saying you'd prefer not to answer), and timezone.

PLUS a brand-new End User License Agreement! First thing that's there: “You must be at least 13 years old to use the Nintendo Account Service.”

You hear that, kids? Go away.

Anyway, it's not really brand-new. It's sort of a clone of the Nintendo Network Services Agreement, including the clause that you own User-Generated Content but you're non-exclusively licensing it to Nintendo. It's relatively short and actually has the word END at the bottom. It links to the My Nintendo Rewards Program Terms of Service, but...

They haven't written it yet. Or don't want to spoil it via Terms of Service. 'kay, I gotcha.

Once you accept the Terms and register, a four-digit verification code is sent to your e-mail. Put it in, and you're done. There's one more thing you can do, though.

What's that Miitomo preregistration offer they mention in that screenshot? Well, here's some more information about it.

The gist of it is, if you go to the Miitomo preregistration site while logged into your account and preregister, you'll be signed up to a Miitomo newsletter to your e-mail. In return, they'll give you some My Nintendo Platinum Points. These will be usable to redeem game-related (not games themselves) things, though I doubt they'll give you enough to be able to redeem anything with just the points you get from preregistering. Maybe it'll be just enough to get an extra shirt in Miitomo, just so you'll get scaffolded into it.

Preregistration complete! Stay tuned for the launch.
The platinum My Nintendo coin graphic looks pretty cool, actually.

I think I need to talk more about Miitomo, because when I tried to explain it, we had incomplete information and I didn't give it the respect it doesn't deserve.

Nintendo is trotting it out on their site as having four main points:

1. Make a Mii to Look Like You
2. Use Your Mii as a Social Go-Between
3. Dress Your Mii However You Want
4. Make Your Mii a Star with Miifotos

This is clearly not meant for the core gamer or Nintendo fan. In summary, the game is about taking screenshots of your Mii and your friend's Mii and sharing them on social media. You can dress your Mii by paying for clothes with micro-transactions. It's like a stripped down Tomodachi Life, except the only Mii involved is your "look-alike" and there's no actual gameplay, just dialogue inspired by you answering questions.

Who wants to make their Mii look or act like you, anyway? That's boring, and it's what #miiquality people wanted. You really wanna follow their lead?

When customising a character in a game, the majority of gamers in a GameFAQs poll don't have those characters look like them.

Why do they need to invent the term “Miifoto”? Just call it a screenshot like a normal person.

I think we can all expect that this will get a lot of downloads, but minimal active player engagement. That might just be what Nintendo wants: If people waste their money on in-app purchasing garbage in Miitomo, that's a bonus. The real goal is to get people signed up for these Nintendo Accounts, get them on these newsletters, and have these mobile folks in the (spectacular buzzword incoming) ecosystem. You don't even have to play Miitomo more than once to get enticed in that. That's good, since that's probably one less the amount of times you'll touch it, if you download it at all.


Ludwig is a Nintendo Account member. Are you? Get out there and participate in the FUTURE of the Nintendo ecosystem! He openly hopes that the other smartphone games won't be worth anyone's time or be any good, both because he has no respect for mobile gaming and because he doesn't have a smartphone so he wouldn't be able to play them.


Do you know what's an even better thing to join than the My Nintendo Rewards Program? Why, it's the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program!
Nintendo is enabling greater Mii customisation features on the Nintendo Switch.
Miitomo has an end-of-life time.