My Nintendo's Worthless Gold Points

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - At least you're currently on a website with a good loyalty rewards program...

This was announced a while ago, but we've just been so busy we couldn't get around to it. Nintendo's underwhelming player loyalty program, My Nintendo, has implemented a “Gold Points” system with the intention of making people actually get excited about the Gold Coins they are collecting. (Platinum Coins are still worthless.) It was a criticism that for a year, this program was in place but you could only spend the Gold Coins on 3DS and Wii U content. Not anymore!

Starting March 5, 2018, you got 5% off any digital Nintendo Switch, Wii U, or 3DS purchases you made converted into Gold Points. If you buy any physical Nintendo Switch games (which is how I prefer to buy my games), you only get 1% of the purchase price converted into a Gold Point. Each Gold Point is worth... one cent. A $60 digitally downloaded game will get you 300 points, or 3 dollars back. A $60 physical game will get you 60 points, or 60 cents.

These add to however the hell we got Gold Coins before, which was an even worse conversion rate.

Just so Nintendo can be jerks, you have 12 months to use your Gold Points before they expire. That means if you want a free $60 game, you'll need to spend $1,200 in digital purchases in 12 months, and still have another 21st game you're interested enough in to do all of this purchasing for. By the way, in order to qualify for points, you need to have bought the game within 12 months of its release date.

Since this is clearly unrealistic spending, it figures that Gold Points are really meant for smaller purchases than a whole game. However, the fine print says...

“Gold Points can be used toward eligible digital game and DLC purchases for the Nintendo Switch system, excluding passes, automatic renewals, in-game items, and virtual currency.”

I don't know what Nintendo considers a pass, but it seemed that Gold Points for Expansion/Season Passes would work perfectly fine when I was going to the purchase page for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's passes. Heck, even for Rocket League's Loot Crate keys. (I didn't actually purchase any of these.)

You're asked if you would like to use your Gold Points when making a purchase.
It then appears as a line item in your purchase order. In this case, it's not enough to actually buy anything.

It isn't clear to me what a fan is supposed to do with this reward. I guess you could try using it to offset some sales taxes? 

I miss the Deluxe Digital Promotion. We got 10% back. Meanwhile, Nintendo doesn't even try to explain their discrimination against physical purchases here. I feel like they're trying to make me go extinct...


You probably already know this, but the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program exists on KoopaTV. Unlike My Nintendo, you don't need to make an account. The benefits aren't worthless. It is completely transparent, and nothing expires. It tends to receive rave reviews when asked about on KoopaTV's Feedback Forms — filling those out (and their quiz companions) are a fantastic way to earn points. Commenting is great, too.


Having an incentive to purchase digital games plays well into Nintendo's ultimate goal of one Switch per person.