Earlier this year, we bid farewell to Club Nintendo, the Kyoto company’s loyalty program of sorts which rewarded gamers for buying its first party (and a handful of third-party titles) with free gifts and cool prizes.
Later in the service’s life, it shifted such that rewards were almost exclusively digital downloads of games, only one of which, Grill-Off with Ultra Hand! was designed exclusively for the program.
When the service shut down in June, we were told that there would be a replacement program launching, but were not given any details as to how it would work. Today, alongside the announcement of Miitomo and Nintendo Account, the company has announced My Nintendo.
There will be a few components making up My Nintendo, including the ability to message friends regardless of the Nintendo device or smartphone they have, earning and redeeming points a la Club Nintendo, and receiving in-game content and “personalized offers” from Nintendo for the games most played with that account.
Nintendo is planning to launch the service alongside its first mobile game, Miitomo, which is due out in March of 2016.
We’re unsure how My Nintendo will be different from Nintendo Account seeing as both seem to have friends list and communication capabilities. Perhaps it would have been better to have finally created a single unifying account system that integrates everything into a single user name.
Alas, we will have to wait and see how My Nintendo and Nintendo Account work together to create what Nintendo hopes to be the future of gaming and communication on its many platforms.