Club Nintendo

• 1. Introduction

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  Club Nintendo launched in Japan on the 31st of October 2003, giving fans of Nintendo products a reason to hold onto their receipts and product inserts. But the program's roots go back further than that date suggests. In Europe, something called Nintendo VIP 24:7 had already been running since the 3rd of May 2002, and in Latin America, a printed magazine bearing the Club Nintendo name had existed since December 1991. What Nintendo had built, over more than two decades, was something more layered than a simple points card. It was a loyalty ecosystem with magazines, exclusive games, physical collectibles, and regional personalities all operating under the same brand. How did a single loyalty program come to mean such different things in different parts of the world? And why, after all that investment, did Nintendo choose to shut it down entirely?

• 2. The Magazine Years

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  In December 1991, José "Pepe" Sierra and Gustavo "Gus" Rodríguez founded the Club Nintendo magazine in Mexico. The two had previously worked on a bulletin for one of Nintendo's official stores in Mexico City, and the new magazine quickly became the leading game publication in the country. It was described as the first magazine in Mexico about Nintendo made by fans of video games.

  The Latin American edition eventually covered readers in Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, and Chile as well. The Mexico edition ran for nearly three decades before switching to an online-only format in January 2015, with December 2019 marking its final issue.

  Europe had its own Club Nintendo magazine story, and it started even earlier, in 1989. The European publication ran in multiple languages across a wide range of countries, including Germany, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and South Africa. The last German edition came out in August 2002.

  In Australia, a Club Nintendo magazine launched in 1991 under Catalyst Publishing in Melbourne. It ran to roughly 31 pages per issue and was notable for featuring very few screenshots of games. Australia eventually received Nintendo Magazine System as a separate publication, and Catalyst Publishing later took over that title from its previous publisher in 1996.

• 3. Coins, Stars, and Catalogues

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  Earning rewards in Club Nintendo depended on where you lived. North American members collected Coins, while European and Australian members accumulated Stars, sometimes called Star Points, through a system often referred to as the Stars Catalogue. The distinction was more than cosmetic; the programs operated largely independently.

  In Europe, members received 250 Stars just for registering on Nintendo of Europe's website, and could earn another 250 for each person they recruited. Each game or hardware insert contained a PIN code worth anywhere between 100 and 1,000 Stars. Daily website visits once added 5 Stars per day, though that option was later removed. Starting in September 2008, European members could also spend their Stars at emusu.com, a music download site that has since shut down.

  The Japan program offered some of the most distinctive rewards in the Club Nintendo world. Exclusive and unreleased games were part of the catalogue, including Tingle's Balloon Fight DS and Exclamation Warriors Sakeburein. Members could also claim game soundtrack CDs such as the Touch! Generations Soundtrack, as well as a Super Famicom style Classic Controller designed for the Wii.

  North America held out the longest before joining. In 2007, then-vice president of Marketing and Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America, Perrin Kaplan, stated publicly that the sheer size of the United States made a Club Nintendo program prohibitively expensive to set up. Kaplan also noted that Nintendo considered its pre-order bonuses and game registration promos a functional alternative. The company ultimately reversed course due to customer demand, announcing a North American program in October 2008.

• 4. North America Arrives Late

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  On the 15th of December 2008, Club Nintendo finally launched in North America, retiring the earlier My Nintendo registration program that had been in place since 2002. The debut was rough. High traffic immediately caused login problems and slow load times, and the site was taken offline on the 24th of December 2008. It reopened almost a week later on the 30th of December with infrastructure improvements in place.

  North American members who reached the 300-Coin Gold threshold or the 600-Coin Platinum threshold within a Club Nintendo year, running from July 1 through June 30, received exclusive items as annual rewards. Platinum items tended to be premium physical goods such as plush hats or posters.

  The program produced some genuinely unusual collectibles. Among the most notable Platinum rewards was Doc Louis's Punch-Out!!, a standalone WiiWare version of the game available only through Club Nintendo. Nintendo even wove a reference to the promotion into the Wii release of Punch-Out!!, where Doc Louis tells the player during a losing streak, "Join The Nintendo Fun- uh I mean Club Nintendo today, Mac." The line became a popular reference online.

  Another notable reward was a plastic statuette featuring the main characters from the Mario games. In 2011, Nintendo of America expanded the program to include download codes for games on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, with eight titles available at launch, changing roughly each month. Non-game reward orders were temporarily closed from the 18th of April 2014 until the 13th of May 2014, during which time five additional downloadable games were added to bring the total to nine.

• 5. Criticism and Inequality

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  Not every Club Nintendo member had the same experience, and the disparities drew sustained criticism. The Nintendo of Europe Stars Catalogue was initially available only to members in a narrow group of countries: the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, and later Portugal and Russia. Bergsala, the distributor responsible for Nintendo products across Scandinavia, shut down Club Nintendo in that region at the end of 2006 after determining it was not economically viable to continue.

  In 2014, Nintendo of America drew particular fire for its annual rewards. That year, Gold and Platinum members, who were required to spend significant money on Nintendo products to reach those thresholds, were offered only a selection of digital games already available on the eShop. Many members had already purchased those titles. News outlets noted repeatedly during the same period that Nintendo of America's overall offerings were considerably smaller than those available in Europe and Japan.

  Digital downloads only became available on the European Club Nintendo in mid-March 2015, roughly two months later than North America had received them. Across regions, the inconsistency in rewards, access, and timing was a recurring source of frustration for the program's most dedicated participants.

• 6. The End and What Came Next

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  On the 20th of January 2015, Nintendo announced that Club Nintendo would be discontinued across all regions during that year. The company named a successor program: My Nintendo. The announcement had been foreshadowed by changes Nintendo had already made. In September 2014, the Japanese edition had abolished member rank and made hardware ineligible for registration, including the then-upcoming New Nintendo 3DS. Australia followed a similar path, blocking New Nintendo 3DS registration from November 2014 onward.

  For North American members, Nintendo released a final batch of downloadable games on the 2nd of February 2015, totalling 117 titles. A 118th title, the Club Nintendo exclusive Grill-Off with Ultra Hand!, was also available, as was Doc Louis's Punch-Out!!, another previous exclusive. Products released after the 20th of January 2015 were ineligible for registration. The last day to earn Coins, register products, or sign up for Club Nintendo membership in North America was the 31st of March 2015. In Europe, the final day was the 1st of October 2015.

  As a parting gesture to North American members, Flipnote Studio 3D was made available for free for a limited time. European members who signed up to My Nintendo during its launch window also received Flipnote Studio 3D for free.

  On the 17th of March 2015, Nintendo announced a business partnership with DeNA and revealed My Nintendo as a cross-platform membership service planned to work across the Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, and devices including tablets, smartphones, and PCs. My Nintendo launched in Japan on the 17th of March 2016, alongside Miitomo, Nintendo's first mobile app. The global launch followed on the 31st of March 2016.