• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Explain like I'm 5 - Nintendo Reward Points

M

mocoworm

Member
Can someone please explain in the most basic terms, how to use Nintendo Reward Points?

I am new to Nintendo online and it's a little confusing.

  • Do I need to use https://my.nintendo.com/ to redeem them?
  • What is the difference in Platinum and Gold?
  • Do I have to use them in a specific time period?
  • Can I use them to get ££ off digital game purchases?
  • Can you only earn from certain games?
I currently have:

PLATINUM: 370
GOLD: 30

I got my gold from buying Zeda:BOTW and MarioKart8 and the platinum for other online stuff like getting emails and signing into the site it would seem. I got 300 for signing in near my birthday!

Is there any real value in these points or are they something that accumulate and you never use? There doesn't seem much on the site to make me need to actively try and increase my point balance.

TL:DR - Are points worth collecting. What is your take on them?
 
  • Buy physical/digital Nintendo games and get Gold Coins.
  • Do activities in mobile Nintendo games and get Platinum Coins.
  • Go on My.Nintendo.com to redeem coins for wallpapers, discounts on digital games, and hopefully more in the near future.

Gold are more valuable since they only come from BUYING games (whether digital or physical on Switch and collecting points from the cart).

But Nintendo has barely made anything worthwhile on the store. It sulks in the shadow of the former NintendoClub. That's not say it can't turn around. But coins do expire after 6 months or a year or some time. MyNintendo will tell you if you have any coins going to expire soon.
 
TL;DR - No; I just watch them expiring.

Edit; That said you can still easily get Zelda Picross for 3DS. Go for it!
 
mocoworm said:
Can someone please explain in the most basic terms, how to use Nintendo Reward Points?

I am new to Nintendo online and it's a little confusing.

  • Do I need to use https://my.nintendo.com/ to redeem them?
  • What is the difference in Platinum and Gold?
  • Do I have to use them in a specific time period?
  • Can I use them to get ££ off digital game purchases?
  • Can you only earn from certain games?
I currently have:

PLATINUM: 370
GOLD: 30

I got my gold from buying Zeda:BOTW and MarioKart8 and the platinum for other online stuff like getting emails and signing into the site it would seem. I got 300 for signing in near my birthday!

Is there any real value in these points or are they something that accumulate and you never use? There doesn't seem much on the site to make me need to actively try and increase my point balance.

TL:DR - Are points worth collecting. What is your take on them?
Click to expand...

[*]Do I need to use https://my.nintendo.com/ to redeem them? Yes. You click on whatever you want and you'll see the prompt of how to redeem them.

[*]What is the difference in Platinum and Gold? Gold points potentially get you better deals like discounts or even a free game(the latter being very rare....) and Platinum points get you rather lackluster rewards like wallpapers but they can also be discounts too, just smaller ones.

[*]Do I have to use them in a specific time period? Platinum points expire in 6 months. Gold expires in a year

[*]Can I use them to get ££ off digital game purchases? Yes but only what they want you to have a discount on, not every single game whenever....

[*]Can you only earn from certain games? You get gold points from all digital purchases and you earn platinum points from their mobile game's achievements(Mario Run & FE Heroes) as well as signing into Miiverse/eshop etc...


My Nintendo pretty much sucks right now compared to what Club Nintendo was back in the day. They would give you choices of multiple free games or physical merchandise for your loyalty.
 
Platinum coins are earned through missions while Gold are earned through purchases. Gold is somehow more valuable than Platinum. You can automatically redeem via digital purchases or redeem via physical purchases by pressing start on the Switch menu while over it (i believe)
Nintendo made a pretty big deal about MyNintendo and I think they care about it, but it's been underwhelming after starting somewhat strong with exclusive digital content. There is no Switch section this far in, maybe they'll have something good

Gold coins Last a year, btw
 
Gold ones you might as well collect since they come with purchases and they may offer a discount on a Switch game you want eventually (only 3DS and Wii U games still at the moment).

The others are mostly useless if you don't play the mobile games as they're most useful for buying items for those games. There's some other stuff like a Zelda TP Picross game for 3DS, 3DS themes and I think some 3DS game discounts as well, but nothing for Swtich yet--so maybe eventually but still not worth going out of your way for if you're not using them with the mobile games currently IMO.
 
I had around 1000 or something last year that expired(Around the time I got an email alert), but I've never really used them since 2008 or something, so I'm sure a lot of people like me are just sitting on their point codes without activating them.
 
Verelios said:
I had around 1000 or something last year that expired(Around the time I got an email alert), but I've never really used them since 2008 or something, so I'm sure a lot of people like me are just sitting on their point codes without activating them.
Click to expand...
MyNintendo is from last year. Club Nintendo has been dead for several
 
it's like airmiles.

it's fucking nothing!
 
If you don't own a 3DS or a Wii-U, they aren't really worth anything ATM. I have about 8000 Platinum coins and 250 gold. Nothing at all to use them on and yes, they do expire. There's an option on the site that shows you a breakdown of when that'll happen.
 
My Nintendo couldn't be any more useless if they tried, and there is nothing in the world Nintendo cares less about than rewarding customer loyalty. It might be worth dabbling in platinum points briefly if you really like Picross, to get Twilight Princess Picross. Otherwise don't even waste the headspace on it.
 
I just burn all my points on fire emblem heroes stamina potions. Not much else there.

The only thing I would've bought with gold coins so far was a discount code for an eshop game, that was actually advertised in the store page for the game. But the offer had expired months prior, despite both the store page and the mynintendo page saying it was available.

The Wii U digital deluxe promotion and club nintendo stuff may not have held a candle to steam sales and the like, but this is pretty pathetic in comparison.
 
Do I need to use https://my.nintendo.com/ to redeem them?
Yes.

What is the difference in Platinum and Gold?
Gold is more valuable, they're used for different rewards.

Do I have to use them in a specific time period?
Yes, Platinum Points expire after 6 months, Gold Points expire after 12 months.

Can I use them to get ££ off digital game purchases?
Yes, you can purchase discounts and sometimes small games, this is the main reason to collect points. Although you can only purchase 3DS and Wii U stuff at the moment, Switch is "coming later".

Can you only earn from certain games?
Gold Points are awarded for any purchase on the eShop, Platinum Points are game-specific.

Tl;dr: Right now, they are worth collecting if you own a 3DS. There are some decent discounts, especially for eShop games. I'm sitting on 4000 platinum points hoping they add the Switch soon.
 
Points/coins are garbage. They're nothing compared to club nintendo.

It's nothing but mediocre discounts on old games, and there's literally nothing on switch to spend them on so mine are just deteriorating without being spent.
 
mocoworm said:
TL:DR - Are points worth collecting. What is your take on them?
Click to expand...
Not really. Not anymore.

This loyalty program used to be sorta decent, but the prices have inflated so much, and the rewards have actually gotten worse over time, so I've kinda stopped caring. I check the website to collect coins maybe once a month, when I used to do it weekly before.
 
The silver coins can be used to buy stuff for a few games that support it, mostly nintendo's current mobile games like fire emblem heroes and mario run.

You can also use points to get access to a discount on a game if there is a promotion running, for example 100 silver coins right now can get 30% off metroid 2 on 3DS, sometimes other games get these offers.

Gold coins do the same thing but for a few selective bonuses that are suppose to be special, for example part of the official BotW guide book for 10 coins... meh.
 
Sigh...I miss the Wii U Deluxe Digital Promo... You essentially got $5 off new $60 games. Far more useful to me than a potential 30% off a game i most likely already own....

You could even use the codes on the 3DS eShop.
 
mocoworm said:
TL:DR - Are points worth collecting. What is your take on them?
Click to expand...

They're one of the worst implementations of anything from Nintendo these last years. The only time I used them was literally at launch for that Zelda Picross promotional title, then platinum or gold who cares since I can only get small discounts on games I don't want.

Club Nintendo was meh for those who didn't want physical goods (at least until the "all out" promotions which were paradoxically good), but this whole reward system is plain garbage from my perspective.
 
CEJames said:
My Nintendo pretty much sucks right now compared to what Club Nintendo was back in the day. They would give you choices of multiple free games or physical merchandise for your loyalty.
Click to expand...

Club Nintendo didn't give me anything. Heck, I couldn't even participate!

So, by default, My Nintendo is heaps and heaps better. Nothing can change the fact.
 
right now i use platinum points only for get free stuff on fire emblem heroes, but i was hoping to use gold ones in a more productive way too..

Like premium stuff on Mobile games of Nintendo or even dlc for switch games, but it's turned out only on discount % of 3ds and wiiu games (almost all old games).

I still miss Club nintendo premium gifts.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I was kind of hoping that as a new Switch owner I could put them towards some digital games (FastRMX, Wonderboy) but sad to hear that this isn't the case.
 
I think nintendo missed a trick, they should have had a bumch of gold point discounts ready for switch launch, i probably would have bought a bunch of digital games just as an excuse to use up my points
 
They are not rewards. They are Nintendo's sophisticated experiment to determine how much worse they can make the Nintendo Online rewards while still getting paid.

They couldn't use data from XBox Live and PSN because both services are decades old.
 
They give you fake money to have some poo-poo rewards.

(That is if we compare to what they gave with Club Nintendo back then.)
 
Just had 70 gold points expire on the 1st. Nothing at all of value for me on there.

Here is a free MARIO kart 8 Wii U DLC pack 2 for somebody. I can't watch more of those points expire so somebody else please enjoy my rewards.

Code: 
B0R0 DGWF 2S2S 62P9
 
It's Nintendo's underwhelming rewards program. Right now you can spend the equivalent of two full priced Wii U games to get $2-4 off of a Virtual Console game, with a vague promise that there will be Switch rewards soon.

They're basically useless.
 
Nintendo doesn't even know how this thing works. It's garbage and an insult to their fans. Oh you want me to buy digital with zero discounts, zero reliability, can't utilize on multiple machines just to get Nintendo reward points that I can't even redeem? Sure, sign me up 🙄
 
Sp3eD said:
Just had 70 gold points expire on the 1st. Nothing at all of value for me on there.

Here is a free MARIO kart 8 Wii U DLC pack 2 for somebody. I can't watch more of those points expire so somebody else please enjoy my rewards.

Code: 
B0R0 DGWF 2S2S 62P9
Click to expand...
I took this lol.

Timeaisis said:
Wait how do you redeem your physical purchases as gold coins??
Click to expand...
According to Nintendo's website, it's only physical Switch games and you gotta have the game in the system. highlight the icon, access the software options menu, choose My Nintendo Rewards, then redeem points.

Also apparently you only get a fifth of the coins for physical games vs the digital versions so lmao.
 
CdSWYjW.png


amass coins, by playing things and logging into services

ULHDsan.png


Check this box every week and do nothing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Roblox Will Get a DLSS 5-Like AI Based Video Supersampler
4
168
Draugoth replied
[True Achievements] Microsoft quietly increases Rewards points price for Xbox gift cards
5
303
bighugeguns replied
I think Nintendo games feels like you are on some drugs
36
551
Kuranghi replied
EUROGAMER: If consoles are dead, how do we explain the phenomenal success of Nintendo?
2 3 4 5
226
3K
ExtendEmbraceExtinguish replied
I feel like the one company that should be a new challenger to Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft is Nvida
2
83
541
Xyphie replied
Top Bottom