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GoNintendo 'End of Day' thought - So long, Club Nintendo

by rawmeatcowboy
02 July 2015
GN Version 5.0

So nice to be back in the regular swing of things. E3 is complete insanity, including the weeks before and week after. Now we're getting back into the usual groove. Nice to return to normalcy. That includes me actually getting some sleep! See you in a few, short hours.

There was a very long time in Nintendo history where we never had Club Nintendo. Japanese Nintendo fans had the service, and Nintendo fans around the rest of the world were quite jealous. Then one glorious day, Nintendo let us in on a secret. They were bringing the Club Nintendo service worldwide. Soon we would have an online portal that would reward our Nintendo purchases with all sorts of fancy goodies. So much fun was had...but now those good times have come to an end.

No one would say that Club Nintendo was perfect. There were issues with supplies and plenty of items that never made it outside of Japan. Some of the special reward tiers were a bit lackluster, not giving us quite the goodies we wanted to spend our points on. People started gaming the system in some instances and were registering fake codes to get the merchandise they wanted. As I said, Club Nintendo wasn't perfect...but what is?

Club Nintendo was something that Nintendo never had to do. We could have just as easily never gotten Club Nintendo outside of Japan. Hell, Club Nintendo didn't have to exist at all. Lucky for us, it did exist. Nintendo put together a special service that showed their fans that the Big N cares. They may make mistakes from time to time, but Nintendo certainly appreciates their fan. That's why we got a service that birthed all sorts of fantastic merchandise. There's hardly a Nintendo fan out there that doesn't have some sort of trinket, accessory, poster or good from Club Nintendo somewhere in their house.

But as I said, those days have come and gone. Club Nintendo has now shuttered its virtual doors. It's certainly a sad thing, but there's a silver lining. Nintendo says they recognized the issues of Club Nintendo and they want to do better. They are already hard at work on another loyalty program to thank fans for supporting their games. It sounds like the service will be a complete revamp of ideas...a new Club Nintendo for the fans of today. While I'm quite sad to see Club Nintendo go, I can't wait to see what takes its place. All we have to do is sit back and wait!