

Nintendo has revealed its ambitious new loyalty and account schemes, which will replace the now-defunct Club Nintendo. Players can expect web-based game shopping, better account connections and ways to earn free DLC.

In an investor call, the Kyoto-based gaming giant confirmed that the updated program will simply be called "Nintendo Account". A simple name perhaps, but the changes it brings show Nintendo is finally embracing digital media consumption.

Nintendo Account will allow cross-platform log-ins from social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Alternatively, players can continue to log in with an existing Nintendo Network ID, or create a new account to sign in using a more traditional email address and password. New Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima indicated that the change is designed to make it easier for consumers to connect with the company's services, saying "we have focused on making the new account easy to create or easy to sign up as well as easy to use -- namely, it is harder for members to forget about it."


One function that's getting the boot though is Nintendo's oft-maligned 'Friend Code' system. This is a good thing -- few will mourn the loss of the frustrating practice of having to mutually enter randomised, impossible to remember identifiers.

The eShop, Nintendo's answer to Xbox Live and PSN, will now be accessible from browsers, and purchases can be made online and queued up to download directly to your consoles. The new service will also send players notifications of DLC availability (Kimishima's example of "Mario Kart players may receive a notice about add-on content" possibly hinting at more content to come for the racer), and potentially offer bespoke discounts on each player's birthday.

As for the rewards scheme, Club Nintendo -- which ended on 30 September -- is replaced with "My Nintendo". Previously, each Nintendo-published game would come with a scratch card, containing a code, which had to be entered on a website, after filling out a three-page survey, in the hope that you would one day have enough points to get a free t-shirt or CD soundtrack. It was, to say the least, laborious.

Instead, while My Nintendo will still grant you points for buying games (although no information was given on how purchases will be redeemed -- please, Nintendo: no more surveys) you'll now earn them for simply playing. And what do points mean? "With the new points, you can obtain digital add-on content, which will make the game you are playing even more fun, original merchandise or a coupon, which can be used as a discount for new software."


Basically, play games, earn more playable content and actual collectible merchandise. Shots fired at Xbox Achievements and PSN Trophies, which only earn you bragging rights.

Nintendo also has plans to introduce cloud storage for game saves and character data, shareable between console and upcoming smartphone games, and "membership service benefits in other real-life facilities", while will include "theme parks, movie theaters and retail outlets".

My Nintendo and the Nintendo Account system are set to launch in March 2016.