Warning: Club Nintendo about to reset member status

Submitted by Joe Fourhman on May 25, 2009 – 1:19 pm9 Comments

clubnreset Club Nintendo members, check your email. A warning went out last week with the scary sentence “your status will be reset” on June 30, 2009. Knowing Nintendo, this information was probably hidden inside a FAQ back when Club Nintendo launched, but this jolting email was the first I’ve heard of their bizarro reset policy.

Here’s how it works: the “Club Nintendo year” goes from July 1 to June 30. If you attain Gold or Platinum status within that year, you will receive “a special thank you gift from Nintendo before the end of the calendar year.” IE, December. Everyone’s status is reset on June 30, so you have another year to accrue points and work toward whatever the next free gift will be. (T-shirt? Desktop background? Mother? Start speculating now.)

Your coins – the currency you’ve earned by registering games and taking surveys – will NOT be reset. But note that coins do expire, roughly two years after you earn them. You need 300 coins within a Club Nintendo Year to earn Gold elite status, and 600 for Platinum. I have 1440. This reset makes me wish I had waited to register my DSi.

So if you’re already at Gold or Platinum status, my advice is to not register any new retail games, not buy new WiiWare/DSiWare games, and not take any surveys until after July 1… so those coins count towards the next year’s elite status.

Tags: club nintendo, coins, dsi, Nintendo, wii

http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Sadowski/506807615 Tony Sadowski

I predict I'll reach Gold status before June 30.

Woot.
JoeFourhman

Since I'm at least Triple Platinum, I expect THREE of whatever dopey thing Nintendo is sending out.
StephenJMunn

I remember seeing mention of this in the details when they launched the site. At the time they didn't mention whether points would vanish at the time, which explains why the email makes sure to point out you don't lose your points. The status is solely for this purpose: depending on how much money you spend on Nintendo's stuff, you get a prize at the end of the year. Of course they'd reset that every year, or once you hit platinum you'd just stop buying.

You're right about not registering any more games now since I'm already at Platinum. I used some of my points to buy a DS game case, which is actually pretty sweet.
JoeFourhman

My only beef with this is that it feels like they're taking something away. They're not, of course, but mentally it makes me feel like I'm getting kicked in the junk a bit.

I think a better solution would be to maintain some kind of status label system, like Gold 2008… Platinum 2009… Gold 2010… so we would still have that achievement-like tag memory of the years we bought heavy. Start the count over every year, but still keep the old labels around.
MoFaJo

will you have to pay with some of your coins or will the “gift” be completely free?
your face

That's completely retarded. If you get 610 coins before June 30th, the last 10 coins should go towards Platinum status next year. So when July 1 comes, you should only need 590 coins to get that year's platinum rank.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Sadowski/506807615 Tony Sadowski

Gold status reached. Gonna' get me a…um…amazing, thank you gift.

WOOT!
your face

That's completely retarded. If you get 610 coins before June 30th, the last 10 coins should go towards Platinum status next year. So when July 1 comes, you should only need 590 coins to get that year's platinum rank.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Sadowski/506807615 Tony Sadowski

Gold status reached. Gonna' get me a…um…amazing, thank you gift.

WOOT!