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====Criticism====
====Criticism====
Some criticism comes from the fact that the Nintendo of Europe Stars Catalogue is only available to members in the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Ireland]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Germany]], [[Belgium]], [[France]], [[Spain]], [[Italy]] and later [[Portugal]]. [[Bergsala]] who is responsible for all Nintendo-related distribution in Scandinavia, closed down Club Nintendo in the region at the end of year 2006 and writes in their website that the reason being it wasn't economically viable to keep Club Nintendo going.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nintendo.se/arkivet/faq/club-nintendo |title=Club Nintendo - finns det i Sverige? - Nintendo i Sverige |language={{sv icon}} |publisher=Nintendo.se |date= |accessdate=2012-10-25}}</ref> Nintendo of Europe's website is notorious for becoming easily overwhelmed by traffic when quantities of the more valuable items are added, which often causes difficulty for customers who are attempting to make purchases.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}} There was also some consternation that very few items were added to the site for an extended period of time, with the frequency of larger batches of non-digital items being added becoming quite rare.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}}
Some criticism comes from the fact that the Nintendo of Europe Stars Catalogue is only available to members in the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Ireland]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Germany]], [[Belgium]], [[France]], [[Spain]], [[Italy]] and later [[Portugal]]. [[Bergsala]] who is responsible for all Nintendo-related distribution in [[Scandinavia]], closed down Club Nintendo in the region at the end of year 2006 and writes in their website that the reason being it wasn't economically viable to keep Club Nintendo going.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nintendo.se/arkivet/faq/club-nintendo |title=Club Nintendo - finns det i Sverige? - Nintendo i Sverige |language={{sv icon}} |publisher=Nintendo.se |date= |accessdate=2012-10-25}}</ref> Nintendo of Europe's website is notorious for becoming easily overwhelmed by traffic when quantities of the more valuable items are added, which often causes difficulty for customers who are attempting to make purchases.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}} There was also some consternation that very few items were added to the site for an extended period of time, with the frequency of larger batches of non-digital items being added becoming quite rare.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}}


In March 2007 during a test of the new Wii Points purchasing system, 1000 Wii Points accidentally appeared in the stars catalogue for a price of 789 stars. Nintendo of Europe offered anyone who purchased these either 1000 Wii Points or a refund of their stars.<ref>[http://gonintendo.com/?p=15317 Go Nintendo » Blog Archive » Nintendo makes good on Euro points/stars mistake- What are you waiting for?<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[http://ms.nintendo-europe.com/wiipointtransfer/php/index.php ]{{dead link|date=October 2012}}</ref> In addition, upon the official launch of the Wii Points Cards offer, the website was swamped with traffic, meaning very few people could login and take advantage of the Wii Points trade on offer. The system has also been criticised because the Wii Points Card codes are only available in limited stock, and so it can be hard to get hold of them at times.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}}
In March 2007 during a test of the new Wii Points purchasing system, 1000 Wii Points accidentally appeared in the stars catalogue for a price of 789 stars. Nintendo of Europe offered anyone who purchased these either 1000 Wii Points or a refund of their stars.<ref>[http://gonintendo.com/?p=15317 Go Nintendo » Blog Archive » Nintendo makes good on Euro points/stars mistake- What are you waiting for?<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[http://ms.nintendo-europe.com/wiipointtransfer/php/index.php ]{{dead link|date=October 2012}}</ref> In addition, upon the official launch of the Wii Points Cards offer, the website was swamped with traffic, meaning very few people could login and take advantage of the Wii Points trade on offer. The system has also been criticised because the Wii Points Card codes are only available in limited stock, and so it can be hard to get hold of them at times.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}}

Revision as of 12:59, 25 November 2012

Club Nintendo
Official logo of the Club Nintendo program
DeveloperNintendo
TypeLoyalty Program
WebsiteOfficial US website
Official Europe/Australian website
Official Japan website

Club Nintendo is the name of several publications and a more well-known customer loyalty program provided by Nintendo. The loyalty program is free to join and is committed to providing rewards in exchange for consumer feedback and loyalty to purchasing official Nintendo products. Members of Club Nintendo may earn credits or "coins" by submitting codes found on Nintendo products and systems, which may be traded in for special edition items only available on Club Nintendo. Rewards include objects such as playing cards, tote bags, downloadables, and warranty extensions on select Nintendo products.

Publications

Europe

In Europe, Club Nintendo was the name of three magazines which started publishing in 1989. The European version was published in several languages, and there were separate publications for Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Slovenia. All were later discontinued and eventually replaced. The last German issue was published in August 2002.[1]

North America

Mexico

Club Nintendo is the name of the official Nintendo magazine in Mexico .

The magazine was founded in December 1990 by José "Pepe" Sierra and Gustavo "Gus" Rodríguez. It was the first magazine in Mexico about Nintendo made by fans of video games, and quickly became the leading game magazine in México . [citation needed]

Oceania

Australia

In Australia Club Nintendo was a magazine that started in 1991 & was released by Catalyst Publishing in Melbourne. A thin magazine that was roughly 31 pages it featured very few screenshots of games. Australia eventually received their own version of Nintendo Magazine System by which time this magazine had ceased. Catalyst Publishing later took over Nintendo Magazine System in 1996 from the previous publisher.

Loyalty program

The Club Nintendo loyalty program offers rewards to members who collect points (sometimes referred to as "Stars" or "Star Points", the program is also commonly known as the Stars Catalogue; the North American Club uses "Coins") which are gained primarily by purchasing and registering certain first-party hardware and software titles by Nintendo. Points are also awarded for the purchase of select third-party titles, and can also be obtained by participating in surveys, inviting others to become a Club Nintendo member or even simply visiting a web site.

Rewards range from digital content such as computer wallpaper, music and mobile phone ringtones, to physical items such as keyrings, calendars, t-shirts and other clothing items, to premium items such as soundtrack albums and game controllers. Some of the premium rewards are even Club Nintendo exclusive video games. These video games can be either digital content (WiiWare, DSiWare) or a physical item (Wii, DS) depending on how, on a game by game basis, they are offered. Many reward items are exclusive to particular Club Nintendo territories, and physical items are sometimes only available in limited quantities.

Africa

South Africa

Club Nintendo launched in South Africa in June 2008.[2]

Asia

Japan

File:Super mario galaxy 2 soundtrack.jpg
A reward released in Japan.

Club Nintendo (Japanese: クラブニンテンドー) is an official Nintendo club for Japanese fans. It launched on October 31, 2003 and was the second Nintendo reward program to be set (Coming after the European Nintendo VIP 24:7 program) but was the first to be called Club Nintendo.

The Japanese Club Nintendo offers rewards such as Wii Remotes with television remote control functionality, exclusive and unreleased games such as Tingle's Balloon Fight DS and Exclamation Warriors Sakeburein, game soundtrack CDs and exclusive accessories such as a Super Famicom style Classic Controller for the Wii.[3]

Europe

Club Nintendo in Europe was launched as Nintendo VIP 24:7 on May 3, 2002, to coincide with the European launch of the Nintendo GameCube. It promised exclusive news, reviews, previews and forums to members. However, because released titles are often delayed in European countries (usually due to localization), the exclusive features could be often found elsewhere on the internet.[4] To coincide with the release of the Wii, VIP 24:7 was renamed to Club Nintendo and adopted the Japanese Club Nintendo logo.

The Club Nintendo of Europe features a Star Points system where members can exchange stars earned by registering games and consoles for items in the Stars Catalogue, and for Wii Points to use in the Wii Shop Channel, which are available only in sets of 100, 300, 500 and 1000 Points.[5] Originally, a maximum of two Wii Points Cards per day per account was available for purchase; this later changed to one a day.[6] Since September 2008, stars can also be used to buy singles and albums at the music online store emusu.com. At the time of writing, June 2010, music download vouchers no longer appear in the Club Nintendo Stars Catalogue, and the actual download site www.emusu.com/backstage is unavailable[7]

Members enter PIN codes found on inserts included with certain games and hardware to earn stars. These can range from 100 to 1000 stars in value. Upon registering as a member on Nintendo of Europe's website, one is rewarded with 250 stars. Encouraging other people to register with Nintendo of Europe earns members 250 stars per sign-up.[8] After registering, members can choose to receive special emails from Nintendo, which can include surveys which also reward members with stars. Daily visits to the website also once earned members 5 stars per day, but this was later removed.

Criticism

Some criticism comes from the fact that the Nintendo of Europe Stars Catalogue is only available to members in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and later Portugal. Bergsala who is responsible for all Nintendo-related distribution in Scandinavia, closed down Club Nintendo in the region at the end of year 2006 and writes in their website that the reason being it wasn't economically viable to keep Club Nintendo going.[9] Nintendo of Europe's website is notorious for becoming easily overwhelmed by traffic when quantities of the more valuable items are added, which often causes difficulty for customers who are attempting to make purchases.[citation needed] There was also some consternation that very few items were added to the site for an extended period of time, with the frequency of larger batches of non-digital items being added becoming quite rare.[citation needed]

In March 2007 during a test of the new Wii Points purchasing system, 1000 Wii Points accidentally appeared in the stars catalogue for a price of 789 stars. Nintendo of Europe offered anyone who purchased these either 1000 Wii Points or a refund of their stars.[10][11] In addition, upon the official launch of the Wii Points Cards offer, the website was swamped with traffic, meaning very few people could login and take advantage of the Wii Points trade on offer. The system has also been criticised because the Wii Points Card codes are only available in limited stock, and so it can be hard to get hold of them at times.[citation needed]

At the beginning of June 2007, Nintendo of Europe revealed that starting July 1, 2007, they will make drastic changes to their privacy policy. Any stars that members have earned before then will vanish from their accounts on July 1, 2008, and any stars earned after that date will disappear two years after earning them. Members who choose not to accept the new privacy policy will lose all their stars instantly and have their account locked. Members who registered after the Wii's European launch date, December 8, 2006, are not affected.

Another highly controversial subject is the quality of the rewards, which tend to be far higher in Japan than the other regions.

North America

Previously, questions were raised over Club Nintendo's conspicuous absence in the region. In 2007, then-vice president of Marketing and Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America Inc. Perrin Kaplan stated that the inclusion area of the US is much larger than all the other Club Nintendo countries, and that the program was considered prohibitively expensive to set up. Kaplan also said that the company considered the pre-order bonuses and game registration promos it offered were an alternative to Club Nintendo.[12] Nintendo of America ultimately relented due to customer demand [13] and announced that a Club Nintendo program for North America on October 2, 2008,[14]

The program was launched on December 15, 2008, retiring the My Nintendo registration program.[15][16] The site experienced high traffic at its initial launch, resulting in login problems and slow load times for users.[17] It was taken offline on December 24, 2008, reopening almost a week later on December 30 with noticeable infrastructure improvements. The North American catalogue was developed in conjunction with Nintendo Australia, and the Club uses Coins instead of Stars for points.[18]

The program's rewards feature a combination of Nintendo character-themed items like Japanese sensu fans and hand towels, exclusive Club Nintendo branded accessories, and games that celebrate the company's history.[19] The first such game to be made available for the North American Club Nintendo was the Game & Watch Collection for the Nintendo DS, and Game & Watch Collection 2 is also available. The original WiiWare title Grill Off! with Ultra Hand, which pays homage to the Ultra Hand, one of the company's most successful pre-video game products, was made available to program participants on March 31, 2010.

Program participants who meet 300-Coin "Gold" or 600-Coin "Platinum" benchmarks within the Club Nintendo year also receive exclusive items. In 2009, a special standalone WiiWare version of Punch-Out!!, called Doc Louis's Punch-Out!!, was made available as one of two possible rewards for Platinum members, along with a red plush "Mario" hat.[20] In 2010, Platinum members were given a plastic statuette featuring characters from the Mario games.[21] In 2011, Platinum members were given a selection of 25 Mario themed collector buttons. Between 2009 and 2011, Gold members were sent a calendar featuring characters from a variety of Nintendo games. In 2012, Gold members could choose one of a selection of downloadable games including Super Mario Kart, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March again, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, or a 2013 calendar featuring various Nintendo franchises. Platinum members could choose one of the Gold awards or additionally choose from a set of plastic Mario playing cards, or a limited edition poster set including Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Kid Icarus Uprising posters. These posters are said to have "special printing effects" but Nintendo hasn't said what they are yet.

In 2011, Nintendo started offering downloadable games through the 3DS and the Wii. These typically range from 100 to 200 coins. There are two to four games offered, which change each month. Starting on July 2012, Nintendo will set the different expired date on each game and after the date of the game was passed, Nintendo will replace that game with the different game.

List of Club Nintendo games released by Month

15 December 2011 to 10 January 2012 [22]
Super Mario Kart (100 Coins)
3D Classics: Xevious (100 Coins)
Fluidity (150 Coins)
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again (150 Coins)

10 to 31 January 2012[23]
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (150 coins)
Dr. Mario Online Rx (100 coins)
Kirby's Dream Land (100 coins)
Dr. Mario Express (150 coins)

February 2012[24]
Mario Party 2 Wii Virtual Console
Art Academy: First Semester DSiWare

March 2012[25]
Art Style: Cubello (WiiWare) — 100 Coins
Mario's Picross (3DS Virtual Console) — 100 Coins
Radar Mission (3DS Virtual Console) — 100 Coins

April 2012[26]
You, Me, and the Cubes WiiWare 200 Coins
Excitebike World Rally WiiWare 200 Coins
Metal Torrent 3DS 150 Coins

May 2012[27]
PiCTOBiTS DsiWare
Urban Champion 3D Classics
Eco Shooter WiiWare
Snowpack Park WiiWare

June 2012[28]
3DS Virtual Console Donkey Kong (Game Boy) — 100 Coins.
DSiWare Brain Age Express: Sudoku (this reward is only available through the 3DS eShop) — 150 Coins.
Wii Virtual Console Kirby Super Star (Super NES) — 150 Coins
WiiWare Maboshi's Arcade — 150 Coins.

July 2012
Mario Tennis (150 coins, N64 via Virtual Console) (Until July 22)[29]
Electroplankton Rec-Rec (100 coins, DSiWare) (Until July 15)[29]
Starship Defense (150 Coins, DSiWare) (July 15 to 29)
Bonsai Barber (150 Coins, WiiWare) (July 23 to August 5)
Golf (150 Coins, Game Boy) (July 30 to August 12).

August 2012
Fluidity (150 Coins) (August 5 to 19).
3D Classics Excitebike (150 Coins) (August 13 to 26)
NES Play Action Football (100 Coins) (August 19 to September 3)
Tennis (150 coins, Game Boy) (August 27 to September 9).

September 2012
Super Smash Bros. (200 Coins) (September 4 to 16).
Art Academy: First Semester (150 Coins) (September 10 to 23)
PictureBook Games: Pop-Up Pursuit (150 Coins) (September 17 to 30)
Birds & Beans (100 Coins) (September 24 to October 7)
3D Classics: Urban Champion (150 Coins) (October 8 - October 21)

Oceania

Club Nintendo in Australia was launched on April 24, 2008 to coincide with the release of Mario Kart Wii, with the website, catalogue and product registration going live on March 11, 2009 using the same system offered by Nintendo of Europe.[30] Nintendo Australia has asserted that the Australian Club Nintendo reward catalogue will be unique from that of Club Nintendo Europe and Club Nintendo Japan, and was developed in conjunction with Nintendo of America. However, unlike its North American counterpart, the Australian service uses Stars instead of Coins - the same as its European counterpart.

All games either distributed or published by Nintendo Australia after Mario Kart Wii will contain a card that allows buyers to register their games for Club Nintendo points.

Club Nintendo Australia is for both Australians and New Zealanders, as there is no Nintendo of New Zealand.

References

  1. ^ The NES Fountain
  2. ^ Nintendo News
  3. ^ "SNES Controller for Wii - IGN". Wii.ign.com. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  4. ^ Gaming World - X Clusive Across the Pond: European Gamecube Launch Special
  5. ^ Nintendo Europe Wii Points Card Shop (2007-12-07). "Wii Points Card Shop". Nintendo.
  6. ^ Wii Points Card Shop FAQ
  7. ^ Europe: stars for music - full details
  8. ^ [1][dead link]
  9. ^ "Club Nintendo - finns det i Sverige? - Nintendo i Sverige" (in Template:Sv icon). Nintendo.se. Retrieved 2012-10-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  10. ^ Go Nintendo » Blog Archive » Nintendo makes good on Euro points/stars mistake- What are you waiting for?
  11. ^ [2][dead link]
  12. ^ Contact Brian Ashcraft: Comment (2007-10-25). "Why There Is No Club Nintendo in America". Kotaku.com. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  13. ^ Nelson, Randy (2008-10-02). "live from Nintendo's fall media summit". Joystiq. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  14. ^ Liveblog: Nintendo's U.S. Press Conference
  15. ^ Club Nintendo is up and running…brings Game & Watch Collection for the Nintendo DS and other goodies along for the ride
  16. ^ Nintendo's Home Page as of February 13, 2005
  17. ^ Kotaku:Club Nintendo Is Live, Slow & Buggy
  18. ^ Club Nintendo coming soon - we deal with coins, not stars
  19. ^ "Rewards Catalog". Club Nintendo. 2010-08-23. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  20. ^ Take on Doc Louis in a Club Nintendo Exclusive Punch-Out!! Game
  21. ^ Super Mario collector figurine
  22. ^ by JC Fletcher on Dec 15th 2011 11:00AM (2011-12-15). "Now you can exchange Club Nintendo Coins for games". Joystiq. Retrieved 2012-10-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ "Club Nintendo: New Games Added to Rewards Catalog - IGN". Wii.ign.com. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  24. ^ http://www.destructoid.com/your-new-february-club-nintendo-games-are-here-220870.phtml
  25. ^ "New Club Nintendo March games debut". Destructoid. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  26. ^ "Club Nintendo's April games are out". Destructoid. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  27. ^ "Club Nintendo's Games of May Revealed - IGN". Wii.ign.com. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  28. ^ "June's Club Nintendo Rewards are Here". Nintendo Life. 2012-06-01. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  29. ^ a b "Club Nintendo's July digital offerings are live". Destructoid. Retrieved 2012-10-25.
  30. ^ Club Nintendo Australia goes live (we're not kidding)
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