A look at the past and future of Nintendo's loyalty program.

As I was filling out surveys and rummaging through my old games for unused product codes, a part of me felt saddened by the loss of Club Nintendo. I have been a member of the Big N’s loyalty program since 2011, and many a gaming memorabilia were redeemed and proudly displayed on my bookshelf since then. Of course, 2011 was quite a while ago, and 2008 even more so when the program first started. As we wind down the final few weeks of CN, I thought it would be nice to look back at how it all started, and look forward to see what might come next.

Despite its launch in 2008 for North American territories, Club Nintendo began in Japan in late 2003. Much like the Club Nintendo we know today, the Japanese Club Nintendo offered exclusive rewards to its members, including a television remote modeled after the Wii Remote even before the Wii was released in that region. Europe actually saw a form of Club Nintendo even earlier than that, however, in 2002 by the name of Nintendo VIP 24:7; the service changed its name to Club Nintendo to coincide with the launch of the Wii. North America was last to join the Club Nintendo party in 2008, after years of debate as to whether such a program could be sustainable in such a large region (and we now know the answer to that question: it is not).

Club Nintendo thrived for much of the Wii era in all regions, rewarding players for purchasing games and hardware. Players who gained enough points from purchasing games would get an exclusive “gold” or “platinum” reward at the end of the year for their loyalty. In 2011, Nintendo of America began offering digital download codes for games in exchange for points, the first sign of things to come for the service. It became clear that Nintendo no longer had a vested interest in supporting their loyalty program, at least not as strongly as before. Before we knew it, Nintendo announced the end of Club Nintendo earlier this year, promising a worthwhile replacement some time this upcoming fall.

So now that the old Club Nintendo is gone, what is next? Clearly, the old model had its issues; logistically, it did not make sense for such an archaic system of services to exist, especially when you consider how little Nintendo must get from the thousands of surveys they get every year (when was the last time you actually filled one of those things out sincerely?). With the proliferation of social media, Nintendo could get all of that feedback and more, for free, all without the need to handle and maintain a service that could not keep up with the times.

Here are some of my ideas for a new and improved Club Nintendo. At this point, it is less about getting feedback from the customer, but more about strengthening the community surrounding the company in an effort to maintain an online presence and create consumer buzz. I believe the ideas discussed below would accomplish just that.

Exclusive Demos

As of late, Nintendo has been experimenting with distributing exclusive demos to select Club Nintendo members. This became an enormous deal when they began giving out codes for the special demo version of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. Clearly, there is interest from their consumer base to obtain demos of upcoming games early, and it is a great way to generate conversation outside of their own advertising before a game is released.

It is likely that the next Club Nintendo will be directly attached to the user Nintendo Network ID. Thus, there is no longer a need to send download codes via email and input a long list of letters and numbers just to try a game out. This streamlined system is much better than the one that currently exists, and it would facilitate discussion about a game before it launches.

eShop Discounts

One of the biggest problems with the Wii U and 3DS is that the release schedule for both platforms are relatively thin. It is not uncommon to pick up and play your 3DS for two weeks and then leave it sitting on your desk for a month until the next big release comes out. Fortunately, that is not the case with the Nintendo eShop, where new games are released every week, whether that be original download titles or virtual console games from legacy systems. But not everyone buys from the Nintendo eShop; I myself have only purchased a few products from their digital storefront despite being an owner of both their platforms—primarily because I never have any idea what I should buy.

Nintendo would be smart to offer discounts on older eShop titles to Club Nintendo members. Again, an integrated Club Nintendo and Nintendo Network System would make this easy to do. By highlighting older titles and putting them on sale, people like me would be more inclined to check them out and, if the game is cheap enough, purchase them on the fly. Another idea is to extend Nintendo’s Digital Deluxe program for Wii U, which gave players credit back on every eShop purchase they made. If Nintendo wants to get more people to purchase digital games, this is perhaps the best way to go about accomplishing that.

Event Invites

The summer before the launch of the Wii U, Nintendo invited several Club Nintendo members to exclusive preview events around North America to try out their new console early. As a huge Nintendo fan at the time, getting an invitation felt super special to me, even though it was pretty obvious that I was not the only one who got one.

For fans like me, event invites mean a lot. In a way, it almost felt as if Nintendo was sending me a gift of gratitude thanking me for being a lifelong fan. Unfortunately, Nintendo has not really been doing anything of the sort recently, despite the numerous preview events you hear about from press sites like IGN. It would be nice if, once in a while, Nintendo would take a look at your interests and invite you to exclusive preview events every once in a while. It would cost them very little, and judging by the amount of attention bloggers get nowadays, it could help them with their publicity problem in the long run.

Those are all the ideas I have for a new Club Nintendo. Again, I believe that the best way for the new Club Nintendo to be successful is to foster a strong sense of community among fans, something that the old system really did not have. Only time will tell if this is the case, and if true, how long something like this could last.

But what about you guys? What would you like to see in the new Club Nintendo? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!