Topic: Reggie: Challenging to Do Physical MyNintendo Rewards in North America

[Kairon]

The NOA President also talked about Virtual Console, why they revealed Metroid Prime 4, and compared Zelda and Mario Kart 8 in digital sales.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/44876/reggie-challenging-to-do-physical-mynintendo-rewards-in-north-america

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime didn't dismiss the idea of bringing physical rewards to MyNintendo in North America, but he said there are challenges to that happening. "I've got to create solutions that are going to work for Canada, that are going to work for Latin America," he shared during an interview with IGN, "Could I envision unique physical goods as part of the program? Sure. But it really needs to work for all of our consumers, not just the consumers in the United States."

Still, he said that Nintendo of America takes it "as a priority to make My Nintendo much more meaningful moving forward."

As for the open question of Nintendo's Virtual Console of legacy games appearing for purchase on the Nintendo Switch, Reggie said Nintendo was still trying to figure things out. "What we're working through is, 'okay, what's going to be the best way to make that happen, to make that available?'"

Asked about how digital sales compared to physical on the Nintendo Switch, Reggie revealed how The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sold well digitally, when taken as a percentage of sales Mario Kart 8 deluxe had more digital presence. "Truly every game is different" he said, later explaining that "The nature of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is something that you always want to have on the device."

IGN also asked Fils-Aime about the Metroid Prime 4 reveal considering it seemed so early in development and Nintendo as-of-late had focused heavily on featuring games that were much closer to release.

"You know, for us, we believe that having hands-on opportunity married to an announcement is really the best way to do it," admitted Fil-Aime. However, he continued that "for certain games, games that will be in development for, let’s call it a decent amount of time, like Metroid Prime 4 -- also, given that it’s a franchise that we know people have been very eager to get some news -- that’s when, fine, we’ll share it. We’ll share it early."

[Mop it up]

I don't think My Nintendo needs to have physical rewards. Just offer some actual digital game downloads, and not stingy discounts.

[Adrock]

I loved the physical rewards, but I realize how difficult it is for Nintendo to have them.

The structure of My Nintendo could use some work. It takes a while to rack up gold coins. They expire after a while. How reasonable is it to earn enough coins to exchange for some games?

[Soren]

The last time I logged in to MyNintendo was probably when we were asked to reserve our usernames for Switch (lol). The service has been nothing but an absolute failure but this is now pretty much expected from a company that refuses to price drop their games.

[lolmonade]

There were some cool things I got from club Nintendo (still use the 3 different DS/3DS cases I snatched up to keep my games nice and consolidated), but I'm not surprised they want to spare themselves from logistical challenges/costs involved with shipping physical goods.


I DO wish they'd offer some of these kind of things for sale though.  I'd buy a similar case for Switch games in a heartbeat, even if it were $15-20.

The last time I logged in to MyNintendo was probably when we were asked to reserve our usernames for Switch (lol). The service has been nothing but an absolute failure but this is now pretty much expected from a company that refuses to price drop their games.

Same here, and the problem is always that the discounts are on things that I likely already own.  I don't even know if the currency expires, but I get the feeling mine will unless there's something really compelling offered.

[lolmonade]

It's interesting also to note that in the Kotaku article I read with this interview, he specifically denied they use the term "virtual console" anymore when referring to games from legacy consoles.


Not sure what implications that has beyond branding the way they sell us SNES games, but interesting info nonetheless.

[Stratos]

I don't believe them. It shouldn't be that hard to do physical rewards. Is it hard for ebay customers/sellers to ship things across country lines? Just charge shipping. Or have each local office handle physical rewards. Not sure what has changed between now and when Club Nintendo existed in terms of shipping objects (if anything, it is getting cheaper).


You can already make your own cups, shirts, game cases, colored controllers, and other merchandise through RedBubble, CafePress, and other similar sites. Nintendo could easily contract with one or more of these groups to make things based off of their properties. Order limited runs of this stuff and use that for physical prizes.

[nickmitch]

It is not hard for one person to sell one thing to one other person.

It is hard to maintain an inventory for three countries of items that are potentially obscure.

[Mop it up]

I loved the physical rewards, but I realize how difficult it is for Nintendo to have them.

I liked them too, but at this point, I'd be happy if they go back to offering digital games (or even eShop credit like the Digital Deluxe program).

[NWR_insanolord]

Yeah, I would be more than happy to just have the Digital Deluxe Program back. I don't need any rewards program beyond that.

[Stratos]

It is not hard for one person to sell one thing to one other person.

It is hard to maintain an inventory for three countries of items that are potentially obscure.

Not really because there are power sellers on amazon and ebay who do it just fine every day selling things to hundreds of users. I recently watched the seniors in my college present their demo products and one was pretty much a straight inventory management solution. Would allow one or two people to handle all of the requests, and the ordering system could easily track how much inventory they have. Plus with a caveat like "takes 3-6 weeks to ship" it would give them plenty of leeway if they experienced a backlog of requests.


Though I'll agree with what others are posting, the Digital Deluxe program was perfect. Bring that back and it would be great. I'm still surprised with how slick the DDP site was, and it is a shame the work is going to waste.

[supergtt]

You guys are missing the point. It's not hard to ship stuff anywhere on earth. It's very hard to do it for 0 dollars. That is what stupid discount codes for and mobile wallpapers cost.

[pokepal148]

You guys are missing the point. It's not hard to ship stuff anywhere on earth. It's very hard to do it for 0 dollars. That is what stupid discount codes for and mobile wallpapers cost.

Supply is the main issue with Nintendo. Still if they won't do physical rewards than they need to step up on the digital rewards.

They are, to their credit starting to offer like actual stuff now. I just got the Pikmin 3 DLC that's on there and I'll probably get the two actual non-mynintendo branded 3DS themes that are on there. Not much else to spend my points on anyways.

[ThePerm]

I feel like I need to be a rapper and release a dis track against Reggie.

Metroid Prime 4 should have been in development before Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze got announced. At that point it was already 4 years after other M. Now it's 3 years after that.
https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=31561.msg616384#msg616384
https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=31525.msg615042#msg615042
It's so Nintendo that they would have just a logo. My only fear is Metroid will now get the Star Fox treatment because really Nintendo is out of touch with the Metroid fan base. The only directors/producers I'd want to touch it in house would be Eiji Aonuma or Hidemaro Fujibayashi. Outside, I'm sure some developers could be reeled in, but they have to be good.

Virtual Console should return and be exactly like it was on Wii and Wii U. Except this time we don't want to have to buy the game again. Anything less is repulsive. Third parties can always make games on Steam and Android and those platforms aren't going anywhere. This isn't a time where you have the leverage anymore. Other companies have legacy lineups now. With everything going digital it's pretty easy to get a big lineup of games. I bought all of the Resident Evil games(except 2, 3, and Code Veronica) for my Playstation.

These things are

[nickmitch]

It is not hard for one person to sell one thing to one other person.

It is hard to maintain an inventory for three countries of items that are potentially obscure.

Not really because there are power sellers on amazon and ebay who do it just fine every day selling things to hundreds of users. I recently watched the seniors in my college present their demo products and one was pretty much a straight inventory management solution. Would allow one or two people to handle all of the requests, and the ordering system could easily track how much inventory they have. Plus with a caveat like "takes 3-6 weeks to ship" it would give them plenty of leeway if they experienced a backlog of requests.

The issue isn't shipping.  Making products that appeal to people to everyone they'd have to cover requires designing, manufacturing, and storing those goods for free.  Overestimating the demand for a thing means you'll end up eating stale inventory costs; while underestimating demand results in more people bitching at you over scarves.

[Stratos]

Then it takes us back to the original complaint that led them to say "challenging in North America". Japan does physical rewards with no issue.


Order smaller batches of supplies and just re-order if the demand is there. This is bonus material, so they can easily get away with small and limited runs of goodies. They could also charge for shipping. The old Nintendo Power reward program did that just fin and had a lot of cool stuff.

[nickmitch]

Japan is a smaller, more consistent market than North America as a whole.  And charging for shipping would only cover shipping unless NOA overcharged, which would be kinda dick-ish.

[pokepal148]

This is bonus material, so they can easily get away with small and limited runs of goodies.

Do you know how easily I can dig up a talkback thread from this very forum of people getting upset over club nintendo prizes being in limited supply?

[nickmitch]

It really just makes the "there's nothing available!" problem worse for some people.  Prizes you can't get because they cost too many coins or are in too short a supply are far more annoying than no good prizes at all.

The only way to fix this is with rapid inventory turnover and frequent product refreshes.  The new thing or a restock has to also come in before the points expire (though this part could be fixed by moving the expiration date on the coins back or removing altogether, but that creates an accounting issue NOA probably doesn't want).