Nintendo to Discontinue Its Popular Switch Rewards Program
February 18, 2025
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Nintendo has announced it will be shutting down its popular rewards program for the Nintendo Switch, known as My Nintendo Gold Points, next month.
From March 24, 2025 at 9:30pm PDT, Nintendo Switch owners will no longer earn Gold Points when purchasing digital titles, and physical games released for the Nintendo Switch after this date will also no longer offer Gold Points. Gold Points already earned by players will still be usable up until their expiry, 12 months after they were earned.
Nintendo Miis holding up Gold Points, Platinum Points, and game-specific points from the My Nintendo rewards program. Nintendo Miis holding up Gold Points, Platinum Points, and game-specific points from the My Nintendo rewards program. Nintendo
The Gold Points program was added alongside the launch of My Nintendo in 2016, and saw players earning points for buying games digitally or physically. A digital purchase would earn 5% of the purchase price back in points, while a physical purchase, if redeemed within a year of the release date, would offer 1% of the game’s MSRP. A $60 game, for example, would reward players with 300 Gold Points if purchased digitally or 60 Gold Points if purchased physically.
Since 2018, Switch owners have been able to spend Gold Points to get a discount on digital purchases on the Nintendo Switch eShop at a rate of 1 cent per Gold Point spent. This allowed the program to act as a digital cashback scheme, with frequent digital purchasers often able to buy full games using Gold Points alone.
Nintendo did not give a reason for the discontinuation of the Gold Points program in its support documentation on the My Nintendo website announcing the change. Platinum Points, which are earned by completing certain activities on the My Nintendo website, in Nintendo mobile games, and
The program was widely seen as a good thing among Nintendo fans, and was ultimately emulated by other storefronts like the PlayStation Store and the Epic Games Store on PC, which now both offer similar rewards schemes. The response to the announcement was immediately met with frustration from players, with many taking to platforms like Twitter and BlueSky to voice their anger.
“That really sucks,” wrote one Twitter user in response to a post from video games personality Wario64. “I’ve gotten so many free games from just gold points.”
“It sucks seeing them sunset this as we get ready for the Switch 2 later this year,” another wrote. “Gold Points were some of the only reasons I’d go for digital Switch games after they dropped in price on official retailer sites.”
At the time of writing, Nintendo has not announced or hinted at a similar program to replace the Gold Points rewards program on the Switch 2, which was officially revealed last month in a trailer on social media. The new console will be launching at some point in 2025, but an exact release date or price have yet to be announced.
More details about the upcoming hybrid console are set to be revealed during a Nintendo Switch 2 Direct in April.
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