Okay, so are you guys aware of the sheer pisstake that Club Nintendo UK is, and it's reward scheme?
It is just unbelievable how piss-poor the available rewards are for the Stars/Coins scheme.
Here is the catalogue of available UK Club Nintendo rewards;
http://stars.nintendo-europe.com/?locale=en_GBWe have;
- Golf Balls
- A shirt
- Wrapping paper
- Badges
- Desktop Wallpapers
- Mobile Phone Ringtones
- Stickers
- Nintendo Points Cards
- A single stuffty Game&Watch item
Here is the US Catalogue;
https://club.nintendo.com/rewards.doWe have;
- 2 Digital Downloads of Wii U games
- 2 Digital Downloads of Wii games
- 4 Digital Downloads of 3DS games
- A T-shirt
- Game Cases (I want these)
- A toy
- Posters
- Greeting Cards
The US store has actual items and digital content. Digital content for Nintendo systems even.
The UK gets utter stuff of no use to any Nintendo user, nor does it even get digital content for use on a Nintendo console. It gets Desktop wallpapers and mobile phone ringtones.
And to top it off, I'm pretty sure the scale is completely warped for rewards.
Let's compare the Coins/Stars earnt for registering a new 3DS game.
We shall compare Pokemon X/Y.
Club Nintendo UK- Pokemon X/Y costs (when new at release) = £35-40 (£40 eShop) ($54.49-$62.30)
- Pokemon X/Y Earns =
250 Stars- 250 stars buys you - 5 Ringtones and Wallpapers at
50 stars each.
The Most Expensive Item;
"Relaxation Set - Peach/Luigi" (Blanket, Blanket Case, Eye Mask) -
6000 Stars- 6000/250 = 24
- 24 * £35/40 = £840-£1200 ($1307-$1867)
It costs you a max of £1200 to
earn a blanket, bag and eye mask. Approximate worth (ignoring brand worth) £5-10
Club Nintendo US- Pokemon X/Y costs (when new at release) = £35-40 (£40 eShop) ($54.49-$62.30)
- Pokemon X/Y Earns = 40 coins
- 40 coins buys you - Currently nothing (80 coins for lowest current item)
The Most Expensive Item;
"NES Remix 2 T-Shirt"/"Super Smash Bros. 3-Poster Set" -
700 Coins Each- 700/40 = 17.5
- 17.5 * £35/40 = £612.15-£700 ($953-$1089)
It costs you a max of £700 to
earn a T-Shirt or 3 Posters. Approximate worth £5-30 (could vary as brand is important)
Both reward schemes are pretty piss-poor in terms of value, which is to be expected, since this is only a reward scheme. And it's intended that you earn all this over a year or more. And Nintendo is still aiming to earn a profit.
However, the UK store is just disgusting in comparison to the US store.
We have cheaper goods (cheap pieces of plastic or cloth, or just mp3s/jpegs), at a significantly more expensive rate, with far far fewer changes to the market (the majority of these items have been on sale for over a year).
Furthermore there is no reward for actually using Nintendo. Other than a few painted pictures of Mario characters, these rewards in no way benefit you as a player of Nintendo games/consoles. There are no downloads for those consoles and no accessories to accomodate them (bar a single accessory for the Nintendo DS, the console that is currently 6 generations behind the current DS range [DS, DS Lite, DSi, 3DS, 3DS XL, 2DS, New 3DS).
I'm here slowly adding stars to my account, just to be shown a pile of stuff I can choose from.
All I want is a 3DS Game Case.
I could purchase one from eBay for £3 or less. I just want to be a loyal Nintendo customer is all, and actually use those loyalty reward points. But I'm not going to buy tat.
And to top it all off, I can't take part, AGAIN, in a Nintendo Promotion that I should be able to.
Currently I should be able to register my 3DS and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, and get a free download of another game.
However, I purchased my 3DS years ago before they ever did any of these promotions, so it is not possible for me to register my device.
So, despite having purchased the game and the device (both at full price) I can't take part in their promotion.
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