Nintendo’s new membership program, My Nintendo, has just launched yesterday in Japan. My Nintendo acts as Nintendo’s new loyalty program, but it is also part of a larger initiative called Nintendo Account. The idea is to bridge Nintendo’s software across not only the company’s own systems, but also across PCs and smart phones. Those of you in Japan can already sign up for the new membership service and take advantage of a special launch offer. For every 1000 yen spent on the Nintendo eShop, Japanese members will receive 100 yen. This My Nintendo launch offer lasts from now through February 1st. Nintendo’s Japanese website also has a blog where Japanese players can keep up on the latest details about the new membership program. For those of us in other areas of the world, we still have to wait a while longer until the new membership program launches in our areas.

You may recall that Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima revealed some details about My Nintendo back in October during a meeting with investors. Those details included features, such as the ability to earn points not only by purchasing Nintendo games, but also by playing said games! That’s an extra way to earn points that Club Nintendo never had. Those points can be used in a similar manner as they were in Club Nintendo, allowing you to redeem games, merchandise, or even discount coupons. You can also manage your friend list across Nintendo platforms. This will be a very nice improvement over the current setup where we have separate friend lists on each Nintendo system. Of course, one feature that many are hoping for is to also be able to manage your eShop purchases across platforms as well, rather than having a separate eShop setup on each platform.

Though they had previously said that My Nintendo would launch in March, it seems it has launched early in Japan. Perhaps that means it could launch early in other areas too, but only time will tell.

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