Those of you who possess a My Nintendo account will soon finally have a good use for the Gold Points that you have earned for buying games, as those coins will be soon worth actual money when purchasing Nintendo Switch games on the eShop.

Nintendo has announced that the My Nintendo service will be receiving an update in March which will allow the Gold Points you have earned to be traded in for a money value. This means that one Gold Point will be worth a penny or a yen or whatever denomination your country uses. The trade-in value seems to be the same in every region, regardless of the value of the currency, so one-hundred Gold Points will be worth one-hundred yen, a dollar, a euro, or a pound, despite the fact that all of those have different values in regard to each other.

It also bears mentioning that the Nintendo of America Twitter page described the service as being available to "select" games, which suggests that you won't be able to spend Gold Points on everything available on the eShop. Nintendo of Europe doesn't use this language and suggests that everything will be applicable when the eShop updates.

You will now earn Gold Points in a different way as well; each digital game you purchase will net you 5% of the game's value in Gold Points, while physical cartridges will only net you 1% of the game's value in Gold Points. You can redeem the point value on physical cartridges on the Switch's home menu.

Nintendo has also stated that the Gold Points can be used for purchases of all forms of DLC, including digital items and in-app purchases for those games that use them.

This new system has already received a mixed reaction from Nintendo fans. A lot of people are just glad to finally have a use for the Gold Points, which have done nothing but pile up since the My Nintendo service first launched. The rewards for spending My Nintendo points have generally been pretty dire, so those fans who have saved up a lot of coins will be thankful for at least one significant discount on an upcoming game.

There are also fans who still feel that My Nintendo is a big step down from the old Club Nintendo service, which offered physical rewards, such as exclusive Nintendo merchandise that could only be bought with points.

The ability to trade in Gold Points at the Nintendo eShop will come into effect in March.

 

 

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