My Nintendo Now Allows You to Spend Gold Coins on Nintendo Switch Games

Written by Brandon Hofer on March 06, 2018

News: If you have been hoarding gold coins then you might want to see what you can get for them now that Switch games are in the program.

Nintendo has finally updated their rewards program so that you can now use all of those gold coins you have been saving to get a discount on that game you have been wanting. The way it works is pretty simple. When you purchase a game on the Nintendo Switch you will earn gold coins. If you purchase a game or a piece of content digitally on the eShop the number of gold coins you will receive is based on 5% of the amount you paid and it will be automatically added to your account. If you buy a full priced game like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the eShop you will have paid $59.99 which will get you 300 Gold Points. If you buy the physical version of a game you will receive 1% of the amount you paid. The physical version won’t be automatically tied to your account because you didn’t download it from the eShop, so you will have to do it yourself. It is super easy to do though as all you have to do is register the game via the Home Menu on your Switch.

Each gold coin represents one point which represents 1 cent. So if you have 300 coins, for example, that means you can get $3 off of something on the eShop. Some indie games are really cheap on the eShop so it might be possible to get a free game depending on the amount of coins you have or you can simply get a discount on one of the bigger titles.

Of course there is some fine print as well. These will probably be the most pertinent items for most gamers:

Gold Points expire after 12 months on the last day of the month in which they are earned.

Purchases of Nintendo 3DS or Wii U DLC do not qualify to earn Gold Points. Additionally, subscriptions, passes, in-game items or virtual currency do not qualify to earn Gold Points.

Gold Points for physical Nintendo Switch software can only be claimed within one year of the game’s original release date for countries in North American and Australian regions, and within two years for the European region.

Gold Points can be used toward eligible digital game and DLC purchases for the Nintendo Switch system, excluding passes, automatic renewals, in-game items and virtual currency.

To see how much of a discount (and whether that title is eligible) click on a game in the eShop and then go to the purchase screen. You obviously don’t have to buy the game but it is there that you will be told what your discount is, as well as how much you could earn from the purchase. How many gold points have you earned over the years? What games do you plan on using them on? Tell us what you think below.