What's Everybody's Beef with this Year's Platinum Rewards?

To be honest, I at first made the mistake of thinking that all of the games on offer were the rewards for being a Club Nintendo member, only to find out that it was the selection of one. I thought, okay, I guess I can see why people aren't happy with this, but then I dug around and looked at what else the offers were.

Posters? A CD? Trinkets? I'm not entirely sure why a downloable game (of which I selected Game & Wario, which I believe is still $40) is so much worse. Sure, people might like something physical instead, but how much use is everybody getting out of their past physical rewards? I was interested in Game & Wario but decided against it due to the lack of mini games for the price offered, but at *no* cost? I'd gladly take a free game over a statuette I'm going to stare at twice, then eventually bury in my closet.

I want to be clear in stating I have no business telling people how to feel or what to think, and I'm certainly not trying to do that here. What I'm honestly wondering is: where is last year's platinum reward now? What about 2012's? 2011's? I think I'll get much more use out of Game & Wario than a poster. But that's just me.

What do *you* think about this year's platinum rewards?

I want something unique, something that can't be bought/purchased anywhere else. If they want to go this route it's fine, but at least offer a 30 dollar credit that can be used anything, not on a list of select games.

I'm fine with them (I got Game and Wario too), and I'm fine with people being disappointed.

What drives me nuts is when people act like they deserve something better because they spent $400 or whatever. When you spend $400, you get $400 worth of games. You're not paying $400 for a reward.... That's not how it works.

I'd just like to see more people show some appreciation for something like this, especially when it isn't ideal. That's how we show a true spirit of gratitude.

It's good for Nintendo to get feedback on their rewards, but there's a right way to do it and a wrong way. It's not even about influencing Nintendo's decisions in the future; it's about being a decent person with a decent attitude.

I'd prefer if they offer digital 3DS games discounted or free don't mind neither

exactly. It makes no difference what game(s) we download, the cost to Nintendo should be the same.

However this did get me to try Earthbound, which i am happy to be playing now :)

Say, "Fuzzy pickles!"

That's kind of the attitude I have about it. Other game companies don't give me free stuff simply because I buy more of their stuff. I get coins from buying Nintendo products that I can spend on select classic games, and at the end of the year I get a full retail release at absolutely no extra cost to me. It's hard complaining about that. People who do seem to be a little too entitled when Nintendo can just as well cancel the program with little financial impact to them.

Hah hah, this game is weird.. in a good way :p

I feel the exact same way with regards to dumping my physical rewards from past years. I never use them, they're just in my closet now. I'd rather have a game, however, I will say the selection of games offered is pretty disappointing. It'd be better if they offered a credit or had more retail games for download on both the Wii U and 3DS eShops.

I don't get the people who complain endlessly about how it's their right to get better rewards. It's not.

I thought the idea of Nintendo Club was to reward us for buying their games by giving us something special that isn't available anywhere else :/. Most of the games that are available on that list i have already bought and the others i am not interested in them.. and having cheap VC games as rewards is just ridiculous.

I know it is still better than Club Nintendo of Europe, but we expected much more and got disappointed. I guess this show us that Nintendo is trying to save money and cut on expenses by giving away digital rewards instead of physicals.

Physical rewards are still available. You need to spend coins on them, but they're still free, and you don't even need to spend hundreds of dollars in a year to get them.

It does seem like they're phasing out physical rewards, though. Half of them are unavailable, and there aren't nearly as many options as there used to be. Maybe more will be added as the year progresses.

I'd rather have the regular rewards become more diverse and more awesome. Unlike the elite rewards, we can choose more than one of those and they're available for a longer period of time.

People want to have something that noone else has for bragging rights and or so they can sell it.

I don't buy my games to get Platinum status, honestly I forget to register most of mine because I just don't care that much about it.

Yeah, I mean, like I said, I understand why people aren't terribly happy, as the key to enjoying the Platinum Reward for this year is both not owning and enjoying Game & Wario. I was somewhat skeptical after seeing the reviews, but also remembered reading that game was fun, just don't spend money on it. In this regard, I'd rather get a free retail game than some statuette I'm going to look at three times, then shove in my closet.

But I know I'm in the minority when it comes to gaming collectibles, as I think they're pretty pointless. But I know a lot of gamers totally dig that stuff.

@Chozofication: One of the best RPG's ever. The best part is how much it makes fun of RPG's. Just wait until you get to Saturn Valley.

Most of the digital games offered I owned for the Platinum rewrads this year. That would be my main beef with the rewards this year. Only game I ended up getting again was DKC Returns 3D as I lost my physical copy.

It makes sense for Nintendo, and as a gamer i like it. I've gotten close to 10 free games from Nintendo this year alone. I have no use for a trinket. Fans shouldn't complain... it's a free gift. Nintendo didn't guarantee anything.

I have no problem with the rewards. I was on the fence about Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, and now I got it without paying a dime.

Other game companies do give you "free" things for merely subscribing to their online service though. Businesses will give their customers "free" things in order to keep them loyal and happy. Some businesses realize that is an easy way to keep the customer returning.

Yeah they do, they all do

Who? And where? I didn't get anything for buying Infamous: Second Son. Or Dead Rising 3. I got the game. I'm sure I got offered some kind of character skin or something if I paid in advance. But I certainly wasn't offered the potential to rack up points for a free game download.

Microsoft and Sony both do it.

They have it for digital games as everyone knows but they also have it for playing games or even certain apps. Considering you bought Second Son I'm guessing you're a Sony Rewards member already. So you should at least know Sony's incentives.

Heck, these days even services like Steam, Greenman Gaming, and others give you rewards for buying games and playing them.

Hmmmm... I didn't know that. Good information for the future.

Yeah, even though this is the Nintendo forum I'm not going to post this to be like "neener neener neener" just to give one person a head's up. So no one else get all system wars on me

http://www.sonyrewards.com/en/home/

The nice thing is that Sony extends it to all their stuff tech/movies/music/games. Microsoft deals with that too but right now it's everything inside the Xbox network.

None of that is comparable to what we're talking about, though. The Elite rewards are on top of regular rewards. Does Sony offer you a reward that you don't need to spend points on simply because you earned a lot of points? Does Microsoft? Does Steam?

Also, if you want to make the "spend $540 to get a $10 game" argument.... You need to spend one thousand US dollars in the Sony store to get a $10 game there, so.... Man, Sony REALLY hates its customers! Unless you get their credit card, then they only hate you a little bit less.

Thanks dude. Our love/hate relationship rivals that of Harry and Sally's........ Don't ever fake an orgasm in a restaurant.

This doesn't sound nearly the same as Club Nintendo. Also, the whole rhetoric about the subscription services being pro-consumer has kind of worn off of me because it isn't really, especially since you don't end up owning those games.

I was pretty disappointed there weren't any cool physical rewards, but a free $30 game is a great deal.

Yeah, Sony and Microsoft give you points just for playing certain games at certain times or using apps either downloading or a certain amount of usage for them.

What does that have to do with this?

MS and Sony's systems are more robust, and I love selling trading cards on Steam to suckers like you for free money, but none of those services straight up give out rewards at no cost (fake currency or otherwise) at the end of the year for their biggest customers, as far as I know.

With Club Nintendo, you can redeem all of your coins and still get the extra Elite reward at the end of the year. It's a bonus.