The long-awaited loyalty program briefly opens its doors to US customers before locking them back out but not before someone takes a screenshot of all the goodies. And then opens again.
Announced at E3 2008 by Nintendo’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, Cammie Dunaway, Club Nintendo is finally making its way to the United States. The loyalty program, which has long since been a staple for Japanese and European Mario fans, rewards club members who purchase and register first-party Nintendo products for points, which can then be exchanged for rare and exclusive items only available to Club Nintendo members. The rewards typically range anywhere from a new desktop wallpaper to exclusive soundtracks, clothing and of course, more videogames.
For a brief moment in time, the Club Nintendo site intended for North American users opened its doors and was allowing users to not only scope out the goods, but more importantly, transfer their existing Nintendo website account and previously registered products over to the new system. Unfortunately, that window of time was especially brief as the site has now been replaced with the all-too-familiar “coming soon” message. The good news, however, is that if you’re a good little Nintendo fan and have been registering all your product codes this entire time, you won’t be left out in the cold when Club Nintendo officially opens its doors.
One clever NeoGAF member did manage to sneak a screenshot before the whole thing collapsed, revealing some of the possible goodies that club members have to look forward to. From the lowly Wii Remote holder for 300 coins to the legendary (and previously exclusive) Game & Watch Collection, you too can feel the misery and ensuing hang over of my fellow colleagues as you forever taint incredibly rare videogames. Hopefully, Club Nintendo will launch soon so you can do just that.
Update: It figures, doesn’t it? As soon as this story went live, the Club Nintendo website went back up and from the looks of it, will remain that way. Enjoy!
