Did you know you could earn free Gold Points to spend in the Nintendo eShop with virtually every new game you buy for the Nintendo Switch? It’s like a rebate program, except there isn’t any waiting around for several weeks for your reward to come in the mail.
In today’s tutorial, we’ll walk you through how to receive free Gold Points for the Nintendo eShop just from buying the games you want for your Nintendo Switch.
What are Nintendo Gold Points?
Gold Points are a type of digital currency that you can redeem only in the Nintendo eShop, which is essentially the ‘App Store’ for games that you will find on the Nintendo Switch gaming platform.
Every Gold Point that you receive has the equivalent value of one cent in U.S. currency, so if you save them up, you could eventually have enough to buy full games from the Nintendo eShop at no cost or at a significantly discounted rate.
Nintendo’s Gold Point system is awarded at certain rates depending on how much you spend on the game you want to receive Gold Points from. Digital games and downloadable content reward 5% of the purchase price in Gold Points, while Physical games award 1% of the purchase price in Gold Points.
Please note that physical Nintendo Switch games have an expiration date. You can only receive Gold Points from physical games up to one year after the title launches. Digital Nintendo Switch games bought from the Nintendo eShop, on the other hand, don’t have this limitation.
Since Gold Points are equivalent to a Penny in U.S. currency, this means that saving up 100 of them is worth $1.00 in Nintendo eShop credit that you can use to buy anything in the digital store. Easy enough to understand, right?
You can view the number of Nintendo Gold Points you have at any time by visiting your profile in the Nintendo eShop app on your Nintendo Switch. After launching the Nintendo eShop app, simply navigate to your profile picture and press the A button to see your current Gold Point accrual on the right.
So if you’re ready to earn some free Gold Points from your games, follow along as we show you how.
Receiving free Gold Points from physical games
After you buy a physical game for the Nintendo Switch from your favorite retailer, you can earn free Gold Points by following the steps outlined below:
1) Open the packaging and insert the physical game cartridge into the Nintendo Switch.
2) Power the Nintendo Switch on and find the game on the Home Screen:
3) Press the + button on the Nintendo Switch controller.
4) Navigate down to where it says My Nintendo Rewards Program:
5) Navigate to the right where it says Earn Gold Points (Game Card version only) and press the A button:
Note: One of two things will now happen. You will either see a pop-up that says you’ve received Gold Points, or you will receive an error message saying the game is no longer eligible for Gold Points.
Scenario One: Redeem successful:
6) If successful, you’ll see a prompt with a button that says Earn Points for This Software. If you do, select it and press the A button:
When finished, you will see the following message:
Scenario Two: Chance to redeem expired:
You may see the following message if the game you’re trying to redeem Gold Points from is more than one year old:
Unfortunately, there is no workaround for this.
Receiving free Gold Points from digital games
When you buy digital games, downloadable content, or other goodies from the Nintendo eShop, you are also eligible for receiving free Gold Points.
Generally, the Nintendo eShop automatically hands you Gold Points every time you complete an eligible digital purchase, so there are no specific steps to follow.
Like Gold Points redeemed via physical game cartridges, these Gold Points are legal tender for purchases in the Nintendo eShop.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy… right?
Conclusion
Many people don’t know that they can earn free Gold Points from simply buying games for the Nintendo Switch, but if you’re a gaming aficionado like I am, then it’s good to know because the points can equate to some massive monetary savings over time.
How many Gold Points have you acquired over your lifetime as a Nintendo Switch owner? Let us know in the comments section below.