Club Nintendo Members Left Disappointed By Lack Of Limited-Edition Merchandise...

This year's rewards for members of Nintendo's loyalty program, Club Nintendo, have been announced today, and those who accumulated enough virtual coins during the past year can select from a handful of free downloadable games.

However, unlike in years past, there are no special limited-edition items being offered to members, and the rewards are nothing that can't be easily purchased by non-Club Nintendo members, which has left some members feeling extremely disappointed.

To reach the Gold or Platinum status, you needed to earn a certain number of coins between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014. Coins are earned by registering game and console purchases on Club Nintendo, as well as completing surveys.

In the past, Club Nintendo members have been offered special merchandise such as calendars, soundtracks, carrying cases, commemorative pins, and posters, and even a real-life duplicate of Mario's red hat in 2009.

The full list of this year's rewards for Club Nintendo members follows below.

Platinum Status rewards:

•Game & Wario (Wii U)
•NES Remix (Wii U)
•EarthBound (Wii U)
•Dr. Luigi (Wii U)
•Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (3DS)
•Fluidity: Spin Cycle (3DS)
•Dillon's Rolling Western (3DS)
•Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move (3DS)

Platinum and Gold Status rewards:

•Ice Climber (Wii U)
•Kid Icarus (Wii U)
•Super Mario Bros. (Wii U)
•Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Wii U)
•Donkey Kong 3 (3DS)
•Wario Land II (3DS)
•Metroid (3DS)
•Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (3DS)

Nintendo 3DS and Wii U To Support Paid-For DLC, Says Iwata...

Nintendo President, Sotaru Iwata, has promised 3DS users that the console will have a paid-for Downloadable Content (DLC) Service by the end of the year.

According to the Andriasaang website, Mr. Iwata told investors at an earnings briefing in Tokyo, that Digital Downloads would be available for the 3DS by the end of 2011.

 According to the article, Nintendo are currently trying to create a paid item transaction system that would allow users to download purchasable items for 3DS games.

However, at this stage, it is impossible to know what kind of downloadable content would be featured in the service or how this might affect the type of features offered on the console at the moment.

The announcement comes after Nintendo announced that it was going to dramatically drop 3DS console prices from £219 to just £130, in order to combat falling hardware sales.

Furthermore, Mr. Iwata has personality taken a fifty percent cut in pay after accepting responsibility for the failing sales of the 3DS.

 Other members of Nintendo's Board of Directors have also taken a twenty-three percent pay cut, after a recent finacial report showed that Nintendo's estimated earnings may suffer a loss of up to eighty-two percent by the end of the fiscal year, resulting in a sharp decline of stock value.

It is hoped that the introduction of paid-for DLC will help to curb the current loss in sales, boost eShop usage and help make the 3DS more attractive to new respective buyers. Mr. Iwata also confirmed that digital stock will now be Nintendo's main focus for at least the next three years.

Mini Gamers is very interested in the introduction of the DLC service. Keep checking in with the blogsite for more news on this subject as it happens.



Is British Gaming Losing Its Appeal?

According to the latest sales figures released by the UK's leading videogames trade body, UKIE, British sales of video games and gaming peripherals has fallen by at least 29% in the last two years.

The sales report shows that overall videogame sales for 2010 totalled just £2.875 billion. These figures mark a 29% drop from 2008's figure of £4.034 billion.

Worryingly, these figures also support claims from some entertainment retailers who say that the recent Christmas sales of entertainment goods including video games have been disappointing, prompting some stores to contemplate partial closure.

For example, retailing giant, HMV recently announced that they were planning to close around sixty of their highstreet stores due to poor sales, and they also admitted that they expected to miss their profit targets for the full year, which could have totalled as much as £60 million.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that whilst the latest UKIE report includes sales of videogame software, hardware and accessories across several different platforms, it does not include any information on the overall sales of social games (such as those found on social networking sites), mobile gaming Apps, Downloadable Content (DLC) and second-hand sales, which were all believed to be very popular in 2010.

UKIE's director general Mike Rawlinson stated that:  "The UK videogames market has something for everyone, with the market expanding into new areas, particularly online, on mobile phones and on other interactive devices... Thanks to continued innovation from games publishers and developers more and more people are playing games. With one in three people now considering themselves gamers, interactive entertainment is increasingly part of everyone's everyday lives." [cited: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-01-04-total-uk-videogame-product-sales-drop-29-percent-in-two-years]


UKIE claims that it is optimistic about the videogames industry to date and also highlighted the record-breaking performance of Call of Duty: Black Ops, which shifted two million units and brought in £82 million during its first five days on sale.

Sony's PSP go console has already recognised the shift towards Downloadable Content. The PSP go has a built in hard-drive so that gamers can download various media including videos, comics and games onto the device via the Playstation Network Store rather than purchasing expensive UMD discs used by the older-style PSPs.

Thus, it could be argued that videogame sales are not actually falling, but that the nature by which gamers are choosing to purchase their video games and peripherals is beginning to change, with many gamers now choosing to purchase their games as downloadable content via the Internet.

This change may not have been accurately reflected in UKIE's findings, but it could represent a wider shift in the video games industry as we know it. However, the true rammifications of this shift towards internet-based gaming on the videogames industry is as yet unknown.

HAVE YOUR SAY...



Is gaming becoming less appealing in your opinion? What might the shift towards Downloadable Content and Internet gaming mean for the rest of the gaming industry? As a gamer, do you prefer to buy or download games?