Nintendo Points won't make the leap between Wii and DSi

While it's not exactly a huge surprise given that Nintendo doesn't have an overarching account system for the Wii and DS, plenty of folks will no doubt still be disappointed to learn that the company's new Nintendo Points won't be transferable between the two consoles. Instead, when you buy a points card (available in 1000, 3000 and 5000 points versions), you'll have to pick a console and spend all the points in that one place. Not exactly an ideal option, to be sure, but it seems like it's one that we'll be stuck with -- unless Nintendo has some plans to make some major changes to the way the Wii and DSi do business.

[Via gamesindustry.biz]

[Jash Sayani @ Oct 8th 2008 1:33PM]

Gaming is real business!!

[Patrick R @ Oct 8th 2008 2:17PM]

get an xbox 360. seriously. it has the most games and you can actually FIND one

[fistpittingnork @ Oct 8th 2008 2:59PM]

Whew, at first I was upset that I can't spend my Nintendo Points anywhere I want them, but now that I know 360 has a lot of games I feel much better.

[Jamar @ Oct 9th 2008 5:06AM]

@fistpittingnork- 4 letters- RRoD. I live somewhere where none of the big 3 offer warranties on their consoles sold. It better work, and with the 360's track record I'm not taking that chance.

[Peter Griffin @ Oct 8th 2008 1:33PM]

Huh, thats odd. I thought that would be big news. There seems to be a absent on Edgaget of a certain ornithological piece. A headline regarding mass awarness of a certain avaion variety. Oh, have you not heard? It was my understanding that everyone had heard.

[ArcticFox @ Oct 8th 2008 1:35PM]

Welcome to 3 days ago, been there, done that.

[Adderz @ Oct 8th 2008 1:49PM]

Family Guy was funny 4 seasons ago. Its addictive, ill give you that, but i laughed once in that episode. It wasnt even a full laugh.

[Eli @ Oct 8th 2008 1:33PM]

CashgrabTendo

[tom @ Oct 8th 2008 2:01PM]

Long live the R4

[Rudiger @ Oct 8th 2008 1:34PM]

It may not be a huge surprise, but there isn't any GOOD reason why the points shouldn't transfer.

[ArcticFox @ Oct 8th 2008 1:50PM]

Why is it a BAD reason?

Would you be happy in putting your money in a bank that you can only access using your card and then only at cash machines in a different town?

If i pay for Nintendo Points and they are redeemable on more than 1 Nintendo console i would want to be able to spend them on all consoles that support it.....

[Rudiger @ Oct 8th 2008 2:04PM]

@ArcticFox

There isn't any good reason why the points _can't_ be transferred.

[bangladeshiluv @ Oct 8th 2008 1:36PM]

when are they going to come out with some good games for the DS!?

[Serial 8-Ball Mouse @ Oct 8th 2008 1:44PM]

Please God let this be a troll. Nobody can be this stupid.

[High Ranks make you sterile @ Oct 8th 2008 1:46PM]

Good question!

Just kidding. I'm lying.

I couldn't think of any other way of approaching your post -- maybe your sarcasm is lost on me. It's either that or the library of excellent DS games is lost on you.

[bangladeshiluv @ Oct 8th 2008 1:52PM]

im serious. ive been waiting for dual screen platformers and so far there are only about 4. you'd think that nintendo would bank on their mario franchise.

[JPN @ Oct 8th 2008 1:56PM]

If you can't find any games for the DS you like, it's your fault. Get GameFly or something like it and go through the huge back catalog.

[bangladeshiluv @ Oct 8th 2008 2:05PM]

name one game with decent replay value for the DS

[beamerboy625 @ Oct 8th 2008 2:11PM]

How about Metroid Hunters, Mario Kart, Zelda - Phantom Hourglass, Monkey Ball, Guitar Hero, should I go on?

[Andrew @ Oct 8th 2008 2:55PM]

He's certainly not a troll. There AREN'T many good games on DS unless you're a Nintendo fanboy. As an older gamer (started in mid 80's), Nintendo staples lie Mario and Zelda mean jack shit to me. I haven't even HEARD of them until a few years ago, too busy playing Deus Exes and Thiefs and Wing Commanders of the world at the time. The World Ends With You is probably the best DS game I played and yes it's excellent and has good replay value (if I had time to replay games with about 30 new that I play every year) but apart from some early ones (Metroid Hunter was good but that's really old) I haven't even heard of anything else recently. I gave up on promising Hotel Dusk as it was way too slow moving and the same 10 seconds of music (probably limited by cartridge space) were driving me crazy.

Contrast that to PSP with at least double number of good games (Daxter, the only platformer I actually enjoyed - properly placed checkpoints, imagine that!), Syphon Filter, Pirates and many others still on my shelf (whole bunch of RPGs such as Jeanne D'Arc, Valkyrie Chronicle, new Final Fantasy games etc.). Not to mention very original games and enjoyable games as well, like Loco Roco and Patapon.

Sure, DS had a potential but the only game that REALLY impressed me and used the touchscreen well was TWEWY (and the old Metroid Hunter).

So remove your Zeldas and Marios and let me know what other REAL games does DS have.

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Oct 9th 2008 5:49AM]

@Andrew: you sound very much like Nintendo fanboi yourself. You name more Nintendo games than anything else.

But I guess YMMV on genres you like.

E.g. I like SRPG and DS didn't let me /slack/ for several months now (Luminous Arc, DQ:MJ, FFTA2, etc; now Disgaea). I played a lot of puzzle games too (Tetris, Clubhouse, Zookeeper, Metroid Pinball, etc) and PSP has literally few games in the department. (PSP fans could hardly name anything except Lumines worth buying.)

As for PSP games you named, last time I was checking that was *only* decent (S)RGPs on PSP. I know because I wanted to buy PSP expecting to find load of *RPGs but PSP let me down. DS has much much more in RPG department. You just need to look around a bit more. (Hint: buy R4.)

[Feb30th @ Oct 8th 2008 3:36PM]

Unless they have a PSN like account system there is no way to track how many points you have left between the Wii and the DS... so natually they can't be transfer between the Wii and the DS

[Psychoish @ Oct 8th 2008 9:28PM]

There kind of is. You can link both the DS and the Wii to your My Nintendo account... the Wii through when you first go on the shop channel, and the DS through nintendowifi.com, where they make you do this weird thing where you change the name on your DS to something like fd2tagah89 or something like that.

I don't see why Nintendo can't track their points through that, but... whatever.

[rask @ Oct 8th 2008 1:56PM]

Microsoft lets people use points freely between the Xbox Marketplace and Zune Marketplace. No choosing where you want to dedicate your points.

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 8th 2008 2:11PM]

Good to see you finally changed your name, Captain Obvious.

[JAmerican @ Oct 8th 2008 2:13PM]

Although they do designate cards for the Zune Marketplace at 1000, 2000, 5000 MS Points and Xbox 360 at 1600, 4800 MS Points. The 360 point cards allow you to use all your points while the Zune ones will leave you with points you can't use. like 13 MS Points or 29 MS points etc... Since $1 = 80 MS Points.

[EdgeOne @ Oct 8th 2008 3:10PM]

$1=80 MS points. That's so annoying. I understand what they were going for; you buy a Rock Band song for only 160 points and somehow it seems less $2.00, but its not.

At least Nintendo gauged their point system 1 to 1 to US dollars. So wait, why have points? Why not just say this crappy game from 1989 is 800 pennies?

[Nevett @ Oct 8th 2008 2:16PM]

No surprise here, Nintendo's attempts so far at online enabling their consoles have all been ill-conceived and generally hopeless. Friend codes, I'm looking at you in particular.

[Kenzya @ Oct 9th 2008 6:49PM]

So after you shell out another $130 on the DSi, the only DS version that can use this system, you'll have to buy separate specific points?

Cool beans..

[youngcalihottie @ Oct 13th 2008 5:10AM]

$130!? please tell me where u r buying urs so i can get mine there too! cuz the price is $180 for the DSi

[gilbert Jonathan Garcia @ Oct 8th 2008 2:44PM]

I'm a little slow but I just realized why they named it the DSi, they are trying to copy apple but instead of putting i in front of everything they are going to put i in back of everything.

[Nomi @ Oct 8th 2008 2:50PM]

i in back of everything?

[y3k.nik @ Oct 8th 2008 3:31PM]

I suppose following your logic, Wii HD will be Wiii with Wii getting an i up its "back" ?

[Xenoterranos @ Oct 8th 2008 2:44PM]

It would have been nice to be able to use the points cross platform, but I can understand if there is some problem with it. Furthermore, the wii's points are easier to spend than MS points are, so it's not like you'll be loosing money. (On the wii, you can spend all of your points without having some weird random amount leftover like you normally end up with on Xbox Live Marketplace, which then forces you to buy something you don't want, or put in more points to make up the difference for something else you might want.)

[ehisforadam @ Oct 8th 2008 3:15PM]

Or you can wait till you have enough left over points from other transactions to buy something you want, perhaps?

[Xenoterranos @ Oct 8th 2008 5:09PM]

Well sure. That works if you do more than one transaction. The difference is that you don't have "change" on the wii. For the most part you can buy exactly as many points as you need.

[Nomi @ Oct 8th 2008 2:51PM]

I still don't get this whole points business...I like the way PSN handles things, a dollar is a dollar.

[Stridery @ Oct 8th 2008 3:26PM]

I prefer the point system as you can get point cards at discount in some stores. I've seen a Target store sell 2000 microsoft points for 5 bucks.

[Juaquin @ Oct 8th 2008 7:11PM]

Stridery - I think that went over your head. He's not opposed to having physical "gift cards", he's opposed to them being called "points" rather than just labeling things with what they actually cost (dollars).

I totally agree - the only reason they use points is to confuse you and make it hard for you to think about the value of something before you buy it. It's obvious because they make the points weird multiples - 1600points/20dollars makes it 80points/dollar. Normally you would make it something easy (like 10 points/dollar), but obfuscating the actual cost (by making it hard for you to calculate) makes it easier for them to get you to buy something spur of the moment.