(WARNING: Yet, another LOOOOOOOOOOONG opening. Even longer than the last one that was about succeeding with a console Fire Emblem game. http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=208835&page=1#
When you see the, *, that's suggesting that the NX will have already come out.)

It's been awhile now since Club Nintendo shut down, which allowed you to register games you've bought for coins in exchange for getting other games for free, whether it be new, retail, AAA titles or downloadable titles off the eShop, also getting fancy souvenirs and merchandise of your favorite Nintendo IPs and franchises. It was through Club Nintendo, how I was able to get my Smash Bros. posters and soundtrack, (Route 10 remix from Pokemon Black/White goes great for driving on the freeway, same with Gaur Plain from Xenoblade Chronicles!), and I downloaded some games for free with my coins such as GoldenSun - (Which I have still yet to play).
And now it's no longer around, although Nintendo made the promise of replacing it. And it's been a few months since then, and we still have no idea what that new service may be.
Although, I have come up with one hypothesis of what it could be.
For those wrestling fans out there, I'm sure you're well aware of the WWE Network, seeing as how they never shut up about it on RAW or SmackDown, where for $9.99 a month, you have access to ALL the pay-per-views, ALL the DVD/TV specials (Documentaries, Total Divas, House of Legends), old-school episodes and pay-per views ranging from the entire 80s, Golden Era with Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Rowdy Piper (may the latter 2 Rest In Peace), to the late 90s-early 00s, Attitude Era with Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, and The Undertaker, wrestling shows from old, defunct companies, like AWA, NWA, ECW, and WCW.
The WWE Network is essentially a legacy platform for all wrestling, past, present and future!

Now I'm sure a lot of your are wondering, "What does that have anything to do with Nintendo?", well, in my opinion, I think Nintendo should take que from Vince McMahon and the WWE, on how to make an effective, powerful, money-making subscription service, which utilizes the growing legacies of their IPs.
With the current prices of old-school games on the eShop and Virtual Console, with NES titles being around $5-6, N64 titles, $10. It's not really justifiable to be paying those high prices for 20-30 year old games, when there are other games in this generation that are around that same price.

What I'm suggesting, is that, for $10 a month, just for the sake of having a price, you can get complete and free access to EVERY SINGLE Nintendo made and published title on Virtual Console from the NES-SNES-N64*-GCN*-Wii*Wii U*. Every Nintendo made and published title from the GB-GBC-GBA-DS-3DS*. That mean, every Mario, every Zelda, every Pokemon, DK, Metroid, Fire Emblem, Star Fox, Animial Crossing, Mother, F-Zero, Smash Bros., you name it. Every old game from past systems, you can download as many as you want, or as many as your device can handle for $10/ per month. So rather than paying a ridiculous $10 for Super Mario 64, and then put down another $10 for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of TIme, you could get both those games, plus Majora's Mask, Sunshine, Galaxy, just about all Mario and Zelda's available off the VC for $10 per month.

That leads me, to the VC. Notice how I put an '*' next to some of the old school systems, more specifically ones that were capable of 3D & HD gaming and development. That's because I thought that for this to work and be a success, the VC can no longer be exclusive to Nintendo systems. Now imagine if the Virtual Console could be accessed via an app on smartphones and tablets..
(GASP) "HOW COULD YOU SUGGEST SUCH A LUDICROUS IDEA!?!" Because, this would be an effective way to lure the casual audience back to Nintendo.
Given the Virtual Console prices of their games, and the pricing of games on the iOS/Android market. Do you honestly believe that those people would be willing to pay $5 play Super Mario Bros, plus another $8 to play Super Mario World, plus another $10 for The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask on their phones when they could get other F2P games on their phones?
The answer, is flat out No.
So, the way Nintendo could do it, is drop the prices down dramatically. Like how people who owned those titles on the Wii, get a discount of around $1-2 by transferring that data to the Wii U, (that's how much they should cost to begin with.)
And/Or, they could bring the subscription service to the iOS/Android market, at a discounted price however of, say around $5 a month, which can also be applied to the subscription service on the NX, to have free access to the old school games of systems that don't have a '*' next to it.
Because, old school 2D games from the NES, SNES, Game Boy, all the way up to even the Nintendo DS, could work perfectly on smartphones and tablets, because the controls are more simple, there were less buttons, no analog stick or circle pad, basically there aren't any of the new, modern customs that are necessary for 3D/HD development.
As far as I'm aware, there is no way to get a full scale 3D or HD game like say, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker or Pikmin 3 to run on smartphones and tablets, WITHOUT a huge drop in seemless control or experience that is only possible on modern consoles and handhelds with actual controllers. Or how about getting a Wii game, that uses full scale motion controls like Wii Sports or The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on a tablet or smartphone.
This, not only can be an explanation as to why they can put those restrictions on smartphones and tablets, but it can also make for another good reason to convince some of that audience to invest in the NX, whether it be handheld or console, so that they can get the full subscription experience.

So to recap, you can have either the:
-$5 subscription plan, can cancel anytime and available on all smartphone, tablet, and NX hardware, for all the past Nintendo games on just NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, SNES, Game Boy Advance, and DS. OR!
-$10 subscription plan, cancel anytime and only on NX hardware, for all the past Nintendo games from all the systems I just mentioned PLUS, the N64, GCN, Wii, Wii U, and 3DS.
Next, to bring back an asset of Club Nintendo, each time you register a new NX game or the system itself, onto the new service, you stack up points, where as soon as you get enough, you can buy merchandise or digitally download a game of the eShop onto the NX, with the points you spend. (Another reason to get the NX!)

Although looking at this, one big flaw that could take place here, is if you can cancel anytime, you could download every single game you want and then cancel before the month ends, so that you don't have to pay a dime.
Ah, and THAT'S where subscription members get special treatment and those who tried to cheat the system, get a rude Awakening.
Along with the old CN assets I suggested by brought back. Nintendo could make it so that, not only is it a great method for old school games, but modern, newer games as well.
Where members of the service, instead of paying the full $60 price tag for AAA retail games, they could register for a subscription user ID, I mean an actual physical ID card, where, you can get those games at a discounted price of around 25%, so instead of paying $60 for say, Mario Kart 9, you only pay $45, and you can get 4 full retail $60 games for the usual price of 3, 8 for the price of 6, 9 for the price of 6, 16 for the price of 12, and so on and so forth. Which sounds like a better deal? $60+tax on a retail game, or $45+$5-10 + tax on a retail game and subscription. and this won't be exclusive to just retail AAA games, it can also include eShop digital games, downloadable content, getting early demos to a highly anticipated title. You don't think it would bring pleasure to a subscription member to know because he/she is a member, she has access to a subscription exclusive demo of Pokemon Gen 7, Zelda Wii U, Splatoon 2, or Metroid Prime IV?
As for the rude Awakening part, for $5-10 a month, you get complete and free access to all those games, with that said, when you cancel and end your subscription, the games go with it.
Back to the WWE Network example, what would be the point of staying subscribed to the Network if I could download every single episode of RAW is WAR during the Attitude Era to my tablet, and they could forever be on my laptop, even if I'm not subscriber to the Network.
So if hypothetically, I could download as many old school Nintendo games as I want for free, and cancel at anytime, than I could cancel my subscription, have all those games downloaded to my system, whether it be NX, phone, or tablet, without having to pay a dime. And as a result, I have just, effectively, cheated Nintendo out of A LOT of money. So it's either subscribe and get all those games, and if I want to unsubscribe for whatever, I absolutely can, but all those games go away, and if I want them back, but I don't want to unsubscribe, then I've got to pay the price they're asking for on the Virtual Console.


.....And I think that's it. Like I said, that's just my hypothesis of what they could do, with their new subscription service, based off of ZERO reliable info. They could make something entirely different for all we know. Only time will tell.
So, thoughts? Opinions? Comments? Do you agree? Do you think I'm insane? How do you think it will turn out? Feel free to share!

I did, it's in the title of the thread. :p lol

There's absolutely no way that's happening.

Alright, so what's your idea?

I've ruined about a dozen threads detailing what the membership program will be. Can't do that forever. I'll be short.

Completely 100% free. Unified account, likely using Nintendo Network IDs. Mandatory for NX and mobile. Digital game rewards only - nothing physical. Get discounts for buying digital games. The more you buy, the more you save. Reward players for recommending games. Trying to replicate steam sales for future digital only NX platform. Wants to preserve the value of games. Tied to cloud. Is what NX will use for cloud saving which will be used for cross save between NX platforms as well as system upgrades. All digital purchases tied to this account allowing for cross buy on NX. Will be the heart of the NX platform. The Apple ID of NXs iOS. Encompases much more than just a rewards program, which is why they don't ever call it a rewards program, but a membership program.

I think that was short enough without leaving out to many key factors.

Nintendo's loot crate-like paid subscription, The N-Box, will replace the Club Nintendo physical rewards a a paid for service.

I mostly agree with everything here, except with two points:

-Reward players for recommending games. This would work better for mobile games, that, being free, almost guarantees the download. But in big games, what can they reward you with, discounts? Then people would just spam their games to get a decent percentage off for everything. Small, but I don't see it.

-Having Steam-like sales and wanting to preserve the value of their games are opposite ideas. A 60€ game on Steam can be sold at 5-7€ easily, that's a lot of value lost. Nintendo would need to quadruple their software output (both in 1st party and 3rd party titles) to make it possible. Steam can get away with it because it has an userbase bigger than 150m users, so a 60€ game can be sold at 7€ and still make profits due to sheer amount of buyers. The NX might not have that advantage.

1. I don't know. It's not my idea. Iwata was the one who said they were doing that, not me. I'm assuming that in order to get the reward, you have to own the game you recommend, and the person you recommend the game to has to buy it. My idea was for recommendation coupons. If I own Nintendo vs. Capcom, I can send you a recommendation coupon of the game for 10% off of that game. If you end up using that coupon to buy the game, I get a $5 eshop credit or something.
2. No, they wouldn't. Those aren't sales, those are reduced priced games. That's different. Unless I'm mistaken, you don't ever see games that usually run for $60 temperarily on sale for $10 or something, only to go back to $60 when the sale is over. I already came up with a model for Nintendo to make large profits while giving individual customers discounts, based on Iwata's words.

You start the year with your account reset. Every game you buy contributes to your tier, like with Club Nintendo's Gold and Platinum tiers. Once you spend, say, $100 on software, you reach tier 1. Every game you buy on the Eshop is now 5% off for the rest of the year. $150 to reach tier 2. Everything is 10% off. $200 - 15%. $250 - 20%. $300 - 25%. And finally, if you spend $350, you can buy anything on the eshop for 30%. The trick though, is that the more you save, the harder it is to reach the next tier. You have to buy more software to reach that next $50, and by the time you've reached that final tier, you've already spent at least $350 on software that year. And once the year ends, the discount ends, and you have to build it all over again, just like with Club Nintendo. This rewards customers who buy more, while preserving the value of their games. And Iwata specifically referenced rewarding people this way when he said:

“Based on our account system, if we can offer flexible price points to consumers who meet certain conditions, we can create a situation where these consumers can enjoy our software at cheaper price points when they purchase more,” Iwata explained. “Here, we do not need to limit the condition to the number of software titles they purchase. Inviting friends to start playing a particular software title is also an example of a possible condition.”

I didn't come up with these ideas. This is all stuff Nintendo's been saying for years. Iwata said this in January of 2014, nearly two years ago. Not much to disagree with, since Nintendo's the one who said they'd be implementing it this way.

tagging this for a read later, that's a big OP :)

That's actually really good. And if it's based off of something Iwata thought of, than that has a good chance of happening.

I'm not quite through yet, but so far, all I'm thinking is: Why would Nintendo do that?
If their vc games didn't sell at the prices they are asking they would lower the price. Obviously people are willing to (begrudgingly) pay up.
You delivered the math yourself, if Nintendo can get 20$ from their customers, they wont ask ten and give them access to even more content than they would have previously gotten with 20$.
That's just lost money for Nintendo.
The trick of a successful subcribtion service is to look like you give good value while actually not giving that good of a value after all. For example, by limiting the available games every month, so that people keep up the subscription in the hopes that the games they want will come into the rotation, or by exploiting casual subscribers that pay the relatively low price every month but don't use the perks all that often.

I think delivering that service on smart devices at a reduced cost actually does the opposite of what you're anticipating.
Instead of roping in new customers, the loyal consumer base gets screwed over in pricing as a reward for buying the console, while the smartphone crowds have absolutely no incentive to buy the console. After all they're getting hundreds of Nintendo games at a cheaper price than they would on console. On top of that they are a casual audience so they won't care for better graphics or the newest iteration of a game. These people play flappybird, you're not going to woo them into buying a console by giving them free games on a device they already have.

A better way to do that, is to offer a (relatively) more expensive/more limited version of the service on smartphones (while still offering an acceptable pricepoint) and having the service be cheaper/same price +offer more perks on the console and maybe implement something like cross play that allows console owners to access the smartphone service for free, with crosssaves etc.
Whatever you do, the console has to look very attractive from a casual consumers perspective, much better than their current smartphone deal.
(Aside from all that, I don't think nintendo will offer vc on smartdevices at all, as they've previously mentioned they won't do ports.)

On top of all that you propose 25% off new releases and free games+merch through a club nintendo like program....again where are the perks for Nintendo?
The idea of a subscription from the companys side of things is that you give a custumer small to middle sized perks in exchange for a guaranteed monthy fee. What you're proposing is more akin to an ongoing nintendo clearance sale.

Now, I don't disagree completely, I think a vc subscription service could work, just not the exact way you're proposing it, certainly not with the insane perks smartphone gamers would get with your plan. I think nintendo would bleed money compared to now if they did it exactly like you're proposing, since it has insane overall value and would be every fans wet dream of a subscribtion. Too good to be true.
I could see a service for vc where they limit your access to the games either by having a weekly/monthly rotation for you to choose from ala ps+ or give you access too their complete library but for a limited amout of time per game. If you want to keep playing you have to renew the sub.

After reading the rest, I realize option 2 (time limitation) is pretty much what you're proposing. I'm still not sure I agree with the way you'd want to it but it sounds more reasonable now.