spemanig said:
Instead of paying a yearly fee for scheduled deals, you're rewarded, as one of the conditions, for how many games you buy a year. The more games you buy in that yearly period, the higher your discount percentage is for, what I assume to be, all eshop games. The program will likely be applicable accross both the 3DS and Wii U, so it would be quite easy to rack up discounts if you regularly buy games between the two. There would probably be a discount ceiling of about 33% percent, after which the price wouldn't drop any lower. So full retail $60 game could reach prices as low as $40. This works for Nintendo though, because in order to get those discounts, you'll have to have already spent a lot of money on their products to reach that discount. One you hit the 33% ceiling, you're much more likely to buy a lot of more software, meaning more games have more mind share, meaning those games are more likely to be discovered and purchased by others, getting them another step closer to the next discount, etc. Nintendo also talked about recommendations. You might get points towards discounts or free games through recommendations. They talked about gifting game demos of games you own to friends. There's plenty they are much more likely to do, based off what they've been saying, that are not paid subscriptions. |
I didn't say subcription, but it may happen now. It most likely will happen with the next console. But right now they need to move a simple model that is accessed easily every time you boot up your console. I've never bothered with Club Nintendo. But every time I turn on my new One I see games with gold promotions and deals that I can get as a subscriber. Free game today? Cool! Nintendo needs something that is easy/near mandatory to use with Wii U's and handhelds. Everytime you turn it on, you're logged in and your rewards or available prizes/offers are right there. This will help lead toward the better customer retention that Gold/PS+ creates. Nintendo is built toward having this better than any other console maker, but they have grossly failed.
Right now they should have (and I expect them to have if they are smart - which is debatable) a service which provides discounts or free games to your NNID. Buy Super Mario Galaxy 3, get SMB and SM64 on VC for free. Buy Zelda U? Get discount on WWHD digital download half off. Stuff like that but easy to use and automatic from your ID.
Then next gen they can create a subscription model where you get free downloads as part of your annual fee using the infrastructure created here.
