Update: Club Nintendo to be discontinued in favour of new rewards system

UPDATE: It looks like all other regions are following up with similar announcements including Nintendo of America, Japan, Australia and more.

Original story: Nintendo of Europe announced today that Club Nintendo will be phased out in favour of a new rewards system. Not much is known about the new system but Nintendo have ensured that prior to Club Nintendo’s expiration on September 30th 2015, there’ll be plenty of new and existing rewards to spend your remaining stars on. Here’s the full press release:

North American press release

REDMOND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– After more than six years of delivering fun Nintendo-themed rewards to its members, Club Nintendo is preparing to shut down. Nintendo’s loyalty-rewards program rewarded members with a variety of items, such as downloadable games, Nintendo posters or character figures in exchange for Coins that members earned by registering products or completing surveys. Club Nintendo members in the United States and Canada can earn additional Coins through the end of March, and can redeem those Coins through the end of June. Nintendo of America will be announcing a new customer loyalty program at a later date.

“We thank all Club Nintendo members for their dedication to Nintendo games and their ongoing love for our systems and characters,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “We want to make this time of transition as easy as possible for our loyal Club Nintendo members, so we are going to add dozens of new rewards and downloadable games to help members clear out their Coin balances.”

Nintendo will add a number of physical reward options for members in February. Members will also be able to choose from a lineup of many downloadable games. As a gift to Club Nintendo members, the Flipnote Studio 3D software will be available to download for free in February. This software will allow users to create unique three-dimensional animations and to exchange their creations via local wireless with others who also own Flipnote Studio 3D. Users who uploaded creations to Flipnote Hatena will be able to download their personal animations from the Nintendo DSi Library menu in Flipnote Studio 3D software. Flipnote Studio 3D will be available to Club Nintendo members until June 30. The ability to create a new Club Nintendo account will end on March 31. All users who register to Club Nintendo before registration closes will be eligible to receive Flipnote Studio 3D.

European press release

Nintendo’s first loyalty programmes, VIP 24:7 and Club Member, started in May 2002, and were combined in December 2007 to become Club Nintendo. Over the years, players have enjoyed the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U platforms, and countless software titles across them all. We’ve also heard the feedback and opinions of around six million Club Nintendo members across Europe and South Africa, which we have used to help shape our business.
We’re working hard to create a new programme, which we plan to launch later this year. And as a special offer, users who sign up to the new programme during the launch period will be able to download Flipnote Studio 3D to a Nintendo 3DS system for free. Please stay tuned to the Nintendo website for further details.
This new membership programme will replace Club Nintendo, so we will discontinue Club Nintendo according to the schedule given below. Thank you for all your support.
As Stars in your account will expire on September 30th 2015, please make sure you use them before this date. There are plenty of unique and exclusive items already available in the Stars Catalogue, and we’ll keep adding more over the coming months, so there’s plenty to spend your Stars on before September 30th 2015.
Please stay tuned for more information about the new membership programme, including its launch date.
Club Nintendo Discontinuation Schedule

April 1st 2015: From this date, Nintendo will no longer include product registration cards with its packaged games, so such products cannot be registered in Club Nintendo. You may still find product registration cards in games that were in stock before this date, however.
April 20th 2015: Termination of the registration of digital products downloaded from Nintendo eShop. Digital products obtained from Nintendo eShop after this date will no longer appear in the My Registered Games & Systems page in Club Nintendo. In addition, surveys for download software titles will no longer be available.
September 30th 2015: End of Club Nintendo programme. All Club Nintendo features, such as signing up as a new member, logging in as a registered member, earning Stars, and exchanging Stars for items from the Stars Catalogue will no longer be possible from this date.
New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL

These new handheld systems, which will be released on February 13th 2015, are not registerable in Club Nintendo. However, hardware bundles will still include a product registration card for the included software until April 1st 2015, so software bundled with hardware can still be registered until September 30th 2015.
Stars

Please exchange any Stars in your account for items from the Stars Catalogue before September 30th 2015. Any Stars not used by this date will be lost, so be sure to use them as soon as possible. There are plenty of unique and exclusive items already available in the Stars Catalogue, and we’ll keep adding more over the coming months, so there’s plenty to spend your Stars on before September 30th 2015.