By September of this year, Club Nintendo will be no more. The rewards programme which opened its doors in December, 2007 will be closing shop to make way for a new programme which will be announced later in the year.
The rewards programme was introduced in 2007 as a way of providing rewards for giving feedback to Nintendo and of course buying actual products.
Prior to the decision, the company had reportedly consulted close to six million members from Europe and South Africa. The official announcement was made through a blog post by the company. You can read it here.
The rewards program will be gradually pulled starting April, 2015. Customers will no longer be able to register their products while digital downloads will cease by April 20. The entire programme is expected to be completely shut down come September.
For people who have received stars through the program, it would be wise to consume them before Nintendo starts with the phase out. The stars will be rendered useless if they are not used once the total phase out of the rewards programme comes around. People who have the star rewards can head on over to the Stars Catalogue and get hold of exclusive items before September 30, 2015.
On another note, this development could mean that Nintendo would be trying to revamp the Wii U. Compared to other leading consoles such as the Xbox and the Playstation, the Wii U has sorely lagged behind in the gaming console segment.
New games such as Super Mario Smash Bros. did get their share of attention but apparently it wasn't enough to help push Nintendo to better rankings.
http://full-timewhistle.com/technology-22/bye-bye-club-nintendo-is-closing-down-4132.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/club-nintendo-flagship-rewards-programme-is-closed-as-company-plans-wii-u-revamp-9991017.html
