How Nintendo Account, My Nintendo and Miitomo will all work together

Nintendo held an inventory briefing earlier today and the internet went kind of a bit crazy. Sure they delayed their first mobile game Miitomo but they also announced My Nintendo and Nintendo Account. Thanks to mistranslations and Twitter Chinese whispers it was all very confusing just exactly what was what. Now, thanks to Nintendo being quite speedy in releasing translated notes from the meeting we can let you in on what exactly is Nintendo Account and what is My Nintendo.

Nintendo Account

Since Nintendo is stepping into a brave new digital space, as well as releasing a new console they want as many people as possible to be able to get into the Nintendo experience and a totally new account system is the way they’re going to do that.

The new account system will allow you to log into it via pretty much any method you can think of, your Nintendo Network ID, Facebook, Twitter, Google or a plain old email and password. Nintendo want you to be able to get onto their ecosystem easily and ‘not forget’ about it, if you use a common logon you’re more likely to return to the Nintendo ‘experience’.

So what about the Nintendo Network ID, isn’t that duplicating this?

We think, that the Nintendo Network ID (and the friends list associated with it) will continue to live on the Wii U and won’t move to NX or the smart phones. The 3DS uses the Nintendo Network ID system yes but it still has a legacy friend code system too – all of this baggage we think will be left behind.

My Nintendo

Nintendo’s use of language between Nintendo Account and My Nintendo is confusing, they call My Nintendo a membership service, which is to say its services for members but the Nintendo Account is simply a login and way to tie all these services together.

You log into My Nintendo with your new Nintendo Account. My Nintendo has been touted as a replacement for Club Nintendo – but it is much much more than that. We’ll run through the features Nintendo has talked about thus far.

Download of software

With Nintendo Account you’ll be able to purchase and trigger downloads from your smartphone or PC to your Wii U and 3DS. This is the web based eShop we’ve had teased for a long time. You’re no longer limited to browsing the eShop just on your console devices.

Hospitality

Nintendo will keep track of everything Nintendo you do. How much you buy, how long you play and you’ll get notices and gifts in return. It’s not explicitly stated here but it sounds like the old ‘tied to your hardware’ download issue won’t be a problem anymore – at least going forward.

Nintendo’s example of hospitality is as below;

Animal Crossing character called Isabel may send some information or a present to those who are playing with that game, Mario Kart players may receive a notice about add-on content and we may also send a message that enables the recipient to purchase some software at an attractive price point on his or her birthday.

New Point Program – Club Nintendo’s successor 

We’ve known Club Nintendo was shutting down for some time now, within My Nintendo will be a new point rewards program. This new program will not only reward you for purchasing games but also playing them – both console and smartphone games.

Nintendo doesn’t say how you’ll earn points just yet but some of the things you’ll be able to unlock include add-on content (DLC), original merchandise or discounts on new games.

Friends List

No more friend codes, no more friends list locked away in an app on the console. My Nintendo will be the place to check out what your friends are doing online. Nintendo stipulates though that “a Friend relationship can be established only between two people who know each other and have consented to the relationship”. You can have friends who only play Nintendo’s smartphone games or on friends who play on dedicated hardware only, too.

Future Outlook

All of the above services should be ready to rock when March 2016 rolls around, but Nintendo also spoke about the future of what My Nintendo could offer. This included the cloud saving and syncing of ‘game data’ between consoles and smart devices. This would include game save data, character data and more.

There’s also plans for the future for My Nintendo tie its services into retail outlets, movie theatres and theme parks (Hint: Universal Studios). We suspect these will be further out than just the game features.

Miitomo

Miitomo isn’t really a game, it’s more of an application and communication tool – it just happens to look a hell of a lot like Tomodachi Life. The main ‘character’ in Miitomo is you, more specially your Mii. You’ll use your brand new friend list to allow your Mii to communicate with others. Nintendo says they are ‘designing this communication application to enable Friends to share information comfortably and securely’. They don’t want another Swapnote.

You will be able to use Miitomo to communicate with your friends as you would expect but Nintendo is doing something a little bit different. They don’t want you to proactively talk all the time, your Mii will do it for you. Dubbed ‘friendly communication starters’ your Mii will start talking to your friends about things you possibly wouldn’t say yourself because you’re shy or quiet. This way you can find out new things about friends, things you possibly wouldn’t think to tell a friend by yourself.

Nintendo thinks that by using these ‘friendly communication starters’ you’ll be able to get to know more about your friends and ‘ deepen friendly relationships and have more people with whom you can play games’. Awww.

So Miitomo might not have been the uber-mobile game you were all dreading hoping for, it’s more of an application – but it is oh so very Nintendo.

There’s interesting times ahead for Nintendo, this is just part of it.

Images: Nintendo IR