Nintendo to close Club Nintendo & Stars Catalogue ahead of new programme

Update: Club Nintendo will be shutting down worldwide, with confirmation coming from all major territories.

Business Wire report that "Club Nintendo members in the United States and Canada can earn additional Coins [stars] 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."

The service will also close in Japan.

Original story: Nintendo has announced that it will be closing their Club Nintendo fan programme this year in Europe and South Africa.

In a statement on their website, Nintendo promised a new service would be introduced to replace what has been in place since 2002.

The Stars Catalogue – a key part of Club Nintendo which allowed users to register stars earned with purchases to amass and exchange for Nintendo products – will close too, with stars expiring on 30 September.

Nintendo also promise to keep updating the catalogue with new products over the coming months.

From 1 April users will not be able to register new stars.

When the new programme is launched later this year Nintendo have promised that those who register during the launch period will be able to download Flipnote Studio 3D for the 3DS for free.

Nintendo's New 3DS will launch on 13 February and won't come with stars. However software bundled with the console will. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate will both launch with special edition consoles on that date.

Below is Nintendo's full statement:

"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."