Nintendo is getting rid of another way to save money on Switch games

Just as fans feared, Nintendo has announced plans to discontinue Switch Game Vouchers, although it’s not quite as bad as it sounds.

The launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 doesn’t mean Nintendo has immediately given up on the original Switch console, as evidenced by plans to keep releasing games for it into 2026.

That said, there have been signs that it’s gradually becoming less of a priority. Obviously, the Switch 2’s the only place you can play new exclusives like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, as well as retro GameCube games.

Ahead of the Switch 2’s launch, Nintendo also updated its Switch Game Vouchers to ensure they couldn’t be spent on Switch 2 games and now the company plans to get rid of them altogether.

As a reminder, Switch Game Vouchers are an exclusive offer for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers and essentially let you purchase any two games from this list at a slight discount of £84.

These have been available since May 2019, but Nintendo has announced plans to discontinue the vouchers starting from the end of January 30, 2026.

This doesn’t mean any you have left will immediately become useless. Vouchers typically don’t expire for a year after purchase and that will remain the case even after they’re removed from sale.

So, even if you buy a pair of vouchers on January 30, 2026, you’ll still have until January 30, 2027 to use them.

Surprisingly, in its website update announcing all this, Nintendo says that it still intends to add more games to the list of examples you can purchase with game vouchers.

Presumably, this will only last for another year and a half, since by the end of January 2027 any remaining vouchers will have expired and thus the scheme will be well and truly dead.

This all comes after Nintendo also put an end to its Gold Points reward scheme in March, which served as another means of saving money on new Switch game purchases.

At the time, it was theorised that this was a sign that Nintendo would establish a new rewards scheme for the Switch 2 era, which feels more likely now that the vouchers are on their way out as well.

Nintendo hasn’t officially acknowledged this though. In fact, much like the Gold Points, it hasn’t given any explanation for why it’s discontinuing the vouchers.

This could all simply be part of Nintendo’s strategy to encourage Switch 1 owners into upgrading to the Switch 2, but Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser has previously acknowledged that some people simply can’t afford to make the jump.

‘That’s why we wanted to make the other Switch platforms available, so [people] still have an opportunity to come into our gaming universe, be a part of these characters in these worlds, and see value, if you will, in whatever rung of the platform they come in,’ he said.

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