Nintendo Has 'Customer Appreciation Sale' Instead Of Tariff Refunds

Nintendo of America has announced a "Customer Appreciation Sale", which it is hosting in lieu of giving back money it received in tariff refunds.

President Donald Trump issued tariffs across multiple industries, resulting in companies like Nintendo increasing the cost of certain items. In 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that the tariffs were illegal, and the affected companies were refunded. However, those same companies weren't legally obliged to return the money to the consumer, even if they had raised costs to meet the tariff demands.

Nintendo had previously said that it wouldn't refund consumers from the tariff money, but it's offering something pretty horrendous as recompense. The official Nintendo of America website has announced the "Customer Appreciation Sale", which is being funded by the tariff money.

Nintendo Is Holding Customer Appreciation Sale Instead Of Giving Tariff Money To Fans

According to Nintendo, "The Customer Appreciation Sale is our way of saying thank you to Nintendo players for their continued support and is made possible in part by tariff-related refunds." The company also claimed that it had eaten most of the tariff costs in the past, but the refund is what made the sale possible.

The Customer Appreciation Sale will run from September 13 to 26, and while no specific titles were mentioned, it's said that the sales go up to 30%, and will encompass games, DLC, and physical items for both the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.

According to Nintendo, "The Customer Appreciation Sale is our way of saying thank you to Nintendo players for their continued support and is made possible in part by tariff-related refunds."

Naturally, fans are less than impressed with the idea of Nintendo taking the tariff money and using it as the basis for a sale, where players are expected to spend more money, especially when the limit of the sale is only 30%. Nintendo is notorious for paltry discounts for its first-party games, and it's unlikely that the Customer Appreciation Sale will break this trend.

While some might argue that it shows Nintendo is aware of the backlash following its previous comments about not issuing refunds, it's still a tone-deaf move to tie it to a sale, especially as the company regularly holds similar events without feeling the need to tie it to real-world happenings.

The fact that the company didn't even list any of the titles in the Customer Appreciation Sale also doesn't help matters. For all anyone knows, the sale could be full of the indie trash that's overflowing in the eShop at the moment, with one or two token first-party titles thrown in to try and sweeten the deal.

It also doesn't help that the announcement is made on the eve of an underwhelming Nintendo Direct, where it was revealed that older titles, like Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and Pikmin 4, are receiving Switch 2 updates that people have to pay for. It might have been a nice gesture to give something free to the people who supported the original Nintendo Switch, instead of putting on a sale.

There are countless ways Nintendo could have shown appreciation for fans that don't involve putting cash into their bank accounts, such as offering free games (even if they are older ones), Switch 2 upgrade packs, or bonus months of Switch Online and the Expansion Pass. Tying the tariff money to a sale where the company expects fans to shell out even more cash is a slap in the face, and feels more like damage control than a genuine attempt at showing appreciation.

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