Nintendo adds eShop game gifting
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The gist
Nintendo's system update 23.5.0 adds support for gifting eShop products to family group members.
Recipients need no payment details or download codes.
Background
Nintendo makes the Switch and Switch 2 consoles and runs the Nintendo eShop, its digital storefront. Until now, giving a Switch game digitally meant buying a physical copy to hand over in person, or buying eShop credit and hoping it was spent as intended. The new Gift feature lets a user send eShop items directly to members of their Nintendo Account family group, a group of up to eight people headed by a designated admin. The update also added Switch 2 accessibility settings during first-time setup and Portuguese (Portugal) text-to-speech support.
How it unfolded
- Nov 9, 2026Nintendo released system update 23.5.0 for Switch and Switch 2, adding support for an upcoming eShop gifting feature, and announced the feature would arrive later in November.
- Nov 16, 2026Nintendo's announcement, as reported by Shacknews and Nintendeal, pointed to this date for the gifting feature's arrival.
- Nov 17, 2026Per the patch notes, the gifting feature becomes available after a Nintendo eShop update.
Key terms
- eShop
- Nintendo's digital distribution service for buying and downloading games and apps on its consoles.
Source: Wikipedia
Who’s saying what
- Official
- Nintendo says the Gift feature lets users send eShop items to family group members without the recipient entering payment information or a download code, though some products are excluded, gifts cannot be sent from child accounts, and purchases are limited within a certain period.
- Caution
- Vooks' Oliver Brandt noted that full details on how gifting will work on Switch and Switch 2 were not yet available, and said the outlet would keep watching.
Still unverified
Sources differ on the launch date: November 16, per Nintendo's announcement as reported by Shacknews and Nintendeal, versus November 17, per the patch notes and other reports. The X trending summary also notes it is a summary of posts on X that may evolve and that Grok can make mistakes.