Pity I cant have ALL the people I helped connect from Launch, I'd nearly be at 20 already! =(

Holy smacks!!! This is an amazing promotion! When is Nintendo going to be bringing this to the states?!?!

Unfortunately, I have no doubt that there's gonna be folks online somehow scamming the system...we'll see.

There isn't really any way to scam the system. The 30 day limit means that you HAVE to get someone new to sign up. The trouble is, finding people who visit sites like Nintendo Life who haven't visited the Wii Shop Channel yet is going to be near-impossible - I'm guessing that once a Wii connects to the shop channel, there is no way of reversing it.

Nintendo has intentionally created this promotion in order to get people purchasing games online that wouldn't normally do so. So for them, it's a no-lose situation, really.

THAT'S EPIC WIIn! Too bad not many people at school play there Wii's. D':

i'm sure someone will figure a way out to take advantage of this system, it just sounds too easy.

For instance, if there was a way to get one friend to somehow change the mac address and wii number of their wii, then repeat 20 times, there you have your platinum status with only one friend... I don't know how it works though, maybe you can't change that stuff... then my idea wouldn't work.

Yeah, I doubt you can change the Wii's ID, but nice try.

I too wish this had been up and running since launch, I'd have gold membership already.

i'm not PAL but just out of curiosity would formating the system work?

WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ganondwarf16: No, but removing your wii shop account will. You must do this in the FIRST 30 DAYS AFTER YOU OPENED THE SHOP!

If you owned 2 Wiis, you can easily trick Nintendo.. I guess.

In regards to removing shop channel and formatting etc... it doesnt work.
I had bought my son his own wii for his birthday and the internet channel was made free and we both had copies of Mario Kart wii, Smash Bros. etc so I connected it to the net days before they announced the ambasador program so I held off from spending any actual points on the system thinking that I would just be able to do a full format and both me and Callum could claim our free 500 points.
Unfortunately Nintendo know if the system has had the wii shop activated in the last 30 days and because he has had his activated for only a few more days than that (he has had his wii for just over a month) we were not able to take part in the program. I had to spend the rest of yesterday replacing his saves and getting new friend codes for his games because of this.

Hey guys did you Know when your playing a VC Game that does not have a Save option (like super Mario Bros) you can press the home button and go back to the wii Main Menu and when you play that same VC game again you will start right where you left off?!!

I hardly would get 3 or 4 people max.

I'm one twentieth of the way to a whole crapload of free games... = / I can think of at least four more people who can help me out. And if I get really desperate, I'll start bugging potential Wii buyers at work about it. Good fun.

i really wish this was in the us...

Given that Nintendo (almost always) releases AT LEAST ONE VC game a week, the VC collection you can download will eventually reach this calibre! (Then again, provided that you did not download ANY Nintendo game when you reached Platinum status and that you reached said status today, you can download 126 European games or 125 Australian games!)

...time to wait 6 more months before the Americas get this...

The problem with this is that you may have the very people you try to get online trying to do this offer too. So they may take the ones you take you "could" have got online giving you less opportunity to achieve your own goal.

@Machu:
You actually can change your Wii's ID if you have the Gay Fish Disc (repair disc used by Nintendo technicians, got dumped to the Internet a little more then a year ago).

I've found one potential person... =/

@fudgenuts. Thing is people who know how to use such things would know how to pirate everything on the Wii Shop anyway making the promotion kind of pointless to them. I'm of the assumption that if they are the kind of people who are willing to commit fraud for 10,000 free points plus NES, SNES and N64 games that they'll be willing not to bother and just pirate the lot Though that said I can see the piracy scene taking it on since it essentially is free Wii points.

But just like in Japan I expect only a handful of people to actually reach the final goal but even 1 or 2 people is still alright (500 or 1000 points)

An excellent promotion, but as is the case for many people finding somebody I know who is not connected to the shop channel but has the required hardware will mean I will never get anywhere near the quota for free stuff

Well, I live in a college dorm... there should be at least 3 people with Wii's who sadly don't know about its online capabilities. (People who just bought it for Wii Fit/Sports)

I'm waiting, NOA...

My cousin's been thinking about getting a Wii, and I might treat the kid brother and my sister in law to the limited edition black one for Chrimble. Some work colleagues might be getting one as well, and no doubt I can spin this ambassador programme to them as some sort of "friend referral" system since they'll get some points out of it. Result! I'm potentially 5 up with very little effort by the end of the year.

"Be a PAL" I love wordplay. Also, how intriguing.

Come on America! I could use some Wii points now, and I know a few people with non-connected Wiis

I don't think I know that many people in my neighborhood WITH a Wii. :-/

Like Stevie said, only 4 or 5 people have managed this in Japan. Over here I'll be impressed if we have 1 or 2. Nothing to get excited about really beyond the possibility of getting 500 points for helpeing the odd person.

I'm a Nintendo Ambassador, so I'm happy to help people get their Wii online so you get 500 free points (enough for one retro game e.g. Pacman, original Super Mario Bros and many more to choose from!) Even if you don't need the help, you can still get the points by following the above instructions then adding my Wii number which is 8204 5356 8089 6841 (add after clicking Connection Ambassador or Helper) Then email me YOUR Wii number to daniel.wood3@gmail.com, I'll enter it on my Wii then we'll both get the free points!

/ /
SPAM

So you sure that removing the shop channel account and reformating your wii does absolutly nothing. So what do you do if you if you've got a preowned wii.