The Nintendo Switch is out, and let’s say you want a little Blaster Master action to go along with your adventures in Breath of the Wild. That’s understandable, but that game isn’t out on the American eShop store. But when has something like ever stopped you?
Nintendo has dropped region locking for the Switch, and that means you can get games from other countries on your new console. This is especially cool because the Japanese store, for example, has nearly twice as many games as its U.S. counterpart. And it is also neat because many of the games have multiple languages, including English, no matter what store you get them from.
So how do you buy games from other regions? Well, let me teach you how to do this dance.
- You’ll need a Japanese-region Nintendo account, so go to my.nintendo.com/getting_started (you may need to do this from an incognito window) and select “Create account” on the top right.
Sign up! - Go through the signup process.
- Pro tip: If you don’t want to create a new email address add a plus sign to your Gmail account. For example, let’s say my email is jeff@gmail.com, I used jeff+eShopJ@gmail.com. That will still go to my inbox, but it’ll just get sorted differently. You can put whatever you want after the plus sign.
- Once you’ve signed up and verified your account, click on your account name on the top right of the page.
Look for the name on the top right. - A slide-out menu will appear. Click “Account settings.”
- Click on the “Edit” button next to profile.
- Select “Japan” (or your country of choice) under the Country/region of residence option.
- You’re all set on here. Now, boot up your Switch.
- Click on the eShop icon.
- Select the plus button to add a new account.
More! - Enter you credentials.
- And you now have the Japanese eShop.
Now, if you want to buy games, you may have trouble using your American credit cards. Instead, you should probably just buy eShop currency cards from a third-party seller. I used Play-Asia, and I bought a 1,000 yen card from that site for $12, and I got the code for it instantly. I put into the eShop, and I bought Blaster Master without a problem.
And now, I’m playing that game on my Switch in Colorado.
Let me know if you have any questions about this process: jeff.grubb@venturebeat.com.