Nintendo said a digital gifting feature will be added to Nintendo eShop on Nov. 16 for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 systems, giving family group members a new way to send eligible digital games, DLC and upgrade packs to each other. The update is tied to system version 23.5.0 or greater.
The timing matters because the feature arrives on a set date and is built around Nintendo Account family groups, which can include up to 8 members. That gives a household a direct path to send a digital purchase from one device to another, instead of relying on the usual buy-for-yourself flow.
The process is built into the product page. A user can check the Give as a Gift box before completing a purchase, then choose a recipient from the family group list and pick which linked system should receive it. Once the purchase goes through, the gift is sent immediately and lands on the recipient’s HOME Menu, where it can be selected, accepted and played right away.
That convenience comes with limits. Some products may not be eligible for digital gifting, and supervised accounts cannot send gifts at all. Nintendo also said the number of digital gift purchases allowed in a given period is limited, which means the new feature is not an open-ended workaround for every purchase.
The rollout also depends on the software side. System version 23.5.0 is set to release on Nov. 9, 2026, and the gifting feature will be available only on systems that support that version or later. In practice, that leaves Nintendo Switch owners and Nintendo Switch 2 users with a narrow window between the system update and the new eShop option.
For families already tied together through a Nintendo Account, the change is straightforward: if the product qualifies, a gift can move from one linked system to another in a few steps. What Nintendo has not fully spelled out is which products will be blocked from gifting, leaving that eligibility line as the main unknown when the feature goes live.
