Nintendo And PayPal Partner To Enable Switch Purchases

Nintendo is partnering with digital payments company PayPal, enabling customers to use PayPal to make purchases on the Nintendo Switch and its website.

According to a report in TechCrunch as of Tuesday (Aug. 22), users can link their Nintendo account with their PayPal account to make future purchases. The feature is only available for the Switch, however. Users of the Wii U or Nintendo 3DS can’t use PayPal as a payment method, noted the report. According to TechCrunch, the deal with PayPal is attractive to gamers because Switch games purchased in one country can be played on a console from another country. Some banks charge pricey foreign transaction fees, but with PayPal it could end up being a cheaper option. Also for families they no longer have to save their credit card information on their child or children’s game console. Instead, they can create a PayPal account for them.

The deal with Nintendo is just the latest in a bevy of partnerships the digital payment company has announced in recent weeks. Earlier this month it announced that it had teamed with Microsoft to enable money transfers in Skype’s mobile app. In a blog post announcing the news, John Kunze, vice president of global consumer product & Xoom at PayPal, said that it is partnering with Skype to let users in 22 countries send money to other Skype users with PayPal via the Skype mobile app. “With over one billion Skype mobile downloads to date globally, users will be able to use PayPal directly from their Skype app to seamlessly send money in the moment — like for a gift for a family member across the country or internationally,” the executive wrote. Late last month, PayPal made two big announcements, saying that it is teaming up with JPMorgan Chase to further expand its mobile payment services, and that it is expanding its partnership with Citi to include loyalty rewards.