Switch and Switch 2 Now Let You Gift Digital Games Within Your Family Group

Nintendo has rolled out update 23.5.0 for Switch and Switch 2, and this time it brings more than the usual stability tweaks: as first reported by Eurogamer España, the new firmware opens the door to gifting digital games to members of your family group. It's a feature that users on other platforms have had for a long time, and one that was still missing from the Nintendo ecosystem.

Why does it matter? Because more and more people are buying digital, and until now, treating someone in your household to a game meant eShop cards, download codes or simply lending them the console. Being able to send the gift from within the system itself, and on both generations of the console at once, looks like a small step but is a very significant one in how Nintendo thinks about accounts and digital purchases.

What you need to know

• The system version is 23.5.0, and Nintendo has already released it.
• It's available on both Switch and Switch 2.
• The headline feature is the ability to gift digital games.
• Gifting is limited to members of your family group; it isn't a system open to any friend.
• The underlying information comes from Eurogamer España, and the early report doesn't detail the conditions, the limits or the step-by-step process.

What changes and who it affects

The change is aimed, above all, at households with several Nintendo accounts under one roof: parents buying for their kids, couples who share the hobby, or siblings who split a library between them. For all of them, the family group is no longer just a management tool; it also becomes a channel for moving purchases from one account to another in the form of a gift.

The distinction is worth stressing: we're talking about the family group, not the friend list. Based on what's known so far, this isn't a general gifting system like the ones found in other digital stores, but a feature restricted to a closed circle. It's a very Nintendo decision, as the company tends to open these kinds of doors cautiously and gradually.

What we still don't know

The source's early report leaves several questions unanswered, and we'd rather point them out than fill them in with guesswork:

• Whether you can gift any game in the catalog or only part of it.
• Whether gifting includes downloadable content, or only full games.
• Whether there are restrictions by region, by the age of the receiving account or by number of gifts.
• Exactly how the process works on the console.

Until those details are clear, our recommendation is simple: update your console, check who is in your family group and try out the options for yourself before planning any purchases.

Our take

Here on the Underworld Lordz editorial team, we're greeting this with a mix of excitement and "about time." Gifting a digital game is a basic feature on any modern platform, and the fact that Nintendo is adding it through a system update, without leaving the original Switch behind, is good news. Treating both consoles equally is a gesture we appreciate: the community doesn't all switch hardware at the same time, and neither do teams.

That said, the family group limit leaves us wanting more. For the competitive scene and for content creators, what would be truly useful is being able to gift to any contact: the captain who wants the whole team to have the same title to practice on, the streamer running giveaways for their community, the tournament organizer handing out games as prizes. None of that fits inside a family group, so we'll keep relying on codes and eShop cards, with all the friction that involves.

Even so, we prefer to see it as a first step rather than a final destination. If the infrastructure for transferring a purchase from one account to another already exists, extending it to friends is a matter of will more than technology. It's up to Nintendo to decide whether it wants a store worthy of the community it has.

What do you think?

We want to know how you see it from your couch or your setup: is being able to gift games within the family group enough for you, or do you think Nintendo should open it up to the whole friend list right now? Drop by the team chat or our Discord and tell us: who would you gift the first game to, and which one would it be?