Switch eShop gifting arrives November 17 for family groups
Nintendo's latest update lets you gift eShop games to your family group, with the feature going live on November 17 on Switch 2 and Switch.
10th Nov 2026 10:45
Image via Nintendo
Switch eShop gifting arrives November 17 for family groups
Nintendo's latest update lets you gift eShop games to your family group, with the feature going live on November 17 on Switch 2 and Switch.
10th Nov 2026 10:45
Image via Nintendo
Nintendo is finally letting you buy eShop games for other people, as long as they're in your Nintendo Account family group, and the feature is due to go live on November 17.
The groundwork arrived with system update 23.5.0 for Switch 2 and the original Switch, which Nintendo released on November 9. According to Nintendo's official patch notes, the update adds "support for an upcoming feature to allow gifting of Nintendo eShop products to a Nintendo Account family group member", with the gifting itself switching on after a Nintendo eShop update scheduled for November 17, 2026.
A gift that keeps on downloading
That's about as much as Nintendo has said so far, so we don't yet know whether there are limits on how much you can send, whether it covers DLC as well as full games, or what time the eShop update lands in the UK. It also only works within a family group, so you can't surprise a mate on the other side of the country (at least not yet), but it should make life easier for anyone who's been handing over their own card details so a younger sibling can grab a game, or swapping eShop gift card codes over the kitchen table.
Switch 2 owners get a couple of extras in the same update, as you can now set up accessibility settings during first-time setup rather than digging through menus after the fact, and Portuguese (Portugal) has been added to the Text to Speech and GameChat Convert Text to Speech languages. The rest is the usual "general adjustments and fixes", which is Nintendo's way of saying it's had a quick tidy behind the sofa.
The update should download on its own if your console is online and set to update automatically, and you can also check for it manually in System Settings. If you've just picked up a Switch 2 and fancy something to send the family once gifting goes live, A Little to the Left's new Switch 2 Edition is a cosy place to start.
With Christmas around the corner, the timing's hard to ignore. Well, Santa's elves have managed for years without a family group, but we doubt they'd say no to the help.
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Jake Bannister
Jake is GGRecon's Co-Founder and Operations Director. You'll find him covering our word game brain teasers, as well as sports games such as Football Manager and EA FC. He's also that teammate on your Rocket League team spamming "Wow!".
