Nintendo is finally preparing to let you buy eShop products for someone else. Gifting is scheduled to arrive on 17 November, although there is a familiar Nintendo restriction: the recipient must belong to your Nintendo Account family group.
The feature appears in Nintendo’s Switch 2 version 23.5.0 update notes. The firmware adds support ahead of a separate eShop update next week. Installing it now won’t let you send a present immediately.
The announced feature covers members of your Nintendo Account family group. Simply having somebody on your console’s friends list won’t meet that requirement.
Nintendo’s family-group guide explains that up to eight accounts can belong to one group, including its administrator. Groups can contain ordinary accounts, supervised accounts and parent or guardian accounts; they aren’t exclusively for children. Parents and guardians can manage eShop restrictions for supervised members.
That makes checking your group’s membership a useful first step if you already have a recipient in mind. Nintendo hasn’t detailed the gifting checkout process or which products will qualify in these patch notes. Cross-region gifting rules and a separate UK launch confirmation also remain unclear.
Switch 2 owners can prepare by opening System Settings, selecting System and then System Update. Nintendo dates version 23.5.0 to 9 November in its American support notes.
For anyone buying a present sooner, Nintendo’s existing UK guidance still recommends prepaid eShop funds cards. Those give the recipient a balance to spend themselves, which is useful when you’re unsure what they already own.
Direct product gifting should make choosing a specific present more straightforward. For now, 17 November is the date Nintendo has given, and your family group is the recipient list to check.
