PSA: You can select your Nintendo ID before the Switch comes out

Hurry, or ‘xXBonerf4rt69Xx’ will be taken

It doesn’t seem to be common knowledge, but sometime over the last couple of days, Nintendo opened up the section of their website that allows you to select your online name. You can change your user ID any time, and it will be attached to your Nintendo account. For some reason, you won’t automatically be assigned the name already associated with your Nintendo Network ID (NNID). Fortunately, it’s not too difficult to set it up, so I’ll walk you through it using my own ID as an example. 

If you haven’t set up a Nintendo ID and/or My Nintendo account before to use the Wii U or 3DS, you’ll need to do that first. After that’s done, head to accounts.Nintendo.com, and look for the “User ID” section. Click the Edit button, as shown.

If you’ve set up 2-factor identification, the website will send a verification code to the email address on file. It may also require you to change your password if you haven’t logged in for a while. Once you’ve entered the verification, you’ll be returned to the screen above and will be able to request your desired username. Usernames have to have at least six characters, and as you might expect there are filters in place to prevent usernames from having any slurs or profanity in them. 

Once you have your desired name in place, it will show up on this page, and will presumably be shown underneath your chosen avatar icon on the Switch’s version of a friends list. If you’re unhappy with the name you chose, you can always come back and change it later. That’s all there is to it. What name will you be going by?