Continuous support for the Starlight Children’s Foundation

Since 1992, Nintendo of America has partnered with Starlight Children’s Foundation to deliver smiles to seriously ill kids and their families through our line of Starlight Gaming Stations.

Gaming Stations are entertainment devices that combine a video game system with a TV and can be freely moved around a hospital. They can also be placed beside a bed, allowing children to enjoy games with family and friends and help reduce their anxiety.

These devices have incorporated a number of Nintendo game systems over the years. In 2019, we added the Starlight Nintendo Switch™ Gaming Handheld unit featuring the Nintendo Switch Lite system. This addition allows children to play video games in areas of hospitals that may not have room for the traditional Starlight Gaming Station.

Since the launch of Nintendo Switch, Nintendo of America employees designed and built over 600 Nintendo Switch Gaming Stations and over 650 Nintendo Switch Gaming Handheld for Starlight to place in their network of hospitals in the U.S. and Canada. Nintendo of America employees continue to support the Starlight Gaming program by providing technical support to hospital staff and Child Life Specialists* by phone and email. Team members help troubleshoot issues, send out parts, and help ensure Gaming Stations remain playable.

Since launching the partnership, Starlight and Nintendo of America have delivered more than 7,200 Starlight Gaming Stations to hundreds of hospitals across North America, helping to bring smiles to more than 11 million seriously ill children.

*A specialist who provides psychological and social care to children in the hospital and their families.

Community

Having a strong community plays a key role in Nintendo of America’s mission to create smiles through unique entertainment experiences. There are many steps we take to nurture and support our community of players, including the following examples.

Our Community Guidelines outline our expectations of players when engaging with our products, services, or events. For example, players are expected to be kind and thoughtful, and to celebrate our shared passion for gaming. Likewise, we honor our commitments to our players by doing our part to ensure these expectations are shared with all and upheld.

Our products and services have been thoughtfully designed to allow players to customize their experiences. We also recognize that parents and guardians of younger players are key members of our community who help manage their family members’ experiences. The free Nintendo Switch Parental Controls application for smart devices can be used to set rules for a system, which can mean less time spent on managing and more time spent on having fun. In addition to Parental Controls, the Play Nintendo section of our website includes helpful information for Parents about playing with your family, game ratings, parental controls, Nintendo Accounts for kids, and more.

Our Commitment to Safer Gaming speaks to the importance we place on safe, positive, and respectful interaction between community members.