Topic: Swapnote, Flipnote 3D Discontinued

[King Bowser Koopa]

The Nintendo 3DS messaging services have been terminated. We'll miss you, Nikki.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/35863

Nintendo's 3DS message relay service, known as Swapnote in the USA and Nintendo Letter Box in other regions, has had its SpotPass functionality disabled abruptly and permanently, essentially terminating the application. Flipnote Studio 3D, which was so far only released in Japan but had been set for a future release in the West, shares the same fate.

The decision was made after Nintendo discovered that some people had been exchanging friend codes with minors online, then sending offensive material to them through the two 3DS messaging services.

Swapnote Special Notes with custom stationery, often sent from Nintendo to promote new games, will also no longer be sent. StreetPass functionality remains intact, though of limited use since it only functions for friends who pass by each other physically, and only one note can be set for transmission at a time.

Nintendo has offered an apology to those who actively used both applications responsibly. The company will continue to raise awareness of the 3DS parental control options, but at this time a reactivation of either service seems unlikely.

There is no word as to whether Wii U communications will be affected.

[tendoboy1984]

Miiverse to be discontinued in 3... 2... 1...

[Khushrenada]

Somebody sent them Zach's figurine collection pics.

[Kytim89]

This might be the perfect excuse to have Miiverse and a unified system account for the 3DS and 2DS.

[broodwars]

Welcome to the Internet, Nintendo. And no, you can't stop it. It's human nature to be a ****, both figuratively and literally on the internet. You can, however, just make the Internet worse for everyone who is a responsible user else by taking your ball and running home.  Oh well.

[Vrgin X]

Thanks pedos, creeps, and immature assholes!

http://instagram.com/p/ec_UoJC7Qy/

[Adrock]

The part that gets me is where people first had to trade Friend Codes with minors online before exposing them to offensive material on Swapnote so essentially, Nintendo is assuming responsibility for people's behavior outside of their sphere of influence then punishing everyone for it. What's really happening is that every time someone somewhere used Nintendo's services inappropriately, Nintendo is just going say, "Well, we just won't have that anymore." Why even go through the trouble of offering new products and services ever then? Don't even fucking bother if you're going to shy away at the first sign of trouble. I can break someone's jaw by swinging a Wii U into it, better stop production immediately. It's that kind of faulty logic that makes this especially frustrating and I didn't even really use Swapnote.

And if Friend Codes were designed to deter degenerates from this kind of nonsense, good job, Nintendo, that idea failed, but no one needed to see it fail in practice to figure that out. It's not going to get better because people are not going to get better. They're only as good as they allow themselves to be and even then, what is good is so abstract anyway that this whole situation is ultimately pointless. Either get your **** together or don't even bother being connected whatsoever. Don't take half-steps and half-measures then get a fussy when some idiots don't play nice. It sucks for everyone who's using your things properly and productively.

[motang]

Wait what??

[ejamer]

Wow. This sucks.

[LittleIrves]

Where does it say anything about Flipnote 3D? The message I read mentions only Swapnote. This is regrettable, as SN was a cool little service, but honestly I hadn't opened it in months so I'm not too bummed.

Flipnote 3D, on the other hand.... I really hope that still comes out.

[Oblivion]

Wait... Flipnote 3D is gone? Are you FUCKING kidding me?

[UncleBob]

For those who are upset about Swapnote - Call 1-800-255-3700, choose option 2, then option 3. Be polite, but firm.

[King Bowser Koopa]

Only the Japanese PR message mentioned Flipnote, as it has only released in Japan thus far.
And, like Swapnote, it seems only SpotPass has been disabled, it's currently unknown how much of the game is affected by it, or whether you can still use the paid gallery services. It's unknown if Nintendo will continue with their plans to release it outside of Japan, but the US website for the game still says "TBA".

[BlackNMild2k1]

Hopefully they replace it with something better.

an integration of the 2 products but with more usefulness maybe?

[broodwars]

The part that gets me is where people first had to trade Friend Codes with minors online before exposing them to offensive material on Swapnote so essentially, Nintendo is assuming responsibility for people's behavior outside of their sphere of influence then punishing everyone for it. What's really happening is that every time someone somewhere used Nintendo's services inappropriately, Nintendo is just going say, "Well, we just won't have that anymore." Why even go through the trouble of offering new products and services ever then? Don't even fucking bother if you're going to shy away at the first sign of trouble. I can break someone's jaw by swinging a Wii U into it, better stop production immediately. It's that kind of faulty logic that makes this especially frustrating and I didn't even really use Swapnote.

And if Friend Codes were designed to deter degenerates from this kind of nonsense, good job, Nintendo, that idea failed, but no one needed to see it fail in practice to figure that out. It's not going to get better because people are not going to get better. They're only as good as they allow themselves to be and even then, what is good is so abstract anyway that this whole situation is ultimately pointless. Either get your **** together or don't even bother being connected whatsoever. Don't take half-steps and half-measures then get a fussy when some idiots don't play nice. It sucks for everyone who's using your things properly and productively.

I can't wait until they remove the Wii U's video conferencing ability because someone chooses to expose themselves to a minor they're friended-to on it.  You KNOW it's only a matter of time.

[UncleBob]

Hey, don't forget about the Internet Browsers for the DS, DSi, 3DS, Wii and Wii U.  Man, you can use those things to get onto sites like Facebook where you can share personal information too...

[ejamer]

For those who are upset about Swapnote - Call 1-800-255-3700, choose option 2, then option 3. Be polite, but firm.

Numbers are slightly different from Canada... but I called and left some (polite, constructive) criticism and I would encourage others to do the same.




This really is disappointing news.


Nintendo has long been so difficult - one might say backwards - about online gaming and connectivity outside direct face-to-face interaction. SwapNote had some design issues, but was probably the coolest app Nintendo has offered so far, giving people awesome options for sharing content. The update earlier this year improved things quite a bit too, and showed that Nintendo cared about giving 3DS gamers a way to build community. Now that's gone with no warning and hardly any explanation. FlipNote 3D was an app that I was really looking forward to... at least now we know why Nintendo had been silent on the matter for so long.


Also, the timing is terrible: we just got back from a vacation in China. Want to see some really awesome 3D photos my little girl took of pandas, terracotta warriors, or random cool stuff we experienced? Well you aren't going to.


Oh well. At least Colors 3D is still available and awesome.

[Etopen]

Thanks incompetent parents.
We once again take the hit for your crap parenting.

About Flipnote 3D, only the free Gallery: Friends was disabled.
The paid service Gallery: World remains active.

[sfz95]

It's just the Friends gallery. And I actually think that this is sorted out now (really who cares about Swapnote) it will be released this month.

[powerclaw1]

Gee, thanks Nintendo. Probably the best free app on 3DS. Hopefully when Nintendo unifies the account system we can use Miiverse to send messages. Hopefully...

[Olimar77]

What a shame. I've been an active Swapnote user since the beginning. I've got quite a few active users on my friends list, and typically have 30+ posts a day. I'm going to miss my interaction with these folks.

[tendoboy1984]

It's just the Friends gallery. And I actually think that this is sorted out now (really who cares about Swapnote) it will be released this month.

Plenty of people like Swapnote, it's the only way to send messages to 3DS friends. That's like saying "who cares about sending messages through Xbox Live or PSN?"...

[JRokujuushi]

Whoops, school kids are sexting each other, time to shut down cell phone services.

[pokepal148]

Whoops, school kids are sexting each other, time to shut down cell phone services.

It isn't that simple. These are services provided by nintendo on a closed nintendo network operating on a closed nintendo console. It would be extremely easy to sue Nintendo for facilitating illegal activity on their services and with kids being the main focus for the system letting something like this go without any form of action would become a nightmare. More then likely Miiverse will take the role of swapnote pretty soon anyways.

[UncleBob]

Actually, it wouldn't be easy to sue Nintendo at all.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.  Look it up.