Worldwide Nintendo Swapnote shutdown

This makes me kind of sad. :(

I had a few friends who were talking about Swapnote the last few days and I was gonna go check it out and exchange notes with them on 3DS for the first time once I finished the game I'm currently playing. But I guess I was too slow and I won't get the chance now and that sucks.

Both the JP and the NA announcement both use the word "suspension" rather than cancellation or anything like that, which implies it might come back so... hopefully that's the case! That said, I don't actually know anyone who used it that often so I don't think it'll be too terribly missed if it doesn't come back. :/

This is why we have parental controls, Nintendo. But no, just shut the whole thing down. Typical.

I never ever used SwapNote, but I know people who enjoyed it and used it a lot, and it's really disappointing that it's just being shut down out of the blue. It's pretty much the only way to communicate with your 3DS friends list, and eliminating that is just another step back in Nintendo's archaic online system. :/

This makes me pretty mad.

Me and my family live in a different country than the rest of my family (uncles, aunts, cousins...) Some of my cousins have 3DSes, and we could keep in touch. We sent each other every important detail about something that happened here. It's not fair that thanks to some irresponsible people we have to stop using it.

But I guess they couldn't shut down just a certain thing.

It's sad to see it go, but… to be honest, I found this feature to be a bit redundant. xD" You were able to chat with your friends with your friends with it, but I never did. There were plenty of other ways for me to chat, such as using Skype, AIM, and MSN on my phone, tablet, computer, or whatever. The only reason I'd use this is to take notes of the game that I was recently playing, so that I could remind myself of what I last did and what I should do next.

I wish that they would replace SwapNote with something more useful, such as a YouTube video player. A lot of people would enjoy watching videos from their 3DS systems, I'm sure. I know I would! Either that, or they could give us a mini version of Photoshop. How awesome would it be to create artwork, make graphics, and customize photos from a small, portable device like the 3DS?

Personally I've never used Swapnote, but to those who use it, it's devastating news.

Nintendo making another dumb decision shocker.

I don't think it's a bad call really, it pretty much states in the app not to do that sort of thing, and it's basicly a breech on the terms of service. I agree that it's a shame, I loved Swapnote and used it all the time. I mean if it was being used as Nintendo described, then it really should have the plug pulled anyways, otherwise Nintendo might find themselves in trouble and bad publicity.

It's not like Letter Box can't be accessed at all anymore, just the SpotPass part has been greyed out.


Same for Flipnote Studio 3D, which only came out in Japan.

Morkula said:

This is why we have parental controls, Nintendo. But no, just shut the whole thing down. Typical.

I never ever used SwapNote, but I know people who enjoyed it and used it a lot, and it's really disappointing that it's just being shut down out of the blue. It's pretty much the only way to communicate with your 3DS friends list, and eliminating that is just another step back in Nintendo's archaic online system. :/

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The only time parents care about parental controls is when their kids are sending pics of themselves naked to strangers.

Zet said:

The only time parents care about parental controls is when their kids are sending pics of themselves naked to strangers.

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^ This. A user from Playeressence made a post explaining why Nintendo suspended the Spotpass feature for Swapnote:

Also I would like to explain something, it has NOTHING to do with the lewd 2D drawings, Nintendo didn't give two ****s about that. It's that fact that underage children and adults were showing nudes of themselves on the service.

It had nothing to do with the 2D lewd ****, it was the fact that children were sharing nudes to others including adults/adults showing nudes to children, it was happening in both America, Europe and Japan.

Plus don't blame Nintendo for this at all, they're representing a BUSINESS, they would give them a bad reputation if they allowed this **** to continue, I'm sure they will make a fix where we will get our Swapnote and Flipnote back, just be patient and understand the situation.

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I'm using Swapnote days after I bought 3DS XL, and I enjoyed it that I can draw anything that I want, even my mom enjoys it too. Even though I rarely using SpotPass when it comes to Swapnote, I'm sad that this has to happen... even though I know that Nintendo have a good reason for this, I think even those who use Swapnote with good intentions might get indirect consequences too...

I personally think how Swapnote is used for good or bad depends on the people themselves.

So wait, kid's actually sext each other over swapnote? Ha, that's funny.

I personally don't care about the feature. I live in the middle of no where so SpotPass is useless and I don't add random people I meet through online games out of fear that it's a 12 year old.

Then again, I don't think everyone should be punished for the actions of few. Maybe find a way to ban those horny kids from Swapnote if they keep it up? Issue automated warnings to them? Psh, I don't know how programming works.

I never really used Swapnote a lot after Animal Crossing: New Leaf came out, to be honest. (That's when people started spamming my inbox with useless notes >.<) But I hope Nintendo releases an alternative that actually is able to block inappropriate content.

You can't block such content.
Nintendo even confirmed they've spent weeks on detecting penises, and block them.
Not even that worked for 100%.

I've never used it because I don't have a 2DS but I remember when Flipnote Hatena was still available on the DSi. there were people who posted "offensive" stories, drawings and pictures of themselves and such. It wasn't too common, at least from what I remember, but it's still something that did happen more than once. It's good that Nintendo's finally coming to terms with it, because minors can get in SERIOUS trouble for doing this kind of stuff.
Shame on you, dirty-minded people, for ruining Swapnote for everyone else! >.>

I wrote an article on this on another site and it got around 60 replies in the first three hours. lol

Nintendo fans are furious about this, but I do see where Nintendo is coming from. I still thin kthat it is unfair to shut down the service for all of the users when only some are abusing it.

More information as to why Swapnote's Spotpass feature was shut down:

http://mynintendonews.com/2013/11/0...ervice-was-allegedly-used-by-child-predators/

That user from Playeressence was correct, this had something to do with sharing nude photos.

I'm a little upset. I just got my 3DS and never had a chance to use the Swapnote feature :(. When I first started adding friends on my 3DS, I was a little disappointed in the lack of simplicity when it comes to trying to send someone a message, especially when they aren't online. Swapnote worked pretty well, but without it, isn't messaging with people going to be impossible? I think nintendo needs a basic message system like 360 and PS3 had. You could send text only messages to someone regardless of whether they are online or not. You can easily place a censor system on things like this and, on top of that, you wouldn't have to worry about inappropriate images.


I guess I still have to consider the fact that younger audiences are the main/target demographic for Nintendo products and therefore it only makes sense that Nintendo keeps their best interests in mind, but I am a little upset about the lack of communication software/apps available for the 3DS.

We knew that there were some lewd acts involved with Letter Box, but Nintendo wasn't letting on what exactly caused them to shut down the service. Now we have details from Japanese publications.

- Two men have been arrested.
- They were allegedly performing "improper acts" in hotel rooms with a 12 year-old girl.
- This happened multiple times.
- The men are aged 49 and 36.
- This was facilitated through the 3DS.
- Child pornography charges have also been filed against another man, 44.
- He allegedly had an 11 and 12 year old girls send him nude pictures through Letter Box.
- Other men have been charged with statutory rape and indecency through compulsion.

Source: http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=216348