Well folks, I hope you didn't enjoy using Swapnote too much, because you will be very disappointed today when you check for new notes. Effective as of last night the SpotPass feature for Swapnote, which allowed you to send notes online to anyone on your friend list, was shut down.
Why you ask? Dicks. Lots of dicks. Don't take my word for it though, here is the official announcement:
Nintendo has learned that some consumers, including minors, have been exchanging their friend codes on Internet bulletin boards and then using Swapnote (known as Nintendo Letter Box in other regions) to exchange offensive material. Nintendo has been investigating ways of preventing this and determined it is best to stop the SpotPass feature of Swapnote because it allows direct exchange of photos and was actively misused.
Nintendo always wants to provide a positive experience for all consumers and limit the risk of any inappropriate activity or misuse of a service. We feel it is important on this occasion to take this action.
We are very sorry for any inconvenience to the many consumers who have been using this service responsibly; however this decision was made considering the point that many minors also use this feature of Swapnote. Thank you for your understanding.
Nintendo will continue to work to ensure more consumers are aware of our Parental Control features, which allow parents to manage their children’s experience on our systems. For more information, please click here.
Service stop date: Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, 7 p.m. PT Service being stopped:
Nintendo 3DS software Swapnote – Sending and receiving notes using SpotPass
Affected regions: All regions where the service was offeredSpecial Notes services are also stoppedI can honestly say that this sucks. I mean, I get Nintendo not wanting kids to see that stuff, but shutting the whole thing down seems a bit drastic. Of course, we know how archaic Nintendo's view of online services is, so I guess I'm not exactly surprised.
