Twitter Responds to Nintendo Dropping Support of the Platform on Switch

Highlights

• Nintendo’s decision to restrict media sharing from the Switch on Twitter affects users, but guidelines can help players share via smartphones.
• Twitter expressed regret over losing the Switch feature but remains committed to a strong working relationship with Nintendo for future endeavors.
• While Nintendo’s decision impacts Twitter initially, Facebook may also be affected by restrictions on sharing images and videos from Switch in the future.

Twitter has issued an official response to Nintendo’s previously announced decision to no longer allow players to post screenshots, videos, or friend requests to the social media platform from their Switch consoles. Although the social media company’s post expresses regret that Switch media sharing will no longer be possible on the platform, it also expresses a hopeful tone for future endeavors between the two companies.

A few days previously, Nintendo had announced that the Switch feature would be going away on June 10, 2024, with more specific media-sharing restrictions on some high-profile Nintendo games, such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the Splatoon series. While Nintendo did not give an official reason for this decision, one additional change concerning Splatoon 3 states that images posted from the mailbox will no longer be uploaded to social media platforms, instead going directly to Nintendo servers, allowing for players who don’t have social media accounts to still display their in-game captures. However, images posted by users under the age of 13 will not be viewable by anyone but the account holder.

The official response from Twitter was posted to the platform’s official xGaming account on May 10, 2024. In Twitter’s response to the disabling of the Switch feature, the social media company claims it still has a strong ongoing working relationship with Nintendo, and that the two companies are continuing to work together to ensure that the transition away from the sharing feature goes smoothly. The post also states that Twitter had tried to work with Nintendo to keep the feature intact, but the decision to pull it from the Switch was ultimately made by Nintendo. Despite these claims, the post contains a community note speculating that Nintendo’s decision may have been influenced by Twitter’s hefty monthly fee for companies accessing its Application Programming Interface, or API.

There Are Still Ways to Share to Twitter from Switch

While Nintendo’s decision affects the ways that games can use social media, the announcement from Twitter contains some useful guidelines that will allow Switch players to continue to share their screenshots and videos on the social media platform, though it will take an extra step moving forward. Instead of uploading the media files directly to Twitter from their Switch consoles, players will instead have to send the media files to their smartphones and upload them to Twitter from there.

Nintendo’s recent decision to remove the feature from Switch doesn’t seem directly targeted at Twitter, though that platform is taking the biggest hit initially. Facebook will also be affected by the changes to Splatoon 3 coming on June 10, and while sharing images and videos directly to Facebook from Switch won’t be disabled immediately, Nintendo’s statement suggests that the feature may be removed in the future.