Elon Musk's nightmare continues, after Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo is dropping X integration

Nintendo has announced the removal of X (formerly Twitter) integration from its popular gaming consoles: the Switch, Switch Lite, and Switch OLED.

This encloses the finishing of an era that started in 2017 when the Nintendo Switch console was launched to the public, enabling them to integrate playing photo screenshots directly to Twitter through linked personal accounts.

While two big names in the area, PlayStation and Xbox (which are about to obsolete themselves at the end of this month), have already made this decision, it's still hard to see it as a positive step for the industry overall.

The Nintendo support site, which published the official statement, mentions that the X function on the Switch will be abolished on June 11' of the next month.

Nintendo of America posted, "As of June 10, 2024, it will no longer be possible to post screenshots and videos to X (formerly Twitter) from the Nintendo Switch's Album, or send friend requests to social media users via the Friend Suggestions feature."

Post this date, Switch users will no longer have the ability to upload screenshots to their social media accounts directly from their consoles. Furthermore, the ability "to send friend requests to friends on social media from within the Nintendo Switch friend suggestions feature" will also be disabled.

Nintendo has said that for now, Facebook integration will remain operational, with a disclaimer that it, too, may face discontinuation at a future date.

The impact of this removal will be felt most acutely in specific game titles, particularly Splatoon 3 and Splatoon 2.

With the upcoming changes, Splatoon 3 will adapt to "allow users to make posts without one of these social media accounts," as stated by Nintendo. However, there is a caveat: images shared by players under the age of 13 will be rendered invisible to other players, reflecting a new approach to user content visibility.

Why did Nintendo cut ties with X?

Nintendo has not explicitly stated the reasons behind these sweeping changes, but industry speculation points towards the increased API costs imposed by X.

Earlier in 2023, X significantly raised its prices for companies wishing to integrate its services into their devices. This price hike led to the removal of native posting capabilities to X on both PlayStation and Xbox platforms.