For all its history of being a “family-friendly company,” Nintendo has never been afraid to “bring the hammer down” on its own fans when it feels it’s justified. It’s gone after those who have pirated their games and both taken them to court and thrown them in jail. The company infamously refused to allow people to post their music on YouTube, which made the arrival of the Nintendo Music service all the more important. Plus, they’ve stricken down many fan-made projects associated with Nintendo IP. Today, the Nintendo Today app was the latest to get one of these “controversial moves” that have already gotten people talking.
For those that don’t recall, the Nintendo Today app was announced during a recent Nintendo Direct, and the purpose of it was simple: to provide Nintendo fans the ability to get a special piece of news straight from The Big N every single day. Sometimes, the app would post official concept art or promo art from past legendary titles. One time, they posted a rehearsal video for a classic song that was being performed by an orchestra. On the very first day of the app, they gave the release date for one of its upcoming movies. That’s the fun of the app. You never know what will be announced next!
However, as verified by VGC, the app has gotten a new update that restricts how information on the app is shared. Specifically, many people have taken screenshots or video clips of what was shown on the app and then posted them online. We’ve even used some of those posts in some of our past articles. However, the new update now makes that impossible.
If you attempt to take a video, you’ll be met with nothing but a black screen, and screenshots straight-up don’t work anymore on the app. Many on social media aren’t thrilled about this, as they see it as Nintendo once again “restricting their fun” and doing something that only reflects their “desire for control” versus allowing the community to share things with one another as they had been since the app’s launch.
So, why would Nintendo do this? The most obvious answer is that they don’t want people to find out about these daily posts via Blue Sky or Twitter; they want them to get the app themselves so that they learn about it. The app itself is free, so there’s no cost to downloading it and getting the news.
Even still, it’s fair to see why many are upset with this.
