• Nintendo joins Xbox and PlayStation in removing the ability to post screenshots and videos to X.
• From 10th June, Nintendo gamers will need to download and manually post their content to X.
• This move seems tied to X’s fees for API access which gets incredibly costly the more you need to post and read content from the platform.

One of the bigger losses on X since Elon Musk took over (and there have been many) was the loss of free access to the platform’s API. The X API could be used to dive into data from the platform but was also used by other applications to make things like cross-posting content easier.

The latest casualty in X’s pursuit to make as many people as possible pay for it is Nintendo which has announced that from 10th June, “it will no longer be possible to post screenshots and videos to X (formerly Twitter) from the Nintendo Switch’s Album”.

The Japanese game maker adds that users also won’t be able to send friend requests to social media users via the Friend Suggestions feature.

While Nintendo doesn’t mention X’s API, all of these activities would leverage that feature and given both the cost of API access and the popularity of the Switch, we suspect that Nintendo can’t foot that bill anymore. The company also notes on a support page that posting screenshots and videos to Facebook will still be possible, it’s just X that it won’t be supported anymore.

This is quite clearly X’s fault and it tried to get ahead of it by trying to make use of marketing spin.

“The gaming community is one of the largest and most vibrant communities on our platform, and we are dedicated to enhancing and supporting gaming-related features. As part of Nintendo’s planned discontinuation of sharing content to X from the Nintendo Switch, from June 11th, users will need to download Switch gameplay media directly to their smartphones and share it natively on our platform,” X Gaming posted.

“Our partnership with Nintendo remains strong, and we are working together to ensure a smooth transition for all users. We will continue collaborating with partners to bring new and exciting experiences to our global gaming community.”

Gamers, however, aren’t buying what X is selling.

“This doesn’t seem like a strong relationship,” one user posted.

“You guys are the problem. Elon is the issue with this platform. You overprice APIs and code,” another commented below X Gaming’s post.

This should ring alarm bells at X but it won’t. The fact that Nintendo, arguably one of the largest and most popular videogame companies is rejecting the platform should worry X but it seems that Musk is too preoccupied with fighting the boogieman that is the “woke mind virus.”

API access for enterprises starts at $42 000 per month and that price climbs the greater the demand.

Gamers on Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo now need to post their content to X manually and frankly, that seems like too much effort, especially when there are limitations for video content on free accounts.

Masterful gambit, Elon.