Regarding the Sept. 2023 tweet by @nintendo_cs

[frozenpandaman]

Nintendo tweeted this recently (on 2023-09-14) and a few people sent me messages asking about it.

https://twitter.com/nintendo_cs/status/1702547829833810129

[Attention] We've confirmed the existence of non-genuine (lit. 非正規, non-legitimate) apps which are accessing our company's servers for 'Splatoon 3' without authorization (lit. 不正, not-correct/true), and increasing the load [on servers], etc. As usage of such apps violate the Terms of Use of our services, upon confirming use, we may take action such as suspending use of the service. Please be aware (lit. 注意, caution).

This was posted in reply to an earlier tweet regarding a couple Japanese smartphone apps ("スマホアプリ") specifically, to which Nintendo soon followed by sending C&Ds. In addition to this recent announcement, a small number users were apparently suspended from accessing SplatNet 3 (but not the game itself; no email was sent about this, but the webapp simply shows an error upon loading for these users).

Information about how this may affect s3s is provided below:

s3s makes minimal requests (on par or less than the NSO app) and is not causing stress on Nintendo's servers, unless the code has been manually modified or a user has automated it in an unapproved way that is unknown to us. Smartphone apps can be argued to be taking away from Nintendo's customers, or competing with downloads of the NSO app, but I do not believe s3s could be argued as falling into this category, as we provide a different set of services to a largely different userbase. In addition, this command line tool does not use any official assets/graphics or violate any copyright, is completely open-source, is free (and does not display ads to users, i.e. we are not profiting in any way) – all of which serves to indicate that we are operating entirely in good faith.

No known users of s3s have been affected or targeted, and the script does not access any of Nintendo's endpoints/servers or data in any way that is different to what the official app does. There is always some risk when using any third-party tool, which you assume by using s3s; this is specified in our disclaimer and a similar statement is made in the privacy policy of the imink API (which s3s uses by default). However, we have always attempted to be wholly respectful and keep any and all requests to Nintendo minimal, and thus I believe any risk is minimal as well. Other developers in this space and collaborators on this project have agreed during recent conversations with them.

Finally, note that other services such as splatoon3.ink have been operating in a similar manner without interruption for years. From a legal standpoint, Japanese users have confirmed with lawyers that the use of such programs or apps is not illegal.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out.