History
Flipnote Studio started as the secret after-work project of two Nintendo employees, Yoshiaki Koizumi and Hideaki Shimizu, and was initially intended to be a note-taking tool. The initial prototype was developed in just a few days, however after going through several shifts in focus, the pair considered developing it as a DS Download Play application that could be downloaded from a WiiWare app. Users would create notes on the DS console, then send them back to the Wii to be shared with others over the internet.
This is the earliest known screenshot of the app, from a demo at Nintendo's Autumn 2008 conference.
Up until this point, few people at EAD Tokyo knew of the then in-development DSi console. Upon hearing of its development, Koizumi and Shimizu decided to move their project to the DSi. The problem then became finding a suitable way to make the sharing of Flipnote creations easy and accessible for users. Since Nintendo’s own Network Development Department was already heavily underway with other projects, this was easier said than done.
During a meeting, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata suggested a collaboration with Hatena Co., Ltd, a Japanese company who provide various social web services in Japan. Hatena's Research and Development department had recently moved their offices to Kyoto, the same city that Nintendo Corporate Labs where located in, hence Iwata's suggestion. A meeting was later held with Junya Kondo and Teppei Ninemiya from Hatena, who agreed to work in collaboration with Nintendo to develop an online sharing service for the application.
A preview of Flipnote Hatena was released, featuring sample Flipnotes by Hatena and Nintendo employees. An archived version of this release can be found here.
This update was provided for free though the Nintendo DSi Shop. It was still possible to continue using the old version until July 1, when updating to version 2 became required in order to use Flipnote Hatena. The main changes included:
- Additional sample Flipnotes
- "Advanced" toolset mode
- "Back up" feature to bulk save all your Flipnotes to the SD card
- Significant improvements to the online functions of Flipnote Hatena
- An update to the DSi Menu icon
This update improved the internet communication in order to reduce the number of errors. In addition, Hatena ID registration became available for Flipnote Hatena.
August 12, 2009 -- The moment that the Flipnote Hatena developers made the site live
As was announced on May 13, Flipnote Hatena ceased service to make way for Flipnote Studio 3D.