Early this August, Nintendo launched the StreetPass Relay system, an effort to try and increase the number of StreetPasses for 3DS users on a daily walk-around. The system would use public Wi-Fi areas like the ones already set up for Nintendo Zones, and 3DS owners could pass by and receive a StreetPass from the person who’d come before them and leave their own info automatically for the next person.
Satoru Iwata weighed in on this new feature in a recent Iwata Asks, citing how it’s less common for folks to carry around their 3DS in North America and Europe than it is in Japan. The new StreetPass Relay system looked to change that:
“In America, the amount of StreetPass encounters that would occur was only about one-tenth to that of Japan. I thought that was way too little, as if it was missing a zero. Then I found out that it was even less in Europe. Even though the number of systems sold and the number of customers who had experienced StreetPass didn’t differ that much between each region, the number of encounters was drastically smaller. When you walk around a city in Japan, StreetPass is happening fairly frequently, so it’s a habit for a lot of people to walk around with their Nintendo 3DS. And I think not a few people go out with their Nintendo 3DS in America or Europe as well in hopes of having a StreetPass encounter. But I suspect that a lot of them must have gone home disappointed after not having passed anyone.”
But even with this new system in place, things aren’t perfect. There have been reports circling online that some of these new Relay spots aren’t working the way they’re supposed to. Fellow news site NintendoLife has reported that the StreetPass Relay areas in Starbucks, AT&T, and McDonalds in Hawaii aren’t working, and that notably all of these locations were using AT&T for their wireless connection.
However, Starbucks is looking to change their wireless provider to Google, which may fix the issue—we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, if we hear any updates as to whether the Relay is working elsewhere (or has been fixed), we’ll let you know!
