Once again, the gaming community proves that it is unable to have a normal one. Nintendo Japan has announced that it is canceling several scheduled public events due to safety concerns. Tournaments that are part of the Nintendo Live event will be rescheduled to a later date.
After the company’s employees received persistent threats that have reportedly spread to event participants and staff, Nintendo decided that the Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals and Nintendo Live 2024 need to get delayed.
This announcement came at rather short notice for the former, which was scheduled for December 16-17 at the Ota Sogo Gymnasium in Tokyo. The latter would have taken place at the Tokyo Big Sight Exhibition Centre on January 20-21, 2024.
Nintendo said that it decided to cancel the events because it could not ensure the safety of attendees and staff. The company announced the cancellation on its official website which was later translated by VGC.
“Our company has been persistently receiving threatening behaviour targeting our staff,” Nintendo stated. “Recently, these threats have extended to the audience and staff of the Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals event as well. With consideration to the safety of our customers as our top priority, we have decided to postpone the event.”
It adds, “Nintendo Live 2024 Tokyo… has been cancelled due to the inability to ensure the safety of our customers.”
The Splatoon 3 World Championship 2024, the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Online Challenge Final Stage, and the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe World Championship 2024, which were part of the Nintendo Live 2024 event have also been postponed. The company said that it would be rescheduling the events to a later date. The announcement will be made on its website and X once the date has been finalized.
“We deeply apologise to our customers who were looking forward to these events and ask for your understanding in this matter,” Nintendo said.
Nintendo held its first Live Fanfest in the United States early this year after the event returned to Japan in 2022. The Nintendo Live 2023 was held in Seattle in September and featured demos, stage performances, tournaments, photo ops, and fan-centric other activities.
It is currently unclear what threats the Nintendo and event staff received but was described by the company as “disturbing and specific”. The threats were serious enough to merit a total cancelation of the event just weeks before it was scheduled to take place.
Security has been a top priority for gaming events like The Game Awards which suffered a breach last year. The annual gaming awards show had a 15-year-old gatecrasher named Matan Even during the acceptance speech of FromSoftware’s Hidetaka Miyazaki for Elden Ring. The prankster was arrested but has seemingly been released from custody.
Let’s hope this year’s show will go off without a hitch.
