‘Smash’ Competitive Leagues Freak Out Over Latest Nintendo Edicts
from the nintendon't dept
For nearly a decade now, we’ve discussed Nintendo’s oddly combative relationship with the eSports community, specifically as it revolves around Super Smash Bros. tournaments. Whereas other game publishers have fully embraced these tournaments and the attention they bring to their games, Nintendo does what Nintendo always does instead: exert more and more control, pissing everyone off over disputes about the most inconsequential and minute details. Sometimes this revolves around demands for licensing to put on tournaments and sometimes it’s over the use of mods in those tournaments. In every case, it sure looks like the chopping off of Nintendo’s nose to spite its face.
But this latest iteration of Nintendo’s attempts to exert an insane level of control over these third parties has a huge swath of the competitive Smash Bros. community absolutely freaking out.
Posted on October 24 on Nintendo’s UK, Japan, and North America websites, the rules set strict limits on all “community” tournaments. According to the new guidelines, in addition to being nonprofit events, Smash tournaments would also be limited to 200 participants, unable to set prizes above $5,000, unable to have sponsors, and forbidden from using modified versions of Nintendo games, like the popular “Project M” hack of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Tournament organizers wouldn’t even be allowed to sell food, beverages, or merchandise.
While the guidelines don’t ban all commercial tournaments outright, they do require the companies behind those events to get special licenses directly from Nintendo. However, the company states that it’s “up to Nintendo’s sole discretion whether or not a licensee will be granted to a corporation or organization.” Given Nintendo’s track-record, many fans are worried this will lead some of these restrictions to trickle down to bigger esports events, or make holding a Smash Bros. tournament too much of a headache to even bother with in the first place.
In what world it makes sense for Nintendo to dictate at least some of the above is entirely beyond me. The food and drinks thing is flatly obnoxious. I’m at least a little surprised that Nintendo doesn’t have a requirement for the precise color of the urinal cakes in the bathrooms.
But this is what the company does. Given the choice, Nintendo will always choose to exert the maximum amount of control over having a vibrant community of fans and others that would actually lead to more interest in its games. And, as commenters have often pointed out in posts about Nintendo, it’s survived doing all of this thus far because enough people still buy enough Nintendo products that the company never learns a lesson. And while that may happen yet again, it’s worth noting that the competitive Smash community is fully fired up over these latest dictates.
“Ah yes, it is that time of the year where Nintendo remembers to ruin the day of every Smash player,” tweeted Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby, one of the top-ranked players in the world. “Fuck Nintendo, they are like a 5 year old screaming for attention at all times when it comes to competitive Smash,” tweeted Adam “Armada” Lindgren, long considered one of the “five gods” of Smash Bros. Melee.
Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma, one of the other “five gods,” threatened to continue running his own tournaments until Nintendo’s lawyers reached out to him in person. “I’m running Coinbox,” he said during a recent livestream. “I’m gonna keep running it in January, I’m gonna keep running it in February, March, and April, I will run it every fucking week until I receive word from them directly. I’m not going to stop out of fear. They have to come to me directly with the document. Until then I’m calling their fucking bluff.”
Now, keep in mind with all of this that Nintendo also announced in 2022 that it was partnering with a company called Panda Global to be the officially licensed partner for Smash tournaments. That came out as part of the whole licensing chaos in that same year, with tournaments suddenly getting shut down after Nintendo said they weren’t licensed to operate. There was a backlash against Panda Global and Nintendo as a result, which led to the abandonment of the Panda Global league in its infancy, but, well, it appears the new guidelines might once again be due to that rekindled partnership.
The company was supposed to have its own Smash Bros. league organized by Panda Global. However, following a drama-filled cancellation of Video Game Boot Camp’s Smash World Tour event in 2022, many accused Nintendo and Panda Global of colluding to squash competing tournaments. An ensuing boycott of Panda’s league eventually led it to disband at the start of 2023. After Nintendo announced its new tournament guidelines today, someone allegedly leaked a Panda Global pitch deck for its Smash Bros. league, and it appeared to point toward a generous collaboration between Panda Global and Nintendo—the type of competitive circuit pros have long asked for, with sizable payments to host organizers to help with costs.
Again, control, control, control. Rather than letting a vibrant, self-emerging ecosystem of fans and players spring up all over the place in tournaments far and wide, all of which serves to generate more interest in Nintendo’s games, the company instead demands control. Tournaments will happen chiefly with its preferred partner and, outside of that, only under ridiculous restrictions that basically make hosting a tournament simply not worth the trouble.
Nintendo hates you. Or, at the very least, they don’t give a shit about you.
Filed Under: competitions, esports, fans, super smash bros., video games
Companies: nintendo
Comments on “‘Smash’ Competitive Leagues Freak Out Over Latest Nintendo Edicts”
Yeah, why wouldn’t a company that markets itself primarily to children not want an esports scene full of adult obsessives associated with it? Especially since esports players have no history of pulling absolutely deranged crap that is the stuff of PR department nightmares.
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To be fair, Smash players aren’t the only ones who stand to be worried here. I don’t think there’s a huge Splatoon eSports scene, but if Nintendo wanted to quash whatever is there, they could use the same cartoon-gloved iron fist to do that. And if Nintendo were to somehow create another game that has eSports potential, the company could prevent that scene from ever being a thing.
And before you say “oh that’s fine”, keep in mind that companies like Capcom, Bandai Namco, and Warner Bros. (by way of NetherRealm Games) make a fair amount of money by both officially supporting the eSports scene and keeping a mostly hands-off approach to unofficial tournaments. Those events get other people hyped to play the games shown off in said events, which can lead to more sales of those games (and possibly the microtransactions therein).
I understand the reasons Nintendo may have for announcing these guidelines and trying to kill the Smash eSports scene in the process. But understanding them doesn’t mean I approve of them.
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The brand awareness around Konami, Namco, whoever is not the same as the brand awareness around Nintendo. If a Tekken player goes mask off, the evening news isn’t going to be talking about Namco. Smash is aimed at kids and looks like it. So when a pro Smash player fucks up, there will be plenty of “concerned parents” available to comment
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Much like Capcom and Bamco and WBG/NRS can say “they don’t represent us as a company, they’re banned from our official events” (and tournament organizers can say “they’re banned from our events too”), Nintendo could absolutely do the same. The players don’t represent Nintendo in any way. And yes, Nintendo could take a PR hit from a competitive Smash player doing something shitty—but the chances of that happening are low because Nintendo doesn’t do organized Smash eSports. Any PR hit would most likely land on an event that hosts a Smash tournament rather than Nintendo.
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The American FGC tends to police themselves because they now know that they represent their hobby, so if someone goes “mask off”, as in the case of Gootecks, the issue fixes itself.
Nintendo is being a totlitarian dick here.
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Uh-huh. Sure. Nintendo employees get harassed everytime a trailer their fans have convinced themselves is going to be released doesn’t manifest. Why wouldn’t they trust gamers to sort their own shit out?
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Maybe it could of gotten involved a decade ago when those fans were teenagers?
That’s the thing here. Nintendo has had, checks notes, 21 fucking years, to decide to either shut things down or be a part of it.
What they have chosen to do instead is take what their fans(including kids and teens) like and punish them for wanting to do it.
Imagine this. You have been having a tournament for a decade. You have tried and tried to get official support. Every single time they refuse. Every step of the way they add more and more restrictions and you keep agreeing to just so you can keep doing it. Then, oh boy, then they announce out of the blue that a company no one likes, that doesn’t even actually host a tournament, and I don’t believe has yet, is now the official sponsor, the one and only. Now you get a legal threat to stop what you have been doing for years.
That is literally what Nintendo has done to its fans. Think I am exaggerating? Go read up on it.
Also.. Nintendo, while more “censored” on sex, blood, and gore, has quite a bit more of it in their game library then they did 20 years ago. Their target audience is most definitely not just E for everyone anymore.
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Nintendo does not owe you a million dollar esports league. The fact that they’re fine with small tournaments of the “There’s a Switch with Smash on it across from artist alley” level and didn’t stop teenagers from playing games with their friends doesn’t mean that they owe you a OWL or DotA2 or MtG type esport.
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Nobody’s asking for one, so take your ridiculous strawman somewhere else.
Fans being worried that insane levels of control like this could kill tournaments or turn away fans/viewers is completely reasonable and understandable. Tournaments are virtually free Nintendo advertising, so clamping down on them to this degree doesn’t benefit Nintendo in any way.
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No one was asking for one.
Your comment looks even dumber because Nintendo partnered with a company to do just(that’s what they claim) that while screwing over all their fans.
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Like hosting an impromptu tourney IN a Popeye’s?
Or making a match last so long that the casters legit went WILD with the commentary?
While Smash pros are a different breed (for the worse), the fact that other devs can maintain an okay relationship with their competitive scenes only makes Nintendo come off as TOTALITARIAN with regard to their control over Smash’s competitive scene.
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Any such argument is completely undermined by Nintendo contracting to engage in esports as described in the article. Did you read the article?
If Nintendo puts together an esports league, its going to be full of esports players. The most heinous smack talk shit I’ve heard came from teenagers whose voice hadn’t dropped yet and money means teams will put bad role models on the team, because victory is the goal, not entertainment of fans.
Also, Bayonetta.
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Full of Smash pros, who are a worse breed of esports players than even the average FGC player. At least most esports pros bathe, for one.
Wrestling has worse smack talk, and it’s all scripted. And I’ve read legit endorsements of CSAM on BestNetTech, as well as ringing endorsements of genocide AND insurrection here.
*looks at actual sports
*looks at the corrupt nonsense that is FIFA
The worst you get in a competitive video game is boring ass matches. Mostly.
But you clearly don’t care.
This is only mildly rlelvant to the conversation, but…
Nintendo (and whoever they hire to do the English dubbing) are free to associate with whoever the fuck they want.
And in most sane companies, they don’t want to associate with insurrectionist scum who try to turn the character into a soapbox for insurrectionist bullshit. Especially after the company tried to at least offer her a paying role. Which she turned down.
Even David Hayter wised up after his initial rant. People get to do that. It’s called the First Amendment.
Nintendo loves the people who buy its products, but hates the fans of its products. The distinction is razor thin, but it’s there.
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Perhaps it could be phrased as ‘Nintendo hates it’s customers but loves their money’.
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More Nintendo hated the idea of people making money when their IP is involved in any way.
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to paraphrase Stephanie Sterling, Nintendo will never be happy with some of the money. Nintendo will never be happy with most of the money. Nintendo will only be happy with all of the money.
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That also goes for, I dunno…
Microsoft, Koch Industries, News Corp, hedge funds, Unilever, Konami (even more so when it’s rumored that they are run by yakuza), Kroger, Trader Joe’s…
Just listing the Fortune 500 is probably enough.
It’s a feature of capitalism.
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Yes. Thats the observation im paraphrasing.
Fans are idiots meant to be bled dry to fuel nintendos demon summoning ritual! So of course they would do this.
Nintendo, hates you. Given the chance of making $$$$$$$ they will choose not to just to spite you.
Want to buy official Nintendo music? NO!
Want to buy our classic games? NO!
Want to b!NO! WE TOLD YOU NO!
But seriously. I have stopped purchasing Nintendo products after some of their decisions including the previous decision to partner with Panda. I don’t plan to buy their next console.
Nintendo: Because We Hate You
Ah Nintendo, never passing up a chance to smack around their biggest fans and provide all the reasons you should need to never be one of them.
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Of course Nintendo hates you. You’re a whinging manchild who has built his entire personality around a game for children. They’re right to hate you. Most dealers hate their clients.
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Nintendo also hates the yakuza despite dealing with them for a long time.
Gee, I wonder why they don’t antagonize the yakuza and instead make life difficult for content creators and their simps…
Maybe the Smash Community should, I dunno, take a few lessons from organized crime?
Disclaimer: I do not endorse or recommend learning from gangsters and organized crime.
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Well that sure seems like a sane and proportionate thing to say
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History lesson.
Nintendo was not always the gaming equivalent to Disney. They used to make playing cards (for Japanese card games initially, then poker cards), toys, and at one time used to run a chain of love hotels.
The playing cards were so good they caught the attention of the organized crime scene of the era. Yes, they (the yakuza) used the cards for gambling.
While I’ll admit that the last statement was a bit… off the rails, anyone who knows about Nintendo’s history would know this.
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Aw, sweetiepie, did a mean Nintendo fan hurt you?
they are a business
This shit doesn’t do anything to their bottom line.
You say they hate you.
They don’t care that much.
Seeing a lot of people saying “Nintendo doesn’t hate you, they don’t care about you.” And that’s not right. See, Nintendo cares about money. Yours, theirs, everyones. And they want it. Anything that detracts from your money going into their pocket is a Bad Thing.
Hence the attitude towards tournaments they don’t control with an iron fist. See they could work with organizers, force them to accept a deal where Nintendo gets booth space to sell and promote products, and make money and every gets paid, win-win. But they want that other money too! They want to win and everyone else lose.
That’s why they don’t organize their own league. That would cost money! And they don’t spend money, they TAKE money. It has to be they win, everyone else loses. They don’t hate you, you’re right. What they hate is you taking money they think is their money. This latest crap is proof of it. You can have a league and a tourney, but you can’t make money from it in ANY way. They win, you lose, GFY!
“I’m at least a little surprised that Nintendo doesn’t have a requirement for the precise color of the urinal cakes in the bathrooms.”
Oh, but they do: plain white with “Urinal Cake” written on them in bright red.
The whole idea that copyright extends so far that the owner can bully someone over an activity completely orthogonal to the sale of said product is bonkers. This is not like a movie or music performance where an authorized performance could at least in theory negatively impact individual sales. No one who is going to an esport competition is doing it in lieu of buying the game. I’d go so far as to say the participants (players and audience) almost certainly represent more sales of the products being used than a random population sampling 10 times its size. The tournaments should be able to laugh in Nintendo’s face with these kind of restrictions.
The only small caveat would be trademark and even then if the organizers make it clear the tournament is not put on nor endorsed by Nintendo that should be more than sufficient.
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Yeah this article doesn’t make it clear what legal justification Nintendo has to impose these restrictions. I’d love to read a legal opinion. Maybe the organizers could avoid mentioning trademarks in marketing material and tell Nintendo to fuck off?
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The legal justification is massive bags of cash. Nintendo has them, tournament organizers don’t.
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Nintendo published the Smash series; it could argue that any tournament not sponsored by Nintendo is both engaging in an unauthorized public performance of Nintendo’s copyrighted works and infringing on Nintendo’s Smash trademarks. Whether such arguments could succeed in court is largely academic; that Nintendo could threaten to make such arguments—and back them up with a group of expensive lawyers—would be enough to make nearly anyone give up the fight before it begins.
"They're Leaving Money On the Table" Isn't Compelling
There’s a good argument against what Nintendo is doing, but I don’t think Geigner makes it.
A lot of the comments above arguing over whether or not “Nintendo hates fans” show why “they’re leaving money on the table” is not a good argument; it ends up being a discussion about what Nintendo’s ideal business strategy is.
Nintendo’s internal stakeholders are not obligated to make us happy unless either:
1. they want to make the kind of money that only comes from making us happy, regardless of any other goals, or
2. they have no legal right to stop us from enjoying their product in the way we choose.
For #1, unless we get access to a surprisingly coherent internal Nintendo document on what its goals are, or all agree on a Milton Friedman-esque view that Nintendo must maximize shareholder value in the near term over any other goals, we don’t have a shared view of what the “best” strategy should be. It devolves into a variation of “you’re not entitled to the company’s support” versus “but they could make more money.” And that’s where this article has led us in the comments.
#2 is the good argument, either or both of:
* copyright and trademark law do not extend as far as Nintendo enforces, and it uses litigation friction (i.e., lawsuits are expensive) to enforce what it is not entitled to legally,
* in an ideal legal system, no one should have as much control over their creation as Nintendo exercises.
But I don’t really see that anywhere in the snark above.
I don’t see anything here except Nintendo threatening to sue people for… playing their game.
Nintendo can’t litigiously control what you’re allowed to eat when you play their games in your own home, and I see no legal authority enabling them to do the same if you play their games in public, if it’s broadcast, and if you have prizes for it. The announcement from Nintendo doesn’t even seem to propose that there is such a legal authority.
Nintendo has a weird perspective on this. They think the sole attraction is their game as if the audience is there to watch 1v1 CPU vs CPU matches. The real content that people are enjoying are the performances of the players. These aren’t art galleries where viewers go to enjoy the visuals of Nintendo’s products. People are there to watch the performers. It’s akin to a musician performing on an instrument. Imagine Gibson demanding a kickback for any performance played on their guitars. The valuable content does not come from the game being passively displayed like an art piece in a gallery. The value comes from the players.