Nintendo Cancels Japanese Esports Events Following Threats to Staff and Spectators

Nintendo has cancelled Nintendo Live 2024 Tokyo and postponed other Japanese esports events after persistent threats were made to both staff and spectators. From a report: A Japanese press release, shared by reliable translator Genki on X/Twitter, revealed the "all ages celebration of Nintendo fun," which took place in the United States for the first time in 2023, has been cancelled and its main esports tournaments postponed.

Nintendo said its employees have received relentless threats which have also recently targeted spectators, attendees, and staff at Nintendo Live 2024, forcing the cancellation in the interest of safety. It was due to take place from January 20 to 21.

What do you want to bet...?

[cayenne8]

What do you want to bet, that somewhere in many of the threats they mentioned, that the word "jihad" was used somewhere....?

Re:What do you want to bet...?

[ArchieBunker]

I'll take angry incels for $100, Alex.

Re:

[pereOlthwaite]

I'm all in on aging otaku, having sunk their youth into getting really really good at GameCube Smash Bros, indignant about how Nintendo set the lawyers on them every time they try to organise a tournament of their own. Nintendo isn't so much giving in to them as doubling down on how it's their ball and they're going home with it.

This is why we can't have nice things

[davidwr]

Sigh.

Re:

[dargaud]

Yes. I can't care less about esports. They have nothing to do with sports, they're just games, but if people enjoy them, all the best to them, let them have it and I don't see why I (or anyone) should get cranky about them.
This kind of relentless abuse, like persistent bomb threats to schools, airports and such, should simply be ignored.

re your sig

[davidwr]

Another non-Linux Penguin. [fandom.com]

Re:

[dgatwood]

Yes. I can't care less about esports. They have nothing to do with sports, they're just games, but if people enjoy them, all the best to them, let them have it and I don't see why I (or anyone) should get cranky about them.

The extent to which I care about it is solely out of a desire to see people either hyphenate the term or use reasonable capitalization. Calling it e-sports or eSports is fine, but esports is not. When I read this headline, I read it as "Nintendo cancels Japanese escorts" and wondered what kind of parties those game companies were throwing.... :-D

Is this because of Kotaku ?

[OrangeTide]

Is this because of Kotaku's Luke Plunkett posting some tasteless anti-Japanese WW2 propaganda [reddit.com]?

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

No, this sounds more like typical mal-adapted internet asshole behavior. Probably someone who got beaten badly in an earlier round of silly games.

Re:

[davidwr]

typical mal-adapted internet asshole behavior

Before the start of Eternal September, USENET regulars called these people "college freshmen."

Re:

[ToasterMonkey]

Is this because of Kotaku's Luke Plunkett posting some tasteless anti-Japanese WW2 propaganda [reddit.com]?

That whole Reddit... gross.

Yakuza (No, Really)

[SinGunner]

So, the family founder of Nintendo has been fighting an increasingly heated war with Toyo Construction. Nintendo is trying to buy the company and Toyo is REALLY not happy about it. Construction companies in Japan are an incredibly fascinating subject, but the short version is "untold decades of corruption." Toyo also has lots of ties to sea ports, and criminals have to import things somehow, eh? So the question is this: who is most interested in making Nintendo miserable right now? The fact that they're taking this so seriously also suggests it may be more than a slightly disgruntled gamer.