Nintendo Releases Full Statement After Cancellation Of Smash World Tour - Nintendo Life

Update [Fri 2nd Dec, 2022 11:30 GMT]: We heard earlier this week that the unofficial Smash Bros.

This was expected to cost the tournament a huge amount of money in cancellation fees and seemed to be something of a U-turn for the brand which had previously operated under good terms with Nintendo's licenses.

Today, in a statement to IGN, Nintendo has offered some explanation of why it chose to withdraw SWT's license and bring an end to the event.

Perhaps most importantly, however, the statement suggests that Nintendo never asked for the 2022 Championships to be shut down, citing "the impact it would have on players." Therefore, the statement claims, "the decision to cancel the SWT 2022 was, and still is, their own choice.".

Original article [Wed 30th Nov, 2022 00:45 GMT]: The unofficial Super Smash Bros.

series 'Smash World Tour' has announced the cancellation of "both the upcoming Smash World Tour Championships" as well as the 2023 tour.

This event is best-known for having the "largest prize pool in Smash history at over $250,000" and was planned to have a prize pool of "over $350,000" next year?

After seemingly positive talks with Nintendo, Smash World Tour allegedly received notice from the video game company that it could "no longer operate" future events without an official license.

"...It felt as though Nintendo simply did not want the Smash World Tour to continue to exist.

In the same statement, Smash World Tour detailed its history with Panda Global (the officially licensed Smash tournament host) and how Panda's CEO (who was "under evaluation" by Nintendo) allegedly told other organisers about SWT "getting shut down" while threatening these same events with shut downs if they didn't "join Panda Cup".

You can read Smash World Tour's lengthy statement in the link below:?

I don't care about competitive Smash, but even I know that this is ridiculous.

Nintendo simply doesn't want to take Smash to the competitive stage, or at least not unless they have the control to do so.

Smash community will probably lose their mind regardless, tell everyone how they are out there promoting the franchise for Nintendo, complain about the prizes and how Nintendo is destroying the community.

Nintendo takes to the SWT like Elon Musk to Twitter.

Not sure what point you're trying to make?

Edit: I should note since the article doesn't mention this...there are 2 Tournament Circuits: Smash World Tour, and the Nintendo-Sponsored Panda Cup.

@Wolfgabe I was wondering if this tournament was Panda Global.

But also let's make one thing clear regardless: I love Nintendo consoles/games but to pretend Nintendo themselves aren't capable of some shady stuff is just delusional.

Sounds like I’m getting half the story here, I thought Nintendo was supporting this.

It’s almost like they need to fulfill a quota or something.

I don’t care at all for the tournament scene but to throw all of that effort out the window seriously sucks.

However, Nintendo had no obligation to shut down this based off the wants of the Panda CEO?

Nintendo is just as much to blame as Panda, they just weren’t as devious about it.

Idk why people are suddenly acting like this is solely Panda.

Nintendo REALLY hates the competitive Smash community don't they?

Still I don't get why Nintendo would cancelled it since it's not them who's losing money here.

My guess is either Nintendo cancelled it because third party (Sega, Square Enix, Namco, Capcom, etc.) don't want their characters taking part in a non-organize event or Nintendo don't want to change balance on the characters anymore since most of these events will show skill players using exploit with certain character to take advantage of a match which would had many losing players sending complaints to Nintendo about nerfing such character just like the Villager, Bayonetta, and Meta Knight situation long time ago.

"Let us all defend this poor, helpless billion dollar corporation that loves and cares about us so dearly, just trying to protect its precious billion dollar franchises from the very people that keep them alive!".

Don't turn me into sushi over it.

I know the vast majority of you are great and don't worship the company like cult members, but simply love what they create and stand for.

Just as Kit and Krysta said, Nintendo is very obsessed with control, and this is just another example of that.

The lack of details in this article just served to smear Nintendo's name.

Then SWT goes ahead with plans for an event Nintendo told them they might not be able to have.

Feel free to assume you're just talking to a filthy casual who just watches Smash matches on YouTube and Twitch.

Nintendo of America, Nintendo UK and Nintendo (which are all separate and completely distinct entities) can ALL shut down any English language broadcast of any Nintendo IP by law.

For Smash, add Bandai Namco Studios (and IP holders of the licenced IP in Smash, like Solid Snake, might be able to force BN to take down broadcasts as well. I don't have first-hand knowledge of that so I won't say for sure, but that would be standard in a licencing agreement). This is why these discussions are so childish most of the time. Nintendo is always going to be the one doing the enforcing, but who knows who asked them to. For all we know, we're all mad at Nintendo because Bandai Namco told them to uphold their legal obligation to shut down a broadcast, and Nintendo didn't break a multi-billion-dollar contract, give up publishing rights for Smash, and open themselves up to billions in liability by saying no. THE MONSTERS!.

So if you want to run a Smash event, you have 2 options:.

2) Apply to Nintendo to have your event certified as an official, licenced event.

But now Panda Cup can ALSO shut down Smash streams, and given they pumped a lot of money into becoming the official Smash broadcast partner, they are aggressively doing so.

SWT opened a dialog with Nintendo and started the official process to become a licenced event after 3 months of discussion.

I don't know what to tell you.

@HeadPirate if you actually thought about this instead of thinking about anyways to defend your favorite billion dollar business, you would see that the VGBC team consistently got in touch with Nintendo with both licensing the entire circuit as well as the single event.

I don't think a stores in the west should call the cops on homeless people trying to keep warm.

I'm sure if a TV station was "in talks" with FIFA to broadcast the world cup but had no contract or legal right to do so at this time, obviously FIFA would shut them down.

They just can't stream it and make money from ads.

So Nintendo is a soulless corporation trying to protect their IP and SWT is a soulless corporation trying to profit from ad revenue (or they would have gone ahead with the event, or they could have offered PC all the profits if the gaol was really only to "help the community").

In fact if they actually thought that talks with Nintendo were going really well, they could run the event, record it, and broadcast the VODs (with ads) when they get approval.

I don't see any white hats in the ring?

Nintendo not only can shut down any broadcast that isn't covered under fair use (if the country of origin even has something like that), but in the case of Smash they can be compelled to do so by Bandi Namco and likely any of the IP holders of any character in Smash.

They just can't steam it.

And given the reason they are running the event is to make money from ads on stream, not as some benevolent gift to the community, they are no longer going to run it.

My gosh, can Smash Bros not be a drama magnet for just one year.

while they can't tell them to shut down the event, they COULD tell them they can't use any Nintendo IP in any marketing or promotion at all.

So it's not even that "shady" to shut down events most of the time, given in this case calling it a "Super Smash Brothers" event or using the Smash logo, or even a screen shot are all violations of IP law.

You can tell that SWT anticipated this, given all their promo stuff calls it a "smash" event and has no Nintendo IP on it.

They did everything they could to game the system, it just didn't end up being enough.

So I don't really take sides here (I was looking forward to watching the event), but if I was to label one "shady" it would be the guys trying to get around IP law or get out of having to pay a licensing fee to Panda Cup, not the ones exercising their legal rights.

@HeadPirate Yeah I meant generally legally shady to be clear, not just Nintendo.

I do not care about having to make this switch.

If Panda's event is just as good if not better than SWT, then there isn't really much to lose in the long-run.

Nintendo should have hurried up with the licensing and SWT should have delayed the event.

A comeback story might make SWT more popular assuming they aren't overshadowed by Panda.

I really like that people are not allowed to steal my creations and destroy my livelihood, or misrepresent my content in a way I might not approve, or use my content to make money for an organization I might not agree with.

Maybe Nintendo WAS talking to WST and things were looking great, Nintendo was 100% for it and wanted it to go forward … then Hideo Kojima called them up, and because Panda has some deal with Kojima Productions we don’t’ know about, he told Nintendo to shut down WST … a thing he almost certainly is allowed to do as part of the licence deal to use Snake.

Not to call you out, but the idea that everyone had to go to Panda is just wrong.

Obviously, WST COULD have found a way to make this event happen if they really were willing to play ball, as evident by the fact that BTS Smash Summit 14 is still happening in Dec.

And like I said, the event can still happen.

SWT actually went out of their way to ensure no marketing or promotion uses Nintendo IP (the video uses clips that other organizers have made available), which makes the story that they thought this was all completely above-board until the last minute a bit fishy, but it means Nintendo have no way to stop the event.

But SWT, like any other tournament, exists to make money for the people who own it first, and for the community a very, very, extremely, almost non-existent second.

God, this just makes me depressed more than anything.

I love watching competitive Smash and to see what could've potentially been the biggest non-EVO tournament snuffed out TWO WEEKS before it was supposed to happen.

@Vil Sorry but you called me as a nintendo fan a Joke so you just made me have to reply.

Just because this is a massive corporation it's makes no difference and Nintendo can choose to do what they like because they own it.

It's up to you if you do or don't like their actions, but as you are on a nintendo fan site then I guess you must be fine about it.

Cant imagine why control freak Nintendo wouldn't want them representing and assiciatted with their game which the creator never wanted to be a competitive one but a fun party game.

I don't want people 'stealing' my work and 'using it however they want', but I know it's not a black and white world, it has infinite shades, especially when it comes to corporations.

I'm not here to attack people, just share some opinions and give different perspectives.

Legal eagles on here make me smile.

Often large companies know they might actually not legally win these cases but they know they can throw money at it to make it go away.

Just can they win?

It's not all black and white, the real world has infinite shades.

And you seem to miss a major point in question, these people who you are referring to are doing this to make money or notoriety, it's not like children tracing a drawing for the front a school book.

Sakurai seems like a guy that really loves his community despite so many ungrateful jerks, but he has to do what Nintendo tells him to do?

Also, can a lawyer in the house answer about the legality of you can't make a videogame tournament without the copyright holder of the game allowing it.

@Coalescence As long as there are people wanting a character, but going too far into their love for the character, to the point of harassing Sakurai, and people fighting against this, or just wanting to ruin everyone's fun, trying to prove by any way necessary that the character will never ever join Smash as playable, Smash will always have drama.

Rool, Hero, Banjo, Terry, Steve, Sora and many others were never going to join Smash as playable, and they joined anyway, maybe the community should learn to stop saying characters like Waluigi, Geno, Bandana Dee, Isaac, Ashley, Reium and Shantae will never be in Smash, but of course, Now It's Different®.

The creator of this tournament could be even a genocide financier and using the money from the tournament to fund one, it's the police that should stop him, not Nintendo by using their copyright/trademark powers, if you want to make a videogame tournament, you should not need a permit from the developer/publisher who holds the copyright to the game?

The Smash World tour has been going on all year as a circuit of events, with this being the championship for the final.

The cancellation of this event doesn't just mean the end of it, but most likely the end of the Smash events as we know it.

With this decision, every single event not licensed could get shut down

It's not about feeling like Nintendo owes the Smash community for advertising the game, its literally just them staying out so that we can enjoy competing and the competition

Considering that all I ever hear about the competitive Smash scene is negative; poor hygiene, bad sportsmanship, grooming, gatekeeping, snobbery, bullying, death threats, tantrums, ungratefulness, and cheating I don't blame Nintendo in the least

Nintendo does not have the right to shut the tournament down, only keep SWT from using or monetizing their IP

SWT shut it because of their profit motivation, let's not act like they are some noble actor in this drama

@Itakiteacher Making a videogame tournament without permission from the company that owns the copyright of the game should be legal even if the tournament is profiting from it, using the copyrights/trademarks of the company like a big poster with the characters and logos from the game should fall under fair use

@victordamazio Without getting into a discussion about legal morality, let say this; there are laws they you and I fine perfectly acceptable, however there is always someone will object because they want to do something that society has agreed is wrong

There are multiple companies with Ips in that game with interests, which was point out by other comments, so not just Nintendo

They claimed fair use but, again it wasn't because it's wasn't transformative like a review or essay

@Itakiteacher I get your point, I am not against copyright and trademark laws, copyright is important to make sure if you work on something new, other people won't copy your work to make sure you can get your money, but one thing is preventing people from selling unlicensed copies of a game, another thing is an unlicensed tournament of a game, as long as everyone paid for legit copies of the game, it's fine, advertisment and decoration for the tournament will require a few copyright and trademark violations, but they should count as fair use

Imagine if someone decides they own football, basketball, hockey, baseball, so you can't make a tournament without a permit from the people or groups that own them, you can't own these sports, handegg games are being controlled by EA for years since NFL gave them an exclusivity, but you can make your own handegg games, just without the teams, players and brands related to the association, while Nintendo deserves rights over the Super Smash Bros

franchise, alongside the partners that own much of the source material, no one should need a permit from Nintendo to make a Smash Bros

tournament, and the current law likely allows an unlicensed tournament but Nintendo doesn't care since the real punishment is the process and not the veredict

As an owner of the product, I should be able to use it as I want so long as I’m not breaking the law

Imagine the outrage if FIFA found a way to ban all non-FIFA soccer leagues all together… though PGA is pretty well on track to do just that for golf

@retroman64 I think you may be confused on more than just one point

As someone who is a die-hard Smash Bros fan who does play competitively, though not in tournaments, it always makes me sigh when there are articles like this

On the other side, you have a lot of people, a lot of them on this website, who view players who genuinely enjoy the game competitively as a rogue agent somehow "ruining" was what was "originally just a fun party game" (which I will stand firm in saying has always been a misunderstanding of the series)

"I don't want to see the game I love hidden from the world" if you know you know

I would believe Nintendo, if not for the fact that multiple events like these they have shut down before

Some past organizers have stated that Nintendo can create such a difficult environment with payments and licensing that they are forced to cancel events due to not just not having any profit, but lose money from their own wallets if their events would go on

To all the people saying that people jumped to conclusions, I don’t see why SWT would shut down their own tournament on purpose

@nhSnork The difference here is that my point stands, if you want to make a videogame tournament, a license from the company that owns the copyright of the game should not be necessary, even if you are profiting a lot of money from that tournament

And there are probably no laws that will support Nintendo's case, but who cares, the punishment is the process, not the veredict, if Nintendo decided to sue everyone that made a tournament of their games without a license, they would probably lose all of the lawsuits, but most people wouldn't even try and would just give up

@victordamazio Nintendo can pay for good enough lawyers that I feel like they could find a loophole

It's your choice whether or not to carry on with the tournament

I haven't commented for a while, but I wanted to say that if you don't follow the guidelines to host any tournament like Smash Bros., then this will bound to happen

I mean this was always going to be “Nintendo wanted money, WST didn’t want to give Nintendo money”, but with this statement we get some idea of what the details were

With the summit 14 happening this weekend, it obvious that Nintendo was willing to let an event happen if the organizers were willing to be professional, so we can only assume WST wasn't

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