Nintendo Cancels Livestreams for Splatoon 2 North American Open

Recent allegations have surfaced that Nintendo has, allegedly, suppressed the advancement of the Smash competitive community. These allegations have been highlighted in an article published by the Smashboards news team. This all came about after the online version of Big House was cancelled following a Cease & Desist order by Nintendo due to their use of Slippi, an online alternative for Super Smash Bros. Melee. Following this, several hashtags like #FreeMelee and #SaveSmash were created to help support the community and represent frustration against Nintendo.

As a way of showing support, the competitive Splatoon and ARMS community have voiced concerns about Nintendo’s actions against the Smash community and their own experiences working with the company. Specifically, Nintendo’s involvement in official ARMs tournaments have been criticized.

Nintendo has been largely silent regarding these allegations and made no effort to explain their decisions but, perhaps, they did make a statement in the form of recent actions against the Splatoon community. According to sources, Nintendo has cancelled their live-streams for the Splatoon 2 North American Open.

So the Splatoon community, in support of the Smash community, has 30% of the top teams in this weekend's Spl2 NA Open with Team names in support of Melee and Smash.
So what does @NintendoAmerica @NintendoVS do in response?
They cancelled their livestream for tomorrow's Finals.

— Level1 | Slimy (@SlimyQuagsire) December 5, 2020

Further evidence in the Twitter thread has been provided by the user. It’s pretty shocking to learn that 30% of the users showing support for #SaveSmash and #FreeMelee caused live-streams for its finals to be cancelled. It’s currently unknown if the finals will be broadcasted at another date but its relation to the current situation in the Smash competitive community is uncanny.

What do you think about this given situation? Do you think Nintendo should support their competitive communities? Do you think they have been acting poorly? Let us know below.

Credits:
Graphics: @Zerp
Social Media: @Scribe

 

Nintendo has not acted at all on tournaments using legit software, like their online services... There's really nothing else to it: don't use unapproved software to promote their games. This Splatoon cancellation is probably due to other things; is there even a shred of proof that it's in response to comments about Smash? That just seems like some desperate Smash fan is trying to turn anything Nintendo does as a reason/consequence of their raging...

 

Nintendo has not acted at all on tournaments using legit software, like their online services... There's really nothing else to it: don't use unapproved software to promote their games. This Splatoon cancellation is probably due to other things; is there even a shred of proof that it's in response to comments about Smash? That just seems like some desperate Smash fan is trying to turn anything Nintendo does as a reason/consequence of their raging...

Dude, companies like Sega, Valve, and Capcom WORK with fan content devs and it almost always ends in success, there is NO excuse for Nintendo to disallow fan content in a post-Sonic Mania world. Don't give me the "iT's IlLeGaL" crap, legality and morality are completely different things.

 

I highly doubt they shut down Splatoon Livestreams because of Super Smash Bros. One's a 3D shooter about hybrids of kids and squids, the other is a fighting game crossover that's bigger then Endgame.

 

I highly doubt they shut down Splatoon Livestreams because of Super Smash Bros. One's a 3D shooter about hybrids of kids and squids, the other is a fighting game crossover that's bigger then Endgame.

Did you even read anything here? This isn't about Splatoon, it's about Smash and the Splatoon community.

 

This paints a VERY bad picture for both parties. Not sure how they will recover from this incident.

 

He was referring to the American one, which promotes free speech.

But there's a massive misconception with that amendment; it only applies to the government, but Americans tend to think it applies to everything.

I know what the first amendment is, I was just pointing out Nintendo is a Japanese company.
though yeah I did make it look like id never heard of it

 

This paints a VERY bad picture for both parties. Not sure how they will recover from this incident.

Whoever has less $$ and influence loses.

 

Whoever has less $$ and influence loses.

Still feel both sides are to blame for this and paints a bad picture on both parties

 

He was referring to the American one, which promotes free speech.

But there's a massive misconception with that amendment; it only applies to the government, but Americans tend to think it applies to everything.

Nintendo may have handled things terribly lately, but let's not say things about them that aren't true to begin with or based entirely on lies or misconceptions, as this can cause criticizing to devolve into bullying, which I believe it already has when it comes to how the Smash community thinks of Nintendo.

Inb4 Melee players come down on competitive Ultimate players for being "sellouts" after Nintendo ignores their complaining for the umpteenth time.

 

Dude, companies like Sega, Valve, and Capcom WORK with fan content devs and it almost always ends in success, there is NO excuse for Nintendo to disallow fan content in a post-Sonic Mania world. Don't give me the "iT's IlLeGaL" crap, legality and morality are completely different things.

Morality huh? Well, just because other companies do it doesn't mean they have to. It seems to be a common argument, " but they do it!" Yes....so?

 

What this is:
A Lose-Lose scenario where both parties are trying to think Win-Lose.
Lose-Lose means no one's winning even though they both want to win, it just hurts both even more.

 

What this is:
A Lose-Lose scenario where both parties are trying to think Win-Lose.
Lose-Lose means no one's winning even though they both want to win, it just hurts both even more.

The only winners are the casual players since they're constantly pampered.

 

As much as I strongly dislike Melee and the fact that its playerbase is still huge despite the game being boring, horribly unbalanced, and overly demanding compared to Ultimate imo, I still find it dumb that Nintendo would do this.

Cancelling a Splatoon 2 livestream because of players supporting Melee and saying it's due to “unexpected executional challenges” makes no sense to me.

 

This is one of the most divisive topics right now. Some people say that both the Smash Community and Nintendo are degrading , while others say that only Nintendo is degrading and that Smash is fine as is.

 

The only winners are the casual players since they're constantly pampered.

elaborate

 

Well, at least they don't treat their employees like crap, unlike EA, or Activision.

 

elaborate

This is solely about the competitive scene and Nintendo, so naturally, the casuals, being a side that isn't involved in this mess, don't get **** on.

 

People may be overestimating how much Nintendo is actually losing here. I may seem like the world is against them depending on what circle you're in, but the casual community remains larger. Even the competitive community is not monolithic. Several may have no love for Melee either so...you don't even have a unified front there.

 

People may be overestimating how much Nintendo is actually losing here. I may seem like the world is against them depending on what circle you're in, but the casual community remains larger. Even the competitive community is not monolithic. Several may have no love for Melee either so...you don't even have a unified front there.

It's still bad for their reputation in general, but yeah, ultimately, casual players will still eat up everything they make, and they're a large portion of the player base.

Nintendo only loses what could basically be comparable to "loose change" if they ever decide to shut down the competitive communities their games have.

 

Maybe the loneliness of the pandemic, combined with the Melee community's reputation, was a factor in blowing this all up out of proportion.

 

Maybe the loneliness of the pandemic, combined with the Melee community's reputation, was a factor in blowing this all up out of proportion.

More like everyone was pissed that Nintendo did this during a pandemic.

 

I guess if there was no pandemic, then everything would be fine. But nope, this has been a terrible year for the world.

 

I guess if there was no pandemic, then everything would be fine. But nope, this has been a terrible year for the world.

Things would look fine since #SaveSmash and #SaveSplatoon wouldn't exist since the only reason they're there to begin with is the Big House C&D, which would have never happened if people weren't on lockdown.

But it also means we wouldn't have had that twitlonger exposing how Nintendo has actively prevented the growth of the Smash scene for years, so we'd still be in blissful ignorance, hoping for Nintendo to allow its competitive scenes to grow, which is something that will never happen.

 

Things would look fine, but #SaveSmash and #SaveSplatoon wouldn't exist since the only reason they're there to begin with is the Big House C&D, which would have never happened if people weren't on lockdown.

But it also means we wouldn't have had that twitlonger exposing how Nintendo has actively prevented the growth of the Smash scene for years, so we'd still be in blissful ignorance, hoping for Nintendo to allow its competitive scenes to grow, which is something that will never happen.

Bad either way. I actually have some issues of Nintendo Power in my possession, they show that Nintendo DID actually have passion for their fans, just not anymore.

 

Bad either way. I actually have some issues of Nintendo Power in my possession, they show that Nintendo DID actually have passion for their fans, just not anymore.

A reminder that the decisions made by Nintendo's executives are not a representation of every single employee they have.

The ones who wrote those magazines could easily have been passionate fans like you and I, and developers could go out of their way to make something solely for the dedicated fans, even if the higher-ups are people who try to shut down the voices of its communities.

 

Many people right now, believe it's the CEO's fault. But, that's not exactly how business works.

 

So... how long until the staff makes an article about the Etikons C&D?

 

They're probably never even gonna talk about it, even then, they might lie and say some bullcrap excuse.

 

I was talking about the SmashBoards staff, not Nintendo.

 

Oh, not very long then.

 

He was referring to the American one, which promotes free speech.
But there's a massive misconception with that amendment; it only applies to the government, but Americans tend to think it applies to everything.

If you're speaking of "Freedom of Speech" as a natural law, then yes, it applies to all people regardless of what The Constitution describes.
If you're talking about the laws that were put forth to limit Congress, then yes, it only applies to "the government" in that regard.

The whole reason why censoring an entire Splatoon livestream (and forcing The Big House Online into submission) is causing such an outcry is because these actions taken by Nintendo are trampling all over people's natural rights the world over.

 

at this point, the only thing good about nintendo is their games

 

If you're speaking of "Freedom of Speech" as a natural law, then yes, it applies to all people regardless of what The Constitution describes.
If you're talking about the laws that were put forth to limit Congress, then yes, it only applies to "the government" in that regard.

The whole reason why censoring an entire Splatoon livestream (and forcing The Big House Online into submission) is causing such an outcry is because these actions taken by Nintendo are trampling all over people's natural rights the world over.

This is NOT because of "MuH fReEdOm Of SpEeCh!" - it's because of Nintendo trying to trample over the fans of a game they created. Had 30% of the players said some racist or generally terrible stuff instead of "#FreeMelee" and Nintendo pulled the plug, there'd be no controversy. Had 30% of the players said something political in general in their tags, regardless of the actual morality, there'd be next to no controversy because they wouldn't want to politicise their game. People aren't fighting for their mere right to say "Free Melee", they are fighting to actually... y'know, free Melee.

 

This is NOT because of "MuH fReEdOm Of SpEeCh!" - it's because of Nintendo trying to trample over the fans of a game they created.

One and the same.

 

One and the same.

This is not the same though. Nobody in this case gives a single Diddy Kong down throw into up air combo over FrEe SpEeCh because it's completely irrelevant. Funny how you only quoted part of my post.

 

Things would look fine since #SaveSmash and #SaveSplatoon wouldn't exist since the only reason they're there to begin with is the Big House C&D, which would have never happened if people weren't on lockdown.

But it also means we wouldn't have had that twitlonger exposing how Nintendo has actively prevented the growth of the Smash scene for years, so we'd still be in blissful ignorance, hoping for Nintendo to allow its competitive scenes to grow, which is something that will never happen.

"Exposing" Gonna need more than anonymous claims and the word of people angry they can't play Smash for a living.

 

Again, Melee and Smash are "free". There's no issues with those games at all. You can still play them all you want. What is not allowed, is publicly using the game as publicity while also using "fan-made" code to run it. It's the exact same thing as hacking in this case as well. Nintendo, unlike some companies, isn't slack in that regard and doesn't like that. It's their right, not the fans. You can still run massive tournaments with legit consoles and copies of the game though, bar some Covid restrictions. So it's not the fans in general that are outraged, it's really a small minority that really wanted to use that code to play online, instead of using Nintendo's own original (and lucrative) online mode. They're entirely in the right, it's their product, their console, their game. Have they actually struck down any fan content created legally, with their support, on their platforms, that follow their rules?

So we're seeing twitter mobs trying to claim it's about free speech. It's not at all. We still have NO PROOF WHATSOEVER that Nintendo pulling from a livestream is related in any way to Smash, or some movement to support hacking of their game...

 

They also seem to suffer from an inflated sense of self-worth. If they think the world is watching with bated breath...yeah. Plus, new fighter reveal tonight will likely sweep much of this under the rug. The Smash community, and especially the Melee one, are not as powerful or important as they may think they are. Probably less so than with traditional fighting games as Nintendo doesn't need them to push product. Smash has a broader appeal and a much stronger hype engine.

 

So it's not the fans in general that are outraged, it's really a small minority that really wanted to use that code to play online, instead of using Nintendo's own original (and lucrative) online mode.

Melee has an online mode? First time I hear of that...

 

Melee has an online mode? First time I hear of that...

Well exactly, it doesn't, and you need to hack the game in some way to do so. Which is what Nintendo is protecting. You can still do IRL tournaments with Melee though, that's never been an issue.