Suspect Arrested Following Threats Made Against Nintendo

04.04.2024 - 13:51 / gamerant.com / Pam K Ferdinand / Nintendo

A suspect has been arrested for threats made against Nintendo in December 2023. Nintendo decided to cancel its Live Tokyo 2024 event, originally scheduled to be held on January 20-21, 2024, after an unknown person made multiple threats against company employees and attendees. As a precaution, Nintendo postponed several tournaments that were to take place during the Live Tokyo show.

It has become increasingly common for game developers and publishers to receive hostile messages or even death threats from angered fans. Nintendo, as one of the most prominent and long-lived video game companies, has gotten an inordinate amount of negative behavior over the years. This ranges from death threats aimed specifically at Nintendo executives to alarming messages aimed at fans, venues, and events.

Japanese daily newspaper Kyoto Shimbun (via Perfectly Nintendo) has revealed that a man in his twenties, a civil servant from Ibaraki Prefecture, has been arrested in relation to the threats against Nintendo’s Live Tokyo 2024 event. The suspect apparently used the contact form on Nintendo’s official website to send multiple messages containing threats, though his motives are still unknown at this time. He is being accused of interfering with the company’s business.

Of the tournaments that were postponed, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Online Challenge Final Stage and Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Final Tournament were rescheduled and have already taken place on March 10 and March 30, 2024, respectively. The Splatoon 3 World Championship 2024 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe World Championship 2024 have both been rescheduled for April 13-14, 2024. These tournaments give avid Splatoon 3 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe players the opportunity to test their skills against hundreds of others and perhaps take home some fun prizes.

Unfortunately, Nintendo is only one of multiple companies that have received threats of varying degrees from disgruntled fans. Even Unity had to temporarily shut down its offices due to threats after the game engine developer announced controversial changes to its pricing model.

Sometimes fans turn their ire against potential competitors of their favorite franchises instead. Shortly after its incredibly successful launch into early access in January, the developers of Palworld began receiving “unhinged” threats and constant harassment from Pokemon loyalists who felt the new monster-collecting game had plagiarized Game Freak’s creations. Needless, to say, such behavior is beyond the pale, and some companies are fighting back. Bungie, for example, sued and won a lawsuit against a Destiny 2 streamer who threatened an employee.