Nintendo Tried Shutting Down Entire Melee Event?

[Jack Kieser]

Just read this on Kotaku, not sure what to think of it: http://kotaku.com/nintendo-wanted-smash-bros-pulled-from-worlds-biggest-740918828

"They were not only trying to shut down the stream", [Joey Cuellar] told OneMoreGameTV, "they were trying to shut down the event, the Smash portion of the event".

If this is true, and we have no reason to think it isn't... why? Why on Earth? I know they reversed course, but... the whole event? They didn't even try to do that to MLG. -_-

 

[Dax]

Hard to guess. I hope this "official statement" will come out soon as Triforce said, maybe we'll understand (which doesn't mean I'll accept it). But I'm pretty sure it has to do with 2 things:

1) They weren't happy about the fact that EVO was going to make money with their IP, probably.
2) IP protection in general. This isn't an official event, so they have no real control over it, and they always stay on guard with that.

As to why they let MLG stream melee in the past, I suspect they felt EVO had much more exposure than MLG and they felt uncomfortable, especially since Melee is there and not Brawl.
Again, I'm not justifying anything, just trying to understand what weird logic they could be using.

Btw, to be fair, they did allow them in the end, so I'm not sure how much they "didn't want to let EVO do it", hard to say. As for the stream thing, we all know how it went... thank you community.

 

[KishPrime]

You don't know that Nintendo didn't try to shut down MLG. It's entirely possible that it is their pressure that got rid of it.

 

[Dax]

sorry, I was talking about "MLG at Melee times" indeed

 

[strawhats]

wow...the more you know.

 

[_Keno_]

Can anyone explain how Nintendo can even do this? I'm apparently not understanding something, but can't you do anything you want with games you buy (other than copy and sell them)? I don't see how they can stop you from playing it or streaming it.

 

[KrIsP!]

They can't, Evo is a profit event so they could force them to pay a licensing fee or deny them it at all which they did...but then we can get mad

It's all in a legal grey area and I don't think we were going to raise another 94,000 dollars to pay a legal team that can win against Nintendo. Of course we as consumers have all the power if we work together, of course the competitive community would be a small hit to smash 4 but the negative pr we generated when they're taking flak for now being less consumer friendly than Microsoft...we got to them is all. Maybe not to scare them out if doing it but enough to get them to reconsider and honestly, they should be showing off a character here, not shutting down the opportunity to attract a competitive audience which eludes them at the moment while the casual community has failed them proving that the wii was a one hit wonder and not a revolution.

 

[Equal]

They would get pretty bad publicity if they shutdown a community that raised near $100k for cancer

 

[Sixfortyfive]

Can anyone explain how Nintendo can even do this? I'm apparently not understanding something, but can't you do anything you want with games you buy (other than copy and sell them)? I don't see how they can stop you from playing it or streaming it.

That's probably how it *should* be, but it isn't how things are. Not right now anyway. Check this video out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N_84qxB0sI#t=13m58s

David is a lawyer who specializes in this particular field (in addition to being a fighting game commentator), so he has some decent insight on the issue.

Most video game publishers fortunately have the perspective to understand that even though they have the right to shut down tournaments, it's probably not in their best interests to actually exercise that right, at least not without some really good and specific reasons to do so.

 

[smashmachine]

That's probably how it *should* be, but it isn't how things are. Not right now anyway. Check this video out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N_84qxB0sI#t=13m58s

David is a lawyer who specializes in this particular field (in addition to being a fighting game commentator), so he has some decent insight on the issue.

Most video game publishers fortunately have the perspective to understand that even though they have the right to shut down tournaments, it's probably not in their best interests to actually exercise that right, at least not without some really good and specific reasons to do so.

don't mess up in Marvel

 

[♡ⓛⓞⓥⓔ♡]

Regarding this topic, I actually feel like quoting & translating a post from the Finnish smash forums where this guy was asking the "why nintendo"-question and this other dude replied to him with the following post (that I really liked):

Are you asking "why" regarding a company that would've released Virtual Console games in 50hz in year 2013 if it hadn't resulted a massive ****storm? Or that during the Gamecube-era Nintendo thought that online-gaming was merely a temporary craze not worth investing into? Or that they still use friend codes on DS and even on 3DS before finally moving on to a normal account-based system on Wii U, that has been used e.g. by Xbox for the last 12 years?

Are you asking "why" regarding a company that now bemoans the lack of titles and release delays on Wii U because suddenly developing HD-games requires more resources and time? Other gaming studios were struggling with that 8 years ago upon the release of Xbox 360 and PS3 and this fact should be obvious to every game developer. Perhaps Nintendo doesn't really follow what's going on in the world, as such a thing came as a surprise, something that even small indie-studios understand.

Are you asking "why" regarding a company that not too long ago was about to remove all Nintendo-related gaming and fan-videos from Youtube but decided not to on the very last moment. Or that they just 10 years ago carelessly removed hundreds of good fan-sites from the internet. Or that they wouldn't first release Xenoblade in US. because they thought people weren't interested?

Preventing some small stream on a gaming tournament would have been small idiocy compared to everything else that Nintendo has let out up from its' ass. All my life I've been a hardcore Nintendo fan but nowadays I wonder how in the world the company is even alive with it's endless stream of stupid decisions. They are still living in the 20th century and don't realize that the world is different today that in the era of the Soviet Union.

But regarding the topic I must applaud the Smash-scene. The scene has it's problems but lately it has proven to be capable of miracles. Nintendo does not deserve such loyal fans.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

^ Adding onto that, one of the Skullgirls developers said he had a chat with somebody at Nintendo once and discovered that some influential people in the Japanese branch have a frighteningly ignorant worldview when it comes to modern technology. The example he named specifically was that some of them tend to view Youtube as a piracy haven, of all things. It's concerning.

don't mess up in Marvel

lol thanks, but I'm not going to be in Vegas this weekend.

 

[darf nate]

geez first microsoft makes me want to boycott them and now im going to have to boycott nintendo products too

 

[Pritch]

You don't know that Nintendo didn't try to shut down MLG. It's entirely possible that it is their pressure that got rid of it.

There's a thread from years back from right around when MLG dropped melee where JV "strongly hinted" that the reason they dropped it was that microsoft, as one of their biggest corporate sponsors, pressured them to remove it for some other Xbox title which escapes my memory atm (Dead or alive maybe?). I'd say that more than anyone else he'd know what was going on on the inside with MLG back then.

Zero chance of me remembering where that thread was and digging it up, but I 100% remember reading that and getting pissed.

 

[-Ran]

If I recall, at the time, Nintendo wasn't even responding to MLG about their requests to stream.

 

[Zodiac]

If true... and it most likely is, we might have to accept that we will forever be against nintendo when it comes to the competitive scene.

 

[Degree]

They would get pretty bad publicity if they shutdown a community that raised near $100k for cancer

Indeed. Not to mention the anger from everyone who paid hard earned money to travel from far and wide (in some cases) to attend the event to discover it was shut down at the last minute. It's unfortunate but when a company gets so big, it almost invariably loses track of the fact that the members of the gaming community who support and play the games are actually more important than the company. Without us buying their products, they go out of business.

But yes, fundamentally it seems to be a case of someone in their ivory tower making a decision. They probably weren't aware that everyone had raised a decent amount of money for charity to get this game to EVO. And if they were actually aware of that and still made their initial decision, well then that's just downright reprehensible.

 

[sman865]

Without us buying their products, they go out of business.

Now I'll start by saying I agree that Nintendo is making a bad decision here. But I think people aren't right in saying that Nintendo relies on us hardcore gamers, at all. We represent a small part of the population that makes Nintendo money. All it takes is buying a game; playing it for thousands of hours doesn't give them any more profit. In the grand scheme of things, we really don't mean that much to them. Their job from a business standpoint is to appeal to the masses - we're sadly not always included there.

If I'm wrong, somebody point out my ignorance.

 

[KrIsP!]

People keep saying that, seems the massive amount of casual players aren't that loyal though. If only there was a rather large community of people who have been known to truly enjoy their product.

Also, if they were to support the competitive community and make smash 4 into something that will bring the split community together then they'll have their very own street fighter 4 on their hands. At that point they'll have a dedicated community of people willing to generate hype and purchase additional content. No reason they can't help get casual players into competitive scene.

Of course, we're not big enough to make any demands, that doesn't mean an arbitrary decision to kill the scene makes any sense in terms if selling consoles and copies of smash 4. The wiis casual audience lost steam, while other consoles have no need to start a new generation, they were backed into a corner where the wii wouldn't make them enough money to stay a float. So they brought out the wii u but their coveted casual audience had no care. Why should they? They're not gamers, they already have a wii and don't see a difference. So they tried to recapture the hardcore audience, and have done nothing to capture them. They've done the bare minimum, one risk they took was funding bayonetta 2, other than that there is zero reason for any body to but a wii u. Nintendo land isn't that fun and Pikmin 3 only just came out.

As someone said when they made this decision to spite our scene, "Here at Nintendo, free advertisement and loyal customers do not fit with our current business plan for the wii u." A jab at the fact that they're only scraping by until smash 4 comes out, not a good time to get bad press for their saving grace and piss off the loyal fans. Don't forget this enraged brawl players too, they've already faced this with the mlg but thought Nintendo had changed their tune, this showed that they're not safe and neither is smash 4.

 

[GTZ]

Nintendo protects their IP's, and EVO made Melee a money making event. Nintendo doesn't like crap like that.. regardless of whether or not it's fair, its reality with large scale companies who depend on the uniqueness of their IP's to keep business coming strong.

Smash 4 will be fine, people need to stop being all gloom and doom.. the point is Nintendo doesn't really need the free advertising or the free press. Sure it cannot hurt, but if they don't want it that way so be it.

As for them "barely scraping by", that's not entirely and accurate statement. They are still very successful with the 3ds, and with holiday season and some massive titles coming out, plus a price drop, I can see them doing quite well towards the end of this year.

 

[Plum]

Well sure the 3DS is doing well. The handheld market is a totally different beast than the home console market. Nintendo has shown time and time again that they know the handheld market better than anyone else. Everything from the hardware, software, and targeting the right audiences at the right times... Nintendo is on point when it comes to handhelds. Even with competition from smartphones, Nintendo has still managed to match sales of their past generations over their relative timelines. So people are continuing to buy into each new generation of handhelds from Nintendo which is pretty damn impressive if you ask me.

But I think Krisp really hit the nail on the head in regards to the Wii U. Nintendo kind of messed up with the Gamecube (Melee aside of course ) when it came to hardcore gamers. Hardcore Nintendo fans aside, a majority of hardcore gamers moved to other systems. Rather than try to directly compete with the 360 and PS3, they just attacked the market from a completely different angle. The Wii was marketed to a completely different audience, with a completely different gameplay experience. But this move, while an excellent choice at the time, kind of backed them up into a corner.
Nintendo had a choice to make with the next generation. Try to get the casual gamers that they grabbed with the Wii to buy a new system, or go back after the classic gamer audience. Neither of those choices were really good for Nintendo though. Casual gamers don't care about having the newest and greatest thing. They already have a Wii and a few games like Wii Sports, and Wii Fit, and for them that's probably all they need. It fits their gaming needs, and they really don't see the need to spend money on a new system.
They moved away from the hardcore gamers for an entire generation. Sure, there were some excellent titles here and there on the Wii, but the support was lacking relative to the other systems. Nintendo was already loosing this audience during the Gamecube's lifespan, and then basically decided to just let it happen with the Wii. Getting them back would probably be an even bigger uphill battle than convincing casuals that they need a new system.
So the lesser of two evils probably was to just try to keep the casuals. But for that to happen, I think you would need things to be as revolutionary as the Wii was at release. And the Wii U isn't. It doesn't separate itself from the Wii nearly enough.

Hell, I'm a Nintendo fanboy and even I find myself hesitant to get a Wii U. Pikmin is one of my favorite series ever, but one game doesn't make me want drop the cash for a new system. I'm not even that excited for Smash 4, as for me it's all about Melee and Project M. Like, I know that eventually we'll have a new Metroid game rolled out, and a new Legend of Zelda, and the other first party titles we expect... but it's pretty sad that they couldn't bring some of that strength on release. "I'll get it in a year or so" is NOT what you want consumers to be saying.

 

[Deathconsciousness]

NINTENDO CONFIRMED FOR SMASHBOARDS DDOSERS!!