Nintendo Cancels Tokyo Live Following Splatoon-Related Threats Against Staff

Nintendo quashed its first live event of the new year and similarly postponed the tournament finals for two of its mainstay franchises due to a wave of “threats” targeting employees, spectators, and venue staff centered around an upcoming Splatoon 3 tournament.

Nintendo shared scant few details in a notice posted to its site Thursday, but the company said the Nintendo Live 2024 Tokyo event set to be held in Japan was effectively canceled. In the notice, translated using Google Translate, the company said it has been “persistently receiving threats targeting our employees, and recently, the targets of these threats have spread to spectators, staff, etc. of the ‘Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals.’”

Nintendo said it decided to postpone Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals, the last round for the annual official tournament for top Splatoon 3 players in Japan. Both the Splatoon 3 World Championship and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Online Challenge Final Stage that were supposed to be held at Nintendo Live were also postponed until further notice.

Gizmodo reached out to Nintendo for more details about the nature of these threats, but we did not immediately hear back. Nintendo did say it would announce new dates for the events on its website and Twitter account.

The last Nintendo Live back in September took place in Seattle, Washington and showed off gameplay for Super Mario: Wonder before its release. Nintendo’s big live events normally offer guests the opportunity to play upcoming Nintendo Switch games or listen to live concerts.

The canceled live event was also a potential opportunity for Nintendo to, perhaps, finally unveil the long-awaited Nintendo Switch sequel. Most rumors suggest the Japanese game maker would wait until later in 2024 to share more details about upcoming hardware, though one can still dream.