Nintendo Shuts Down Smash World Tour ‘Without Any Warning’

the organizer of smash world tour today announced that they are shut down, After Nintendo—“Without any warning”—They told them they “can’t operate anymore”.”

Run by a third party (Nintendo has traditionally been bad at this), The Tour has grown to be one of the biggest in the esports and fighting game scene. As the SWT team says:

In 2022 alone, connecting over 6,400 live events worldwide and attracting over 325,000 attendees, making Smash World Tour (SWT, or Tour) the largest esports tour ever for any gaming title . The championship prize pool would have been over $250,000, the largest in Smash history. The prize pool for the 2023 Smash World Tour was set to be over $350,000.

However, the organizers currently “Without any warning, I received a notice from Nintendo of the closure on the eve of Thanksgiving.” Nintendo has not yet commented, but we have reached out to the company (update: see comments at bottom of post)—Nintendo recently partnered with Panda to run a series of competing, officially licensed games smash event.

This was disappointing for SWT organizers, fans and players, but the event was already so heavily booked and planned that it left the team in a financial pit. As they say in their cancellation announcement:

It remains to be seen where it will all land, including contracts and sponsorship obligations. In short, Nintendo’s actions will result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars. For players. Please keep an eye on your travel arrangements in the coming days. Given the timeline we were forced into, we had to make this statement public before we could settle all the details.

The move blindsided the SWT team, who believed they were starting to make some progress with Nintendo after years of friction.

In November 2021, after Panda Cup was first announced, Nintendo contacted me and jumped on the phone with some of the team, including a representative from the legal team. Given the fact that they now have licensed competing circuits and panda partners, we really thought they might be shut down.

When I joined the call, I was very surprised to hear the exact opposite.

Nintendo reached out to us and said they had been looking at our builds for years and wanted to know if we would be interested in working with them. When Pursuing a license as well as them. They clarified that the Panda partnership was non-exclusive, did not infringe on their intellectual property rights in terms of game modifications, and were a good representation of Nintendo’s values, which “would go unnoticed.” They made it clear that game changes were their primary concern when it came to “getting into the event.” This also makes sense for us given the past few years of enforcement in that regard.

That long conversation changed our view of Nintendo on a macro level. It was very refreshing to talk to several senior team members and clear up many misunderstandings and anxieties from the past few years. I was confident that I was seriously considering my relationship with and how to get involved in a positive way.

I do not think! In addition to Nintendo currently stipulating that tournaments can only run under official licenses (SWT has not successfully applied), the team also accused Pandas of undermining tournament organizers. claim. Individual events linked under the umbrella of World tour.they also sayPandas said to these grassroots while Nintendo kept saying good things to their faces Organizers were hesitant to attend the Smash World Tour as it was definitely closed.

Read the full announcement herewhich goes into more detail and concludes with a plea to “rethink how Nintendo is currently proceeding with their relationship.” smash the community and its partners.”

UPDATE Nov 30 12:16 AM ET: A Nintendo spokesperson told Kotaku:

Unfortunately, after ongoing conversations with Smash World Tour, and after the same deep consideration we apply to potential partners, we were unable to reach an agreement with SWT on the full circuit for 2023. . Nintendo did not request any changes or cancellations to the remaining events in 2022, including the 2022 Championship event, given the negative impact on players who had already planned to attend.

Update 2 Nov 30 1:51AM ET: SWT organizers have disputed Nintendo’s statement and issued their own follow-up, which reads:

I didn’t expect to have to deal with this, but here is Nintendo’s response: Kotaku Caught our attention:

“Unfortunately, following ongoing conversations with Smash World Tour and the same depth of consideration we apply to potential partners, we are unable to reach agreement with SWT on the full circuit for 2023. Nintendo did not request any changes or cancellations, and will determine the number of remaining events in 2022, including the 2022 Championship events, given the negative impact on players who had already planned to attend. ”

We’re not sure why they’re taking this angle, especially considering the larger statement and all that’s involved.

Again, official statement:

“As a last ditch effort, we asked if we could continue to operate the Championship and Tour without a license next year and shift our focus to working with them in 2024. A mutual understanding to focus.I was told directly that those days are over.Given my very special relationship with Nintendo, this was the last nail in the coffin. When I asked if they understood the waves that would come if they were forced to cancel, Nintendo told me they really did.

To clarify, we asked Nintendo multiple times if they considered the impact of canceling the championship and next year’s tour. did.

received this statement In writing From Nintendo shortly after our call:

“Nintendo expects to secure an approved license to conduct commercial activities featuring Nintendo IP. It also expects to secure such a license prior to public disclosure. Upon further investigation, we found that Smash World Tour did not meet these expectations regarding health and safety guidelines and did not adhere to our internal partner guidelines. We are unable to license the Tour Championship or the 2023 Smash World Tour activities.”

For clarity, we have not yet submitted our application for 2023 either. The license application was for his 2022 championship (submitted in April). Nintendo, including all its activities in 2023, was an addition we didn’t even expect. I asked multiple times if I could continue my business without a license. They followed up the call with a written statement, once again confirming that the 2022 championship and all of his 2023 activities are in exactly the same boat.