An upcoming video game tournament will be missing a game from its original lineup, following the organizers of the tournament being contacted by Nintendo of America. Riptide was scheduled to take place last year, but was postponed due to COVID-19. It was then moved to September 2021, where it would feature competitions involving Super Smash Bros. Melee, Splatoon 2, Rivals of Aether, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, along with Project+, a tweaked version of the popular Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod Project M. However, that's no longer the case, as Nintendo representatives reached out to the team behind Riptide, leading to the removal of Project+ from the event.

Riptide was contacted recently by a Nintendo of America, Inc. representative regarding our Project+ events. As a result of that conversation, there will be no Project+ tournaments or setups at Riptide.

A direct reason was not stated, though it can only be assumed that Nintendo of America did not want Riptide to go forward with an event featuring a modded version of one of Nintendo's first-party titles alongside official releases. Similar incidents have taken place in the past, such as last year, when Nintendo of America sent a cease and desist to The Big House, which was going to utilize Slippi, a specialized netplay build of the Dolphin emulator for to hold their tournament. Right now, Riptide organizers are contacting those signed up for the Project+ tournament and allowing refunds for those affected.

Source

 

[Xzi]

Not surprising. I wouldn't think any developer would want a modded version of their game featured at a tournament, particularly if their branding/marketing was at all part of it.

 

[Chary]

There's protecting your IP...

...and then there's just being Nintendo

 

[WG481]

There's protecting your IP...

...and then there's just being Nintendo

But seriously. Even developers like Sega and Capcom simply hire modders, and in Valve's case, make things continue with development and become first-party (sort of; ref. Black Mesa). Nintendo really has a problem.

 

[shaunj66]

The irony of this happening during the Sonic Amateur Games Expo where there are hundred of Sonic fan-games (amongst others) being shown off.

Nintendo really hate their fanbase.

 

[RupeeClock]

But seriously. Even developers like Sega and Capcom simply hire modders, and in Valve's case, make things continue with development and become first-party (sort of; ref. Black Mesa). Nintendo really has a problem.

It isn't inconsistent with Nintendo's practices anyway. They're staunchly anti-emulation, anti-modding, and don't permit any sort of system modding.

They seem a bit more forgiving of homebrew at least, Colors started its live as a DS homebrew, and they allow ports of unlicensed NES games onto the Switch.

 

[JuanMena]

GBATEMP: Nintendo disappoints me

Also GBATEMP: Anyways! Comment here to win a Nintendo Switch

 

[Clydefrosch]

letter or it didn't happen

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

But seriously. Even developers like Sega and Capcom simply hire modders, and in Valve's case, make things continue with development and become first-party (sort of; ref. Black Mesa). Nintendo really has a problem.

honestly, i believe nintendos problem is whatever lawfirm they hired to be their law firm in the us.
because technically, all of this isn't wrong, allowing all of this technically opens them up to losing their copyrights, however unlikely. they simply follow whatever advice their law firm is handing them.

sega on the other hand... frankly, i'm surprised no one tried challenging them for the copy right on sonic.


not that both cases are really comparable. nintendo banks on its ips being exclusive to their hardware, sega couldn't care less about sonic being god knows where, he's not exclusive and their sonic games haven't exactly been the highest regarded in a while either. for them, it's a win win if fans make it appear like sonic is still a great franchise, for nintendo, it's a bit different

 

[Bladexdsl]

nintapple at it again

 

[Ampersound]

The Project M / + community really has it the roughest. I hope there's gonna be some actual tournaments including the mod in the future.

 

[Jayro]

GBATEMP: Nintendo disappoints me

Also GBATEMP: Anyways! Comment here to win a Nintendo Switch

Been there, done both of that.

 

[LightBeam]

their sonic games haven't exactly been the highest regarded in a while either. for them, it's a win win if fans make it appear like sonic is still a great franchise, for nintendo, it's a bit different

True. Nintendo wants to make sure they can ruin their franchises themselves.

 

[Jayro]

True. Nintendo wants to make sure they can ruin their franchises themselves.

Yep. They'll ignore great franchises (Earthbound, WarioLand, F-Zero, etc) and run shitty ones into the ground (Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, Smash Bros).

 

[Deleted member 550701]

Nintendo really hate their fanbase.

I wouldn't say they hate their fanbase really, they just hate hackers, modders and users of homebrew.

 

[Slluxx]

I think its understandable. Its a tournament and if every tournament starts allowing modded versions of games this just becomes a shitshow. Players are not allowed to play on modded games or consoles for cheating reasons so why would a tournament allow it? Sure its monitored but imo tournaments like that should only feature unmodded games.

and also this:

Not surprising. I wouldn't think any developer would want a modded version of their game featured at a tournament, particularly if their branding/marketing was at all part of it.

But seriously. Even developers like Sega and Capcom simply hire modders, and in Valve's case, make things continue with development and become first-party (sort of; ref. Black Mesa). Nintendo really has a problem.

Making mods/whole games from existing assets is a little bit different from holding a tournament with a modded version of a valve IP. Imagine someone mods CSGO and tries to create a tournament with it. Why would a company that put millions of workhours into a game to finetune it (speaking of csgo or dota) want someone to just throw everything over board, create a custom version, makes a tournament with it and maybe even earns money off it. This can alter the experience so much to the worse

 

[TheZander]

Why should Nintendo be cool with a unauthorize game mod.

I don't know anything about tournaments, how they are produced what official ties they have.

But if they were selling tickets to play a hacked rom tournament why would Nintendo not think that's blatantly ridiculous.

i do fully encourage people and organizations to break rules and laws and ignore lawsuits. From riptide and the fans point of view I get it and I think they should have done this and still do it. But just try to avade consequences. They probably can't though and had to concede. Perhaps they should rebrand with fake names attached and accept bitcoin.

In short both groups are in the right one just not legally

 

[LightBeam]

Imagine someone mods CSGO and tries to create a tournament with it. Why would a company that put millions of workhours into a game to finetune it (speaking of csgo or dota) want someone to just throw everything over board, create a custom version, makes a tournament with it and maybe even earns money off it. This can alter the experience so much to the worse

Well, CSGO was a mod after all. It's more like « imagine them hosting Half Life DM tournaments and people host CS tournaments, a modded version of Half Life », they still handled this better tho. They just made a product people wanted. If there are so many people willing to host tournaments of a mod of your game, maybe it's because you didn't focus on the playerbase who enjoy playing and watching tournaments.
People enjoy CS ? Let's hire the guys and make the game ourselves so we can take full credit.

I mean, you basically created the problem yourself when you make a casual, family friendly and party game, yet somehow people prefer watching the competitive mod. The only way to be surprised by that is if you are stupid. The way for you to fix it in a good way would be to make the game « yourself ». Just reappropriate your franchise in some other way than just sue the guys which are your fans.

Also it's not an official tournament. I don't see why there should only be « unmodded tournaments », that's silly. Sure there are a lot of modpacks, but some are targeted for tournaments, some aren't. In the end, people make the choice. And in this case it's not even about making money. If you want to make money you'll probably win a lot more if you stick to Ultimate and other unmodded games.

Nintendo just hate it's fans. It's really that simple and there's no way somebody could think otherwise. They could just enjoy people having fun with their games, modded or not, but they willingly chose not to.

 

[YuseiFD]

I don't see why this is big news, nintendo has done this kind of stupidity a lot, yet it keeps having a huge fandom and buy slaves.

 

[Jiehfeng]

As a result of a conversation?

"Hey bro, don't do that bro"
"Ok bro"
"Thnx bro"

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Annnnnd this is why I don't buy Nintendo games