You can’t watch what doesn’t happen!
A couple days ago, Nintendo ruffled some tail feathers when it tried to ban Evo 2013, the world’s largest fighting game tournament, from streaming its Super Smash Bros. Melee finals. This IP controlling move echoed Nintendo’s earlier controversy over its ownership claims over Let’s Plays featuring its games.
Our own Jonathan Holmes covered the news on Destructoid. He explained why Nintendo’s decision was silly, given that Evo’s rapidly growing prominence would provide Nintendo free marketing and that Nintendo’s decision was complicated by the fact that fans raised almost $100,000 for breast cancer to get Melee included in the tournament. Not too long later, after a bit of negative press, Nintendo reversed its decision.
Evo co-founder Joey “Mr Wizard” Cuellar, in an interview with OneMoreGameTV, explained that the beloved company was initially trying to do more than ban the stream. “They were not only trying to shut down the stream, they were trying to shut down the event; the Smash portion of the event,” Cuellar said. “It’s their IP, they can do whatever they want, and they didn’t present us with any options to keep it open, they were just ‘Hey, we want to shut you down.’
“And we kinda wigwammed our way through it and they were fine with just shutting down the streaming portion of the event. And that was that. And we were not going to press any further.” It wasn’t until the fan backlash that Nintendo felt pressured to pull a complete 180. All’s well the ends well, sure, but this recent revelation just goes a little bit further in painting Nintendo’s image as a typical corporation rather than a cool old grandfather with bushy eyebrows and a Mario tattoo.
Nintendo wanted to shut down Super Smash Bros. Melee Evo event, not just stream [Polygon]
