Summary
- Nintendo has released new guidelines allowing organizers of small-scale community tournaments to host events without needing an official license from the company.
- These small-scale tournaments are restricted to 200 participants for in-person events and 300 for online events, and organizers cannot charge spectators for online events.
- Large-scale events still require an official license from Nintendo, causing concern and dissatisfaction within the competitive gaming community.
Nintendo has recently posted new guidelines for organizers of small-scale community tournaments involving the company's games to follow. These new guidelines would allow these organizers to launch and host such competitions without Nintendo requiring them to acquire an official license from it to do so.
Nintendo is a gaming company celebrated for its iconic games like the Pokemon and The Legend of Zelda franchises and innovative gaming consoles like the Nintendo Wii and Switch. It is also a company well-known in the competitive gaming community for being tough to please in negotiating for a license to operate large-scale tournaments. Its shutting down the Smash World Tour in 2022 for not securing an official license from it being a more recent and notable example.
To better separate small-scale, individually organized community tournaments from their large-scale counterparts, Nintendo released a new set of community tournament guidelines for organizers to follow. The company's new Community Tournament Guidelines states that organizers of small-scale community tournaments can host such events without an official license from Nintendo. However, small-scale community tournaments are limited to 200 participants when done in person or 300 when it's online, while their organizers can't charge spectators a fee when such an event is done online. Small-scale community events can't "generate commercial revenue except as permitted by these guidelines," nor can they have a prize exceeding a market value of $5,000.
Nintendo added that organizers can still host large-scale events like the annual competitive Super Smash Bros. Convention Riptide, but they must acquire an official license from the company. Nintendo initially published these guidelines on its Nintendo of Japan site before translating them into English. However, this process caused more confusion among members of the competitive gaming community.
Needless to say, the competitive gaming community didn't welcome Nintendo's new guidelines with open arms. Super Smash Bros. Melee professional player Axe took to Twitter (now known as X) to express his dismay with the new guidelines. "That's extremely concerning, especially for Melee events. I'm scared for my life," Axe said in his post. Gaming streamer Arevya also went on the platform to point out that the new guidelines prevent gamers with disabilities, like themselves, from participating in such events as they need to use accessories to play Nintendo games.
Nevertheless, it seems Nintendo has a long way to go to mend its relationship with the competitive gaming community, with its new community tournament guidelines being a testament to that.
Source: Nintendo/ Nintendo Support Page