The 27-year-old man, from Hitachi in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, has been charged by the Kyoto District Prosecutor’s Office, and he may have regretted threatening the Big N, as he caused the company to cancel several events.

The Kyoto Shimbun, a Japanese daily newspaper, reported that the 27-year-old man submitted a total of 39 threats via the interest form on Nintendo’s official website between August 22 and November 29. This means that about every three days he wrote a “nice tone” message to the Japanese company. Among his threats was one such as “I will make you regret ever bringing such a sh_tty game into this world”, although it is not clear which one he meant. There was also a threat that he would kill everyone involved and, most importantly for us, “be careful with events that have an audience.

The Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals and Nintendo Live 2024 were canceled by Nintendo because the company said it could not adequately ensure the safety of consumers. The former was scheduled to be held at the Ota Sogo Gymnasium in Tokyo on December 16 and 17, while the latter was scheduled to be held at the Big Sight Exhibition Center in Tokyo on January 20 and 21. The Splatoon 3 World Championship and the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe World Championship scheduled for Nintendo Live 2024 were held earlier in April.

In 2022, Nintendo Live returned to Japan after the pandemic, and the Japanese company’s fan festival was such a hit that the big N eventually launched it elsewhere. Nintendo Live 2023 was in the United States, with the company hosting the event in Seattle last September. There were several Nintendo Switch games to try out, but there were also live performances, tournaments, photo opportunities, and other activities to take part in. When will Nintendo do something like that in Europe?

So almost three weeks after his arrest, he was charged…

Source: VGC, Kyoto Shimbun