A few days after the announcement of the Smash World Tour [SWT] would cancel its final 2022 championship and 2023 tour, Nintendo issued a lengthy statement on the decision not to offer SWT a license to host Smash Bros. events.
In a statement to IGN, Nintendo said its “decision was based solely on our evaluation of the proposals submitted by the SWT and our assessment of their unlicensed activities.” Nintendo added that “any partner we license must meet the high standards we hold for the health and safety of our fans.”
“It is also important that a partner adheres to brand and intellectual property guidelines and conducts itself in accordance with professional and organizational best practices,” Nintendo writes. “We use this same approach to independently assess all partners. If we discover that a partner is doing something inappropriate, we will work to correct it.
Upcoming Smash World Tour Championships and the entire 2023 Smash World Tour are to be cancelled.
Full story: https://t.co/3ro3q7rr4h pic.twitter.com/Gcgcgakdvp
— Smash World Tour 2022 (@SmashWorldTour) November 29, 2022
Earlier this week, the organizers of the Smash World Tour, one of the biggest Super Smash Bros. third-party fighting game tournaments, announced that they would be canceling their final event of the year as well as their 2023 events after Nintendo refused to issue them a license to hold Smash Bros. battle tournament events.
SWT organizers published a long post on Medium regretting the events, saying that “without any warning” they were told it could no longer operate. The organizers also revealed that it was in negotiations with Nintendo to receive a license to operate Smash Bros. tournaments. and that Nintendo even noted that SWT was not infringing on their intellectual property.
However, this point is apparently disputed by Nintendo’s statement which implies that any partner must adhere to the “brand and intellectual property guidelines” set by the company.
Nintendo also reiterated that it had “verbally” let SWT organizers know that it was not asking to cancel the 2022 Finals “due to the impact it would have on players”, and said that ” the decision to cancel SWT 2022 was, and still is, their own choice.
SWT organizers say they will offer full refunds to attendees of its now canceled 2022 event.
“
SWT organizers also accused one of the Smash Bros. of Nintendo, Panda Global, the organizers of the Panda Cup Smash Bros. tournament, of sabotage by claiming that its founder Alan Bunney was telling potential organizers that SWT would be closed, thus making all potential partners of SWT have doubts about their participation in the Smash World Tour.
Nintendo says its decision “was not influenced by any outside parties such as Panda Global” and that the company is “open to partnerships with other organizations and will continue to license major tournaments outside of Panda Global.” Cup”. While Panda Global will remain a Nintendo partner on Smash Bros., the company says it is “looking[s] looking forward to receiving proposals from other groups for tournament licenses.
You can read Nintendo’s full statement below.
Matt TM Kim is IGN’s Managing Editor. You can join it @lawoftd.
#Nintendo #releases #full #statement #Smash #World #Tour #cancellation