It’s a sad day in the Gaming Community as Nintendo has announced that Nintendo Live 2024 Tokyo has been cancelled. The reasoning for this is that they have been receiving multiple threats targeting their staff, spectators, and attending eSports competitors of the “Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals” which were to be held December 16-17, 2023.
The safety of those who would be attendance is Nintendo’s top priority and a decision was made to postpone that event and to cancel Nintendo Live 2023 Japan, which would have hosted the Splatoon 3 World Championships 2024 due to being linked to the Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals.
It is a great shame that there are people out there who will go out of their way to ruin things for other people. Nintendo Live 2023 Seattle had such a great turn out, and a lot of people enjoyed themselves, albeit there were a lot of very long queues. Now, because of the wave of serious threats, Nintendo Live 2024 Tokyo has been cancelled, and many people who were looking forward to the event are now left disappointed.
The tournaments on the other hand have merely been postponed though and will still happen but at a later date when Nintendo can confirm that security at the tournaments will be able to guarantee the safety of everyone who is in attendance.
Here is the full statement from Nintendo about the cancellation of Nintendo Live 2024 Tokyo, that has been published on their official website.
Notice of postponement of “Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals” and cancellation of “Nintendo Live 2024 TOKYO”
Thank you very much for your patronage of our products.
The “Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals”, which was scheduled to be held at the Ota-ku General Gymnasium in Tokyo on Saturday, December 16th and Sunday, December 17th, 2023, will be held today due to the following reasons. We would like to inform you that we have decided to postpone the event.
Reason for postponement
Our company has been persistently receiving threats targeting our employees, and recently, the targets of these threats have spread to spectators, staff, etc. of the “Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals”. Considering safety as our top priority, we have made the decision to postpone the event.
Additionally, the “Splatoon 3 World Championship 2024” linked to the “Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals” will also be postponed. In addition, regarding “Nintendo Live 2024 TOKYO”, which was scheduled to hold “Splatoon 3 World Championship 2024” on January 20th (Sat.) and 21st (Sun.), 2024, we will take sufficient precautions to ensure the safety of our customers. The event was canceled as it was determined that it would not be possible to secure the tickets for the “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Online Challenge Final Stage” and “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe”, which had been scheduled to be held at the “Nintendo Live 2024 TOKYO” venue. World Championship 2024 will be postponed.
Event cancellation:
“Nintendo Live 2024 TOKYO”
Postponed event:
“Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Final Tournament”
“Splatoon 3 World Championship 2024”
“Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Online Challenge Final Stage”
“Mario Kart 8 Deluxe World Championship 2024”
The postponed dates of each event will be announced on our website and official X account once they have been decided.
We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.
Source: Nintendo.co.jp
