Wow, just wow. I was in the middle of working on a review when my twitter feed exploded with tweets about Nintendo’s latest decision making fiasco. Because of this, I figured I would make this the topic of my first editorial. For those of you that haven’t heard yet, Nintendo has asked the people behind the Evolution Championship Series (or EVO for short) to not stream Super Smash Bros. Melee. EVO is the premier annual fighting game tournament and Smash Brothers fans have raised over $225,000 for breast cancer research just to get Smash into the tournament. Smash will still be there, we just won’t be able to watch any of the matches.
Earlier this year they put a stop to all “Let’s Play’” videos of Nintendo games. Well, they didn’t really stop them, but they demanded that all add revenue go to them instead of the gamer doing the “Let’s Play”. Because of this, not many people will want to do Nintendo “Let’s Play” videos.
Personally, I understand that Nintendo likes to control how their properties are being presented. But to turn down free advertising on a series that you are a year away from releasing not one, but two new entries in, has to be a pretty dumb move. I’d love to know their real reasons for doing this. There’s a saying that says, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Honestly, in this case I don’t think that saying applies. I know EVO is getting a ton of free publicity by this, but how can someone at Nintendo not see this as a giant middle finger to all those die-hard Smash fans that fought just to get Melee in the tournament to begin with.
It seriously boggles my mind that people with so much power can make so many dumb moves. If anything, Nintendo needs GOOD press right now more than ever. Last year Sony used EVO to promote Playstation All-Stars Battle Royal. I can’t say if that really helped their sales of that game or not, but I doubt it hurt. I wonder why Nintendo didn’t embrace this instead. Have someone show up and after the champion Smash player is crowned, show off a new character for the new SSB on the stage and the stream. If this is the same company that could market a movie to advertise Mario 3, than this truly seems like a no brainer.
This is slightly more of an upset rant in a way then a true editorial and I’m sorry about that. This news just makes me question what is really going on in Iwata’s head that he made such a call. I can’t see stock holders being happy with this. I also can’t see this positively effecting the sales of SSB on Wii U and 3DS.
Let me know what you guys think in the comments. Am I completely off? Am I spot on? Agree? Disagree? I’d love to hear from you. Until next time…
Edit: It seems that right after I finished typing this up, Nintendo has THANKFULLY reversed their decision. http://kotaku.com/nintendo-backs-down-allows-smash-bros-streaming-725940804
So what’s your take on this whole ordeal? Was it all a publicity stunt? Was Nintendo really unaware how the public would react? I’m glad to see Nintendo do a quick 180 but has there been any damage done?
