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Why Fandom Cant Have Nice Things / Nintendo

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Even by the standards of most media companies, Nintendo tends to be very active in punishing fans for undesirable behavior, whether it be for posting indecent content on their services or leaking unreleased content to the public. Whether or not Nintendo is justified in taking action against certain things or they're going overboard is a point of contention, but here are examples where it's generally agreed that this company had a point.


Consoles

  • Nintendo originally wanted the GameCube to have a presence in the online gaming world, as their competition had plans for online play of their own. To do this, they released a network adapter that plugged into the machine instead of built-in network functionality. Unfortunately, hackers were able to use the network adapter and the GameCube version of Phantasy Star Online to achieve hacking, even going so far as to make ROM dumps. Initially, Nintendo and Sega responded by releasing an Updated Re-release of the game, but Nintendo later decided to sweep the GameCube's online features under the rug, partially thinking It Will Never Catch On, and most fans forgot or aren't aware that the GameCube has online capabilities in the first place. Fortunately, the company didn't stop thinking about ways the tech could be used, leading to the far more successful Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service and its successors for the DS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U and Switch.
  • Whenever a homebrew exploit is found in a 3DS game and made available online, Nintendo will pull the game from the eShop within hours of the exploit going public and keep it off the eShop until either the exploit is defeated, or the Nintendo eShop is shut down. This has ended up being the fate of certain games such as Cubic Ninja, Citizens of Earth and Freakyforms Deluxe: Your Creations, Alive!, with physical copies of these games skyrocketing in price.
  • As documented on this page, poor player activity led to Nintendo initially banning voice chat in random online modes in games such as Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros., despite many games with online multiplayer allowing it anyway. Word of God confirmed this reason in the case of Splatoon, as the Director cited negative personal experiences with voice chat in other shooters as the reason not to include it in his game. Fortunately, they relented for Splatoon 2, albeit only among teammates, and lifted the ban altogether for all Nintendo Switch Online games.
  • This is the reason why the Nintendo 3DS has an automatic word filter. Back in the DS games, people were naming anything that they could name profane insults directed at other players online. This affected Animal Crossing: Wild World and Pokémon Diamond and Pearl very badly, and came to a head when an unidentified troll used a hacked cartridge to send Diamond and Pearl players a Gengar themed around black stereotypes, with the n-word as its nickname (more information on that incident here). The new censor has some flaws, but it seemed to be working. Then people started intentionally misspelling profanity...
  • On October 31, 2013, Nintendo disabled the online features of the 3DS's Swapnote app, including ceasing official communications done through that service, because they found out several users were using it to exchange offensive material. Most disturbingly, at least one pedophile had used it to track down children in Japan. The incident was also responsible for a software update for Flipnote Studio 3D released the following day that removed the Flipnote Hatena: Friends online service, which allowed users to share Flipnotes with people on their 3DS's Friends list. As a further consequence, this also resulted in the Western release for the application, which had already missed its intended release date, to be delayed indefinitely, with Nintendo going completely quiet about discussion of the Western release. For a while, it was assumed that it had been quietly cancelled until a North American version exclusive to Club Nintendo members was announced and released in early 2015, with a European version slated for release later that year. And even then, that version saw release without Flipnote Gallery: World, a general online community for sharing and viewing Flipnotes and the only online service on the app, with Flipnote sharing restricted to local wireless connections and importation of Flipnotes from the DSi version. This is in spite of marketing pushes present on the actual eShop, which have yet to be taken down, that seemingly pipe it up as any other release, despite Club Nintendo still remaining the only way to play the game in North America as late as 2020—and with the 3DS more-or-less discontinued with only minor support for things such as the aforementioned Club Nintendo, it seems like it'll stay that way.
  • Several Wii U and 3DS games had the ability to share screenshots on Miiverse removed thanks to players abusing bugs that allowed real life images to be uploaded.
    • Just one day after release on July 17, 2014, Comic Workshop prevented people from attaching screenshots from the application when it was found people were taking personal pictures within the app and sharing them on Miiverse. Sharing on Miiverse wasn't meant to be allowed in the first place— the game's website stated that it wasn't possible during the period in which it was, implying that it was only allowed by mistake. Still, the immediate abuse likely made Nintendo and the creators more quick in removing the unintended capability.
    • Mario & Luigi: Dream Team had its screenshot ability for the Miiverse community disabled after a bug in the original version of the game was exploited to let people post any saved image from the Nintendo 3DS Camera or the Internet Browser to the Mario & Luigi: Dream Team community. Fortunately, it was re-enabled later for users with a certain update.
    • Kid Icarus: Uprising had a bug in its screenshot ability where players could post real life pictures from the AR viewer. This prompted a user to post inappropriate images using this glitch. Naturally, the screenshot function was removed.
    • Pokémon X and Y and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire disabled Miiverse screenshots due to a feature in the Player Search System where you can take a picture of anything the inner camera can see.
  • After an American reviewer leaked Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions online, Nintendo of America decided to limit who gets review copies and when, which means that there will be a significant decrease in reviews before their future game releases.
  • The reason why certain Nintendo Switch games, like Splatoon 2, Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, Pokémon Sword and Shield, and Dark Souls: Remastered, don't feature online cloud save support is because said service could be utilized for cheating purposes, such as duplicating items or reverting to a previous online rank if it drops down at any point.
  • In the early days of the Nintendo Switch, it was possible for game publishers to put games on sale for almost any price—including less than a dollar. Unfortunately, this lead to a wave of manipulative pricing behaviors: Developers would make cheap games, set their "default" price to something high (like $10-$15), but then put them on "extreme sale" for as little as a penny. This would lead those games being constantly promoted in the eShop's "sales" tag, and would drive up their rankings in the "bestsellers" list as many people bought them for extremely cheap. Eventually, Nintendo clamped down on this behavior, and made it so no game's "sale price" can go lower than $1.99. Games can still be priced cheaper, but it has to be their default price, not their sale price.

Super Mario Bros.

  • Mario Kart DS had decals that could be drawn to be anything the players desired and could be shown off on their kart. Naturally, everyone drew breasts and penises. Nintendo removed the custom decal feature in all future Mario Kart games and instead has the karts use the pre-set character decals.
  • In early May 2020, a customizable fan-made PC port of Super Mario 64, based on years of speedrunner research, was leaked to the Internet. Unfortunately, this happened while Nintendo was dealing with the fallout of a massive leak that, among other things, included many scrapped assets and earlier builds of SM64. Nintendo's legal eagles weren't happy about it, to say the least — that, and perhaps making a full native PC port of one of Nintendo's most iconic games without their permission and distributing it for free probably wasn't the best thing to do.
  • Overlapping pipes, which was present in Super Mario Maker, were removed for Super Mario Maker 2 due to constant abuse in the previous game by troll level creators. The "dick vine" mechanic, which involved using troll vines to block doors, was additionally nerfed via making them more obvious for similar reasons.

Pokémon

  • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl:
    • In an unusual variation, this happened unintentionally. In an effort to stop hacked Pokémon (which were frequently Legendaries) from being sent over the GTS, Nintendo accidentally banned all Legendaries from being sent over the GTS. Needless to say, the backlash forced Nintendo to apologize and revert the change, but the damage was done, and hackers who could take advantage of a loophole that still allowed hacked Pokémon to be offered became even more encouraged to do so.
    • In a more intentional example, these games introduced Chatot, whose signature attack (Chatter) made use of the DS microphone so you could have it play your own voice while using the attack. Naturally, fans took advantage of this to make Chatot say inappropriate things, leading to Chatot getting banned in online battles and the feature being outright being removed in Generation VI.
    • In another intentional example, Diamond and Pearl added Ball Seals that create special effects when a Pokémon is sent out when attached to its Poké Ball. Among them were special letter Seals that could be used to spell out words, obtained by showing a boy an Unown corresponding to its respective letter. Naturally, people used these letter Seals to make their Poké Balls spell out profane messages when a Pokémon is sent out, with online battles being plagued with them (e.g. "DICK HEAD" would show up when Palkia was sent out quite often). Ball Seals were removed starting in the next generation, and when they finally re-appeared in the remakes Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, letter Seals were removed entirely.
  • Pokémon X and Y:
    • In both X and Y and Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, players could customize their messages and communicate with "Shout Outs". People abused this feature and sent either cruel or inappropriate messages, often bypassing the swear filter by using corruptions of swear words. As a result, Pokémon Sun and Moon severely restricted the ability to customize your messages by only allowing the player to pick from a few pre-set messages, and the Shout Out feature was removed entirely.
    • In X and Y, players found out that, if the egg and the game copy have the same shiny value, they're guaranteed to hatch a shiny. Due to this, computer software was made to view egg contents. While some complained that it devalued shinies, it wasn't harmful to others playing the game. However, cheaters found a way to use the exact same exploit to create software to view their opponents' teams, moves, and abilities in battle. Game Freak and Nintendo did not take kindly to this and patched the whole exploit, killing both pieces of software.
  • Pokémon Sun and Moon: Mere days before the two games' official release, some people got a hold of the game and ROM dumps began circulating the Internet. Nintendo not only cracked down on these ROM dumps, but also punished everyone who thought it would be a good idea to attempt to use the pirated games' online features by permanently banning them from using their 3DS' online features - much to the dismay of people who legitimately bought it before its official release.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield:
    • A T-shirt design contest was held before the game's release, where the winning design would be featured as a wearable shirt in the games. Unfortunately, this was rendered completely pointless when it was discovered that the winner had used his winning design on smartphone cases in the past, which went against the rules of the contest as the design had to have not been used anywhere else before. This caused the winner to be disqualified, the shirt with the design to be removed from the games, and the final games to have no fan-designed T-shirt in them at all.
    • While fan outcry isn't entirely unheard of within the franchise, the outcry against these games reached a point where #BringBackNationalDex was hijacked to promote falsified stories against Masuda and issue death threats against him, Game Freak, the Pokémon Company International, and Nintendo. When the games were leaked and streamed on the internet, the hatred only intensified, with the hashtag #ThankYouGameFreak either being countered with the spiteful #FuckYouGameFreak or being hijacked to turn it into an expression of sarcastic praise toward them instead of genuine praise. This resulted in launch events for the game to be canceled in fear of the main developers’ safety.note 
    • Content from the game and its strategy guide was leaked from 4chan and spread across the internet at the dawn of November 2019, which led to #GameFreakLied going viral after it was discovered that, among other things, many returning Pokémon models and animations in Sword and Shield were reused from earlier games, despite Masuda claiming that the total number of Pokémon was cut to improve the game's graphics and animation work. A week and a half after launch, Game Freak and the Pokémon Company International took measures to hunt down the leakers, and 4chan's new manager was compliant with authorities to this end.
  • Pokémon GO:
    • The game has a tracking feature that would show players hints pointing to nearby Pokémon, without revealing the species. Unfortunately, people developed third-party apps to read the tracking data and display the specific locations and species of all nearby Pokémon, forcing the developers to have those sites be taken down.
    • After a few careless players kept playing the game while driving, causing car accidents and injuries to people in the process, the developers began implementing measures to prevent players from playing Go while driving. This ultimately led to eliminating the ability to catch Pokémon or even use item-granting Pokéstops when traveling over a certain speed, rendering the app almost completely useless while driving. This has been a case of controversy from players who played the game as passengers in a vehicle and/or whose only access to Pokéstops were ones they passed on the road and otherwise wouldn't think of using the app while driving or players with the Pokémon Go Plus device.
    • Playing of the game has been banned on some physical properties because some players either couldn't behave themselves or played the game in locations where playing the game is in poor taste (such as places of worship or the National Holocaust Memorial Museum). Aside from the property owners disallowing the use of the app while on the premises, Niantic also complies with requests by owners and managers to have their Pokéstops and/or Gyms removed. This also applies to private residences after a lawsuit was made from homeowners that got sick of players loitering around their property, which meant that anyone submitting a potential stop would automatically be rejected if it was within 40 feet of someone's house.
    • Belgian Internet carrier Proximus stopped offering free data on pre-paid cards after one person thought it would be a good idea to test his theory about whitelisting and get the whole country (temporarily) banned by Niantic while using the carrier.
    • Niantic's Senior Marketing Manager closed her Twitter account after the announcement that the game would be starting to phase out some of the special bonuses included for the game during the COVID-19 pandemic (such as an increased radius for Pokéstops and Gyms) led to her receiving a tidal wave of harassment. Even other GO players who were not shy about their disappointment about the removal of said bonuses were disgusted.
  • Pokémon Trading Card Game
    • In Fall of 2023, Pokémon partnered up with the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam to produce a number of Van Gogh-inspired Pokémon works and merchandise, which included a limited edition trading card of one of the artworks, Pikachu in a Grey Felt Hat, to be given away with online merchandise purchases or on completion of an activity at the museum itself. Within a couple of weeks the latter was withdrawn for the safety of the museum staff as online scalpers fought to obtain the cards in order to resell them at obscene prices (and some members of staff were even fired after it was discovered they had collaborated with the scalpers).

Super Smash Bros.

  • Masahiro Sakurai, director of the series, stated that he would be tweeting less than before. His reason for doing this is because whenever he talks about a video game he enjoys, over-speculative fans take it as a cue for that game being represented in the next Super Smash Bros.
  • Taunt messages were a feature introduced in Brawl that returned in For Wii U and 3DS that let the player add custom messages that would pop up whenever the player taunted. Naturally, fans used this feature to send profane or sexually-charged messages to other players via taunting. Custom messages were removed in Ultimate in favor of pre-written ones.
  • Thanks to fans uploading the Subspace Emissary cutscenes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl onto the Internet, there are no story cutscenes in For Wii U and 3DS, which in turn resulted in the removal of a traditional Adventure Mode. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate brought back an Adventure Mode, in this case with World of Light, but it had far less cutscenes than The Subspace Emissary ever did.
  • Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U had a development blog on the Miiverse in which Sakurai discussed upcoming features of the game and gave a very intimate, inclusive look at the development process. Unfortunately, fans responded with a torrent of unending negativity, which soured the whole experience.note  The last straw was when a criminal stole an ESRB demo of the game and leaked its entire contents online weeks before the game's release, causing the franchise that was once Nintendo's biggest hype generator to be made behind closed doors in order to keep any of the surprises remaining intact.
  • While the pre-release reveals for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate went swimmingly, a small store in Mexico sold the game two weeks before it was supposed to be released to the general public, resulting in a number of players getting their hands on the game and either streaming the game or uploading the soundtrack to YouTube well before the official release. Nintendo absolutely brought down the hammer, taking down almost every gameplay video they could find that showed off unseen gameplay of modes such as Classic, Spirits, and World of Light. This caused several video game music-oriented channels that uploaded the game's soundtrack to be terminated entirely.
  • In November 2020, Nintendo openly canceled The Big House Online, an online Smash Bros. tournament of both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, due to the tournament's use of Project Slippi, which provided online play for Melee (along with other quality-of-life features). Due to copyright infringement, the company filed a DMCA against the unauthorized project, despite its usefulness during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This led to heavy backlash from fans, who then began the #FreeMelee/#SaveSmash campaign to protest the copyright restrictions. Consequently, Nintendo also canceled their livestreams of the Splatoon 2 North American Open finals in December 2020, due to teams registering with names like #FreeMelee and entire Twitter URLs to encourage Melee and the Smash community.
  • Averting this trope was the reason why the results for the 2015 Smash Fighter Ballot for SSB 3DS/WiiU were never shared with the public. When the final fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was announced to be Sora in 2021, Sakurai revealed that he had been the actual top choice when the poll was run, which was why Bayonetta's addition to the roster came with the qualifier of "realizable and negotiable characters" when she was announced as the winner instead. Both Sakurai and then-CEO Satoru Iwata would decide not to publicly reveal the results of the ballot at the time in order to prevent fans from potentially harassing the game companies that owned the top character choices to demand their immediate inclusion in Smash Bros, which could have also negatively affected the long negotiation processes involved in getting Sora, Sephiroth, and other ballot winners into Ultimate.

Other

  • As of the early 2020s, Nintendo no longer reveals the developers of their games until their release, in which fans will need to get the games and reach the credits to find out who produced them. This is likely to deter complaining about or harassment towards developers on social media. The same applies for voice actors, for safety reasons.
  • This is why Blanca's event in the Animal Crossing franchise was changed in New Leaf. In the first game, the player could sometimes meet a faceless cat named Blanca, who would ask for a face to be drawn on during the train ride to another player's town, and Blanca could occasionally be found in that town with the face she was given. When Animal Crossing: Wild World introduced Internet connectivity to the franchise, the event was slightly changed so that Blanca would visit random visitors' towns and, if the game was connected to the Internet, she would already have a random face that somebody else had drawn. However, Nintendo didn't have anyone doing random sampling checks of the uploads, nor was there any way to report Blanca's "face" in the game. Naturally, parents were horrified at how Blanca almost always had a penis, a swastika, or some other offensive imagery drawn onto her face and were infuriated that there wasn't any way to report it or get rid of it permanently. In New Leaf, Blanca's was made the center of the April Fools event instead, and her face-drawing event was scrapped.
  • They are known for taken down ROM dumps of their games as well for emulators which are considered piracy as the mixed of both this and Screwed by the Lawyers:
    • Predating Tahlreth's shuttering of AetherSX2 was the sudden discontinuation of UltraHLE, an emulator for the Nintendo 64 which allowed for certain popular games to run on even modest computer hardware of the era. Incessant user demands on top of Nintendo threatening legal action against the emulator's co-authors Epsilon and RealityMan led to the emulator being discontinued just after release. Perhaps the press attention—including a mention on TIME—was far too much for a small team to handle.
    • Yuzu, a popular Nintendo Switch emulator, was forced to shut down in early 2024 due to Nintendo filing a lawsuit against the emulator. While Nintendo’s official reasons for the lawsuit was mostly comprised of things that many other emulators do (such as having the ability to decrypt encrypted games), it’s commonly believed that Nintendo escalated to legal action after discovering that Yuzu had made a post bragging about how many times The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was played on their emulator… despite the fact that the game wasn’t officially released at the time. The lawsuit was settled out of court for 2.4 million dollars, and it also caused Citra, a Nintendo 3DS emulator, to be shut down because it had the same owners as Yuzu.
  • Nintendo Live Tokyo 2024, originally scheduled for January, was canceled due to numerous threats towards the staff and participants. As a result, the championships for Splatoon 3 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe were postponed until April 13 and 14 respectively, while the Zelda and Splatoon 3 concerts originally scheduled for the event were posted online on February 9 and 10 instead.

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