Nintendo condemns abuse as allegations spread across Smash Bros. community

Platform holder is "deeply disturbed" as more than 50 players accused of a variety of sexual offences

[sourOG]

This has been going on for awhile though. The smash base was always pretty weird. You don’t have to follow the smash scene closely to hear of all the rumors. The pedophilia stuff was especially disturbing but it was all accusations when I heard it.

[_SilverHawk_]

Nintendo is for children. When some adults are obsessed over Nintendo and the characters you know there's a problem especially male adults. I understand being a fan but being obsessive over childish characters or characters made for children its just overboard.

[sourOG]

I mean Nintendo is for families. There is nothing wrong with enjoying characters from your childhood with your kids. When you are 30 going to smash tournaments with 13 year olds then you are probably a predator.

[_SilverHawk_]

Reading is fundamental. Being a fan is different from being a fanatic.

[sourOG]

Yes it is. This article is about sexual abuse and harassment. The article or my comment had nothing to do with fanaticism but thanks for sharing.

[King_Noctis]

Nintendo is for children? Do we know what we are talking about, mate?

[sourOG]

Nintendo is kid friendly. It’s aimed at a wholesome audience like the hallmark channel lol. 24/7 holiday feel good. Not every game needs a miserable and depressing story to be fun. I just don’t see what that has to with anything. You can even be an adult that’s fanatical about wholesome characters without being an abusive loser who preys on kids. Leave people (Especially kids) alone and I don’t care what you’re into lol.

[mikeslemonade]

Nintendo started PC and SJW environment, like no blood in MK games. Nintendo can be blamed for a lot of things.

[King_Noctis]

"Nintendo started PC and SJW environment, like no blood in MK games. Nintendo can be blamed for a lot of things."

Sony also censor third party games, even games that Nintendo won't censor. Do you blame Sony for that?

[OMNlPOTENT]

Had to take a break defending TLOU2 to crap on Nintendo for a minute? Lots of adults on here abnormally obsessed over Naughty Dog games, isn’t that a bit weird?

[RememberThe357]

Dude isn't attacking Ninendo, nearly every game they release is rated E. They make games aimed at a younger audience. That's not slander it's just fact. It's fine.

He even clarified he wasn't saying fandom was bad, just the wierdo obsessions that happen to be a real problem apparently.

How can you be more triggered by a comment on a website than alleged pedophilia?

[King_Noctis]

"Dude isn't attacking Ninendo, nearly every game they release is rated E."

A game rated as E doesn't automatically mean it is only for children, like whatever Silverhawk is saying. Games like Fifa is rated E, but that doesn't mean only "children" is playing it.

"How can you be more triggered by a comment on a website than alleged pedophilia?"

You should take a short look at his comment history when it comes to the Switch and Nintendo as a whole.

[VariantAEC]

@King_Noctis
Yes we do know what we're talking about... mate.
Nintendo makes a lot of games targeting a much younger audience. That is a simple and incredibly obvious fact. It's been that way for over 3 decades and only just recently shifted allowing many more adult oriented games to be released on their platforms.

Over the past 30 years how many mature and up (or equivalent depending on your region) games were released on Nintendo platforms? How many Teen rated games?
Not many even less that actually sold decently meaning that people who purchased a Nintendo device didn't want teen an mature rated games anyway.

So why are people acting like this is strange or breaking-news all the sudden?

The argument that Nintendo is made for families is a better one than saying it's made for adults or even for teens entering college. Save for the Switch Nintendo has primarily made games for younger children pre-teens and young teenagers. H••l even when I was in HS I found it weird that people were still talking about Pokémon and there weren't that many people doing that and basically all of them were outcasts. I'm not saying it was right for the other kids to shut them out for liking games made for a younger audience at all just telling you that's how it was. Personally I only liked Pokémon Yellow and I actually wound up replaying it as a adult on a New Nintendo 3DS which I used to play Super Mario World again as well those games are classics, but had I been introduced to them now I probably wouldn't understand the entertainment value of the title.

What we have today is a bunch of adults playing brand new Nintendo games that they may or may not have had previous exposure to and do so with the intention of getting closer to strangers children... Lots of red flags there in my opinion. I don't think there are inherent risks of Nintendo gamers being pedophiles. However it would also be completely stupid to ignore the possibility that these online games do not pose a risk for your children to potentially meet a pedophile and for the parents to potentially allow their children to meet with a pedophile under false pretenses due to positive online interactions.

This may be somewhat less of an issue when the parents are fully aware that the system is used by people of all ages. Doesn't mean there are less pedophiles playing on PlayStation, Xbox, Win/OSX/Lin and/or Android/iOS.

Seriously look into "Prey On Predators" they catch all kinds of pedos gaming on PC, PS and Xbox (text logs to prove it as well). Not a good look.
Bottom line is pedos are everywhere not just in Nintendo's camp.

[whateverman]

Yeah, except for when someone like me who was born in 1983 liking Nintendo and it's characters... So apparently something I grew up on makes me a pedophile? You're retarded.

[Cmoney007]

It is fine that you want to believe that stupid nonsense, but the Switch still has more quality games than the Xbox One. Do I need to guess what your a fan of?

[OMNlPOTENT]

@rememberthe357 I have had my conversations on other websites about the pedophilia and how toxic the community is. The most disappointing to me was zero, as I was a fan of his videos. Back to this guys comment, a quick scroll through his history shows nothing but Sony “fanatic” behavior in his words. There are several posts of him attacking Nintendo and Microsoft. He’s clearly doing the same here.

[Doge]

@_SilverHawk_

Funny you say that. You should've seen the shit A LOT of adults who are obsessive over a game marketed for adults did to a developer and the people who worked on it because a character was killed off.

Fanatics are trash.

[Hakuoro]

First off this whole conversation is devolving into liking Nintendo games (or games that are E rated) makes you a pedo which is false and insulting.

Second let's keep perspective here, tens of millions of people play Nintendo games yet were talking about a few bad actors. Some of you are acting like the >1% of people who violate the rules are the majority.

Let's not get into condemning Nintendo or people who play E rated games over the actions of a TINY TINY fraction of people who enjoy them. Personally I'd be more concerned with the increasingly realistic violence portrayed in gaming than how colorful and friendly Mario is.

[sourOG]

@hakuoro
This article isn’t about the millions playing smash. It’s about the smash competitive community. The people who play “pro” in live tournaments. 50 prominent people in the competitive tournament scene is a lot bro. That’s crazy. “There’s no way everyone didn’t know this” crazy.

[RememberThe357]

@OMNlPOTENT
I appreciate the response and whether or not the guy is a shill I felt like the responses here are overblown and figured I'd say something. What's being alleged is so much worse that any comment on this site. But it is what it is, I shouldn't be trying to tell people what to value.

@Noctis
I get that a game being rated E doesn't automatically make the game "for children only." I get that Mario and Zelda aren't Teletubbies and Blue's Clues. But Nintendo themselves would tell you they aim at a younger audience than Sony and MS, it's not a problem and it's nothing to be ashamed of. My point was that the observation wasn't even a criticism and yet the guy was attacked as if it was. I don't go into people's comments and try to discern their true motives so maybe you're right, maybe he was just throwing subliminals at you guys and it went over my head.

[AK91]

To be honest I always looked down on the Smash community (and many other 'communities') because I thought it was filled with autistic manbabies but never in a million years would I have thought any of the members would be guilty of abuse of any kind, goes to show what I know I was also equally stunned when the members of the Pokemon community were found out to be guilty of the same thing.

[VariantAEC]

I'm assuming you we're never targeting as a child.
Good for you then. For people like me it's very easy to understand their motivations because I was molested.
There's a certain amount of curiosity I invested into figuring out why. Best I can figure after all these years is that its a power trip for them.
Regardless it always shocks me that so many are confused that PEDOPHILES MIGHT ACTUALLY BE INTERESTED IN GAMES AND COMMUNITIES COMPRISED MOSTLY OF CHILDREN!!!
What a groundbreaking revelation that is.

[ZeekQuattro]

Its hard to escape this kind of news these days. One week it's wrestling. Then it's EVO employees. Now it's the competitive smash community. 2020 needs to hurry up an end already.

[AirJohnston]

Yes for sure, everything bad will end as soon as the calendar changes to 2021

[ZeekQuattro]

No one said the bad shit would end in the new year. Try not to take everything literally. Lmao

[AirJohnston]

I realize that, y’all all just annoying as hell always crying about whatever year it is like it makes a difference if it’s 2020 or 2026

[Vengeance1138]

Oh Gawd... more pointless articles of Company X denounces bad things while promoting good things... we get it! every single company on the planet is going to publically denounce/condemn bad things... and promote good things, dont have to come out and say anything about it.

[Cmv38]

Its sad they have denounce anything because people are super trash online. You might be tired of seeing there
These articles, and gamers are tired of these losers.

[RgR]

Fact is this type of behavior has been denounced a long time ago. Nothing new or revelational.

They only reason they come out to point the obvious is that they don't want to be accused of being complacent or associated with eh behavior. Mainly because of clickbaity journos.

[Tacoboto]

Instead of calling out companies for calling out despicable behavior... you could spend the same amount of energy
to call out that despicable behavior. Or just shut up, because that contributes more than whatever this is.

[RgR]

Or he could spend his time doing as he pleases. I highly doubt these companies aren't guilty of anything.

Maybe even guilty of the same thing they're condemning.

[rainslacker]

Sadly, they almost do. Otherwise people accuse them of not caring.

I think it's all really silly, and mostly meaningless in the big picture. One can be a good social neighbor and not pander to others with what amounts to just saying something decent that most people probably already agree with.

I'd rather they do something more productive, because these things are either to just get people off their back, or to feel good about themselves, and say they did something, while executives pat themselves on the back in the board room.

Even regular people do the same thing nowadays, and 99% of it is meaningless trivial nonsense.

@Tacoboto

Many people do, often. Problem is, when everyone is acting like they care, when most of them actually don't care enough, it just drowns out anything meaningful and becomes annoying to the point that no one wants to hear it anymore. Saying you condemn bad behavior just shows you aren't an a**hole. Bigger question I'd rather these people do, is say what they're going to do about those with bad behavior. Something very few people do, and companies tend to do something really stupid and extreme when they take action....like fire people instead of just correcting the behavior when possible.

[rainslacker]

I think corporations can be responsible members of society. I have nothing against companies that give back to their communities, wherever that may be for them, nor do I have any that want to take stances on whatever their board, or shareholders, or CEO's may feel they can make a difference.

But, to have to go around saying how they don't condone this stuff seems superfluous, and as any comment section on these things shows, people that care about what happened aren't appeased by it, it opens the doors for those that want to dislike a company to put in their two cents even if they don't care about the issue, and for the most part marginalizes the effect of anyone or any company that actually does have to address the public on whatever issue may come up. Companies generally can't speak about this stuff beyond the most vague way they do because they don't want to be held libel for anything that may happen to the person that may have corrective action taken against them, and any remedy wouldn't be made public because there are usually laws which prevent that, or, it becomes a public matter, instead of an internal one where privacy has to be maintained. that's why all big companies have policies, and that's why these companies just recite their policy with some vaguely worded sentiment about how they don't condone it.

But, as annoying as it is, it's almost required today, and with the way everything is being held up in the court of public opinion, it's ruining lives even if there is no actual evidence to support the original complaint.

[Hakuoro]

Silence is just as bad as committing a crime. If you saw someone being hurt do you just walk by or do you say something to help?

It's pretty selfish to say that Nintendo shouldn't say what THEY think is right because YOU don't want to hear it.

Anyone can claim anything is "pandering" and that's the problem with it. How often do we see people claim this or that is pandering even though the person says the thing they were doing was sincerely what they wanted to do? (which often lead to them being harassed)

So, at what point are we allowed to take people for their word?

[rainslacker]

I'm not trying to single out Nintendo here. This is a thing with every company everywhere. It may not be done in an attempt to pander, but that is ultimately what statements like this are for the purpose of the public.

"So, at what point are we allowed to take people for their word?"

It's not always the companies fault that something bad happens. Sometimes it is, but there are bad seeds everywhere, and companies are compelled to say something publicly. I personally don't care what they say publicly, I care about what they do internally. But, in that vein, at what point are people going to realize that not everything is required to be a public execution, and hold the people responsible at fault instead of the companies themselves, which aren't always the ones that need to be implicated. Further, when are people going to accept that companies generally already have policies for this stuff, and if and when it becomes a systemic problem with the company, should it become something that may require more than internal, or professional intervention.

I actually think this world would sometimes be a better place if everyone stopped acting like they needed to solve everyone else's problems.

[VariantAEC]

I mean.... I get what you're saying really how many times do we need to hear Nintendo disavow pedophilia we know the company doesn't endorse it and also what can they do about it? They can't keep pedos from buying their products or ban people without some kind of reason.

But would you rather read a news story about Nintendo endorsing pedophilia?
That would be worse in my opinion.

[fsfsxii]

If u play smash u suspect now

[rainslacker]

So, is the new thing today for every company to state that they are against abuse, harassment, objectification, racism, any -ism, etc.

Are these things that really need to be said by these companies all the time. Does it actually achieve anything?

Yeah, decent people, even decent companies, and sometimes even not so decent companies, tend to not be complete a**holes. It's not even news anymore when they condemn this stuff.

It's kind of annoying just when the average individual has to throw in their support for every decent cause that's out there in the most trivial of ways, so companies doing it just adds to the noise.

I'd be much more interested in what these companies, or individuals, do about such things in a proactive manner that actually causes a productive change. That'd be some real news worth reporting.

[VariantAEC]

Good point but again in thinking this through thoroughly.
What could they do to stop this from happening?
Not really all that much. I mean in my personal opinion you'd think the very least they could manage is to keep records of online interactions and of course that means having a robust online ecosystem on the console so that very young users don't have to venture out onto the net to find like minded individuals who might be creeps... But you know what ever.
Step 1 create a robust online ecosystem that you control
Are you listening Nintendo???

[cemelc]

Except Nintendo never supported the smash community... I know most ppl have personal investment in blaming corporations. But Nintendo never did anything with them. Look at all the videos of them asking for Nintendo support

[VariantAEC]

I know that and that's why I wrote what I wrote...
If Nintendo did control the community by having an online ecosystem they could actually own they might actually be able to keep the pedophiles out of it!
What a thought, eh?

[Duke19]

Good to see instances where esports teams give these losers the boot. I wish more could be done to hold people like this accountable for their actions

[HankHill]

How many of them were Resetera members?

[CDbiggen]

This is really weird. How can 50 players from one game community (Smash of all things!) be accused of abuse like that? What is going on anymore? I just always assumed professional Smash players we like the speed running crowd, just streaming and playing all the time lol.

[GoodGuy09]

Covid, floyd protests, allegations here and there, whats next 2020?

[sourOG]

Meth gators, aliens and the Yellowstone volcano.

[PCgamer98]

Wow more than 50 and it even includes top players. Is there a trashier community than the smash community?

[neomahi]

Um.... This came out of nowhere. People suck.

[YoungKingDoran]

Apparently alot of these top Smash players stink like shit too lol

Smash ultimate is a pretty fun game though, but i dont know if ill be able to enjoy it anymore whilst worrying about Zero touching my butt

[AK91]

I feel so sorry for Sakurai he just wanted to make a game that people could enjoy, I can't imagine what that poor man must be feeling now.

[VariantAEC]

How is any of this his fault?
That's right It's not!
People as a species have a tendency to pervert everything and I do mean quite literally EVERYTHING.

[FernDiggidy]

no shit