Esports event Riptide has cancelled its Project+ tournament following pressure from Nintendo. The event will now continue without the popular Smash Bros. mod, running tournaments for the vanilla versions of Melee and Ultimate.
Project+ is a mod for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which still requires a legitimate copy of the game to use. This move suggests Nintendo is taking a zero-tolerance policy with its modding community, as it similarly shut down a Smash tournament last year for using a Melee mod that allows for online play.
"Riptide was contacted recently by a Nintendo of America, Inc. representative regarding our Project+ events. As a result of that conversation, there will be no Project+ tournaments or setups at Riptide", reads a short statement posted to the event's Twitter page. "We understand the impact of this news for the Project+ community. We will be contacting all attendees registered for Project+ events with further information and the updated refund request procedure shortly."
The response to this news has been wholly negative.@UltimaShadowX commented saying, "It's beyond frustrating Nintendo goes after these communities and punishes them for their passion". Some are also frustrated at how last minute this move is, with @JoSniffy replying, "Super cool of [Nintendo of America] to cancel an event that's been planned for months just two weeks before it happens! It's so considerate to all of the people that bought plane tickets and hotels months ago."
Pro Smash player Hungrybox also commented on the development: "This is unforgivable at this point. There’s no legitimate reason for Nintendo to do this that doesn’t include a complete disconnect with the current culture of their consumers."
This news comes just a day after Nintendo shut down a promising 2D Metroid Prime fan remake. Prime 2D - despite being completely different from the GameCube games that inspired it - is halting development after four years, with the developers even having to take down the game's demo and soundtrack.