During Nintendo84th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders‘, company president Shuntaro Furukawa was asked how Nintendo deals with “inappropriate use of Nintendo IP and games on social media” when “the conduct risks damaging its brand value”.
While Furukawa declined to comment on any “individual cases,” he noted how appropriate action should be taken against any behavior that “undermines the policy of a Japanese company.”bring smiles through entertainment“. It will also continue to make every effort to ensure that “consumers do not feel uncomfortable” with Nintendo’s IP “not only” in its games, but also “where they come into contact” with it.
Shuntaro Furukawa: “Our company aims to achieve our management policy of ‘bringing smiles through entertainment’ by offering unique games that everyone can intuitively enjoy. I will refrain from commenting on individual cases, but we believe that any behavior that undermines this policy should be dealt with appropriately.” .
“Our goal is to create an environment where everyone can enjoy playing games. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure that our consumers do not feel uncomfortable, not only in our games, but everywhere they come into contact with our IP.”
Although specific cases are not mentioned, such as Eurogamer notes, there was a time in 2018 when a fan creation known as Bowsette (a cross between Peach and Bowser) went viral on social media and elsewhere on the internet. At the time, Nintendo’s official response was “no comment,” and the frenzy for the fan-created character eventually died down.
Beyond social media, Nintendo has targeted fan projects deemed inappropriate and potentially damaging to its brand value. In September 2020, he previewed a naughty fan game starring Princess Peach. He recently filed a DMCA against the Rhythm Heaven remix project, and just this week he continued his fight against Switch Piracy by filing two new lawsuits.