Nintendo of America has moved to block fighting game tournament Evo from live streaming its Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament this week. The news comes as a shock considering how much the fans fought to get the game there.

The statement from Evo was published on their site with the following.

[quote]Regrettably, we’ve just been informed by Nintendo of America Inc. that we do not have permission to broadcast Super Smash Bros. Melee for Evo 2013.[/quote]

Nintendo’s been doing weird stuff all year with regards to the internet and Let’s Play videos, this move is even more bizarre considering it would essentially be free publicly for the company and an 11 year old game. A game is still being played by this community.

What makes it worse is that the fighting game community raised $US95,000 for the game to be included at the event. That money was raised in Evo’s official charity fundraiser for breast cancer, it won out over other titles to be included in the tournament.

So far there is no official statement from Nintendo of America, but we can only hope that Nintendo take off their Darth Vadar mask long enough to see that having their games played and live streamed around the world only helps their image – not tarnish it.

Nintendo and its games have fostered a community and Nintendo is taking a dump on that community by blocking this stream. Continue to treat them bad for long enough and eventually you won’t have them.

Update: Nintendo has back tracked on the Smash Bross Melee block and the game will be allowed back into the live streaming schedule.