Yesterday, a big piece of news broke that upset many fans. Specifically, Nintendo released a new set of “community guidelines” for those who wished to run tournaments of a small nature, in this case under 300 people, without needing Nintendo’s permission. For some of the guidelines, it was a pretty standard affair. There were things that people could do and can’t do both on the “organizer level” and those playing it. However, when people dug deeper into the rules, they released that one of the things that would be restricted is the Nintendo Switch controllers that can be used in said tournaments.
On the surface, it might not seem “bad” for Nintendo to want 1st-party controllers being used in tournaments featuring their system in any way. However, as one passionate Nintendo Switch owner noted on Twitter, this restriction has a serious drawback. Specifically, there’s a problem in it affecting those with disabilities.
The tweet above is the start of her thread, but other sections point out the flaws in this guideline:
“If you are not familiar with game accessibility this might not seem like a big deal. But the reason why it is, is because many disabled gamers (like myself) use third party accessories to be able to game. This can be anything from controllers you can use with your feet, tools to make the game work with a straw you can blow in to move your character, all the way to 3D printed specialised equipment that let you use a regular Joy-Con or Pro Controller.
I can somewhat understand Nintendo’s need to protect their IP, but this is taking it so far that it will exclude children, youth and grown-ups that need accessibility to play games like everyone else.”
You can understand her frustration, as these other controllers allow her and others to play Switch games like any other player and be good at them. But if other tournaments follow the strict guidelines that Nintendo has laid down, then that excludes numerous gamers who simply want the chance to play video games with their friends and others.
This is hardly the only thing that has set the fanbase ablaze over these guidelines, but it is one of the more prominent issues. Nintendo has become rather infamous for how it handles people “using their properties” for small-scale tournaments, even interfering in them and straight-up canceling them.
It’ll be interesting to see if Nintendo walks this back slightly or whether they’ll stick to their beliefs on this “issue.”
