Nintendo Live 2024 in Tokyo has been canceled due to staff and attendees receiving threats ahead of the event

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Nintendo Live 2024 has been canceled after Nintendo employees reported receiving threats ahead of the upcoming event.

On December 7, Nintendo shared a statement on its Japanese website announcing that its upcoming in-person events have either been canceled or postponed. The main event, Nintendo Live 2024, was set to take place in Tokyo from January 20 - 21, 2024, but has since been completely canceled as Nintendo claims: "the safety of the audience cannot be adequately ensured" following the threats made to employees and some attendees.

The statement reads (machine translated): "The Company [Nintendo] has received persistent threats targeting its employees, and most recently, the threats have targeted the audience and staff of the Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals, leading to the decision to postpone the event, with customer safety as the top priority."

Ahead of Nintendo Live 2024, Nintendo was set to host the Splatoon 3 competition mentioned above on December 16-17, 2023, but this has now been delayed. The other tournaments - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Online Challenge Final Stage, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe World Championship 2024, and Splatoon 3 World Championship 2024 - were supposed to take place at Nintendo Live 2024 but they have also now been rescheduled for a later yet to be announced date.

This year's Nintendo Live event was held in Seattle in the US last September and was a celebration of all things Nintendo. Guests got to take part in several fun activities including character photo-ops, competitions, and live performances, and had the chance to play some of Nintendo's new and fan-favorite games like Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Splatoon 3, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and more.

Find out what Nintendo is currently working on with our upcoming Switch games list.

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.