Nintendo has made it difficult for its games to be featured at a speedrunning event in Japan.
One of Japan’s biggest speedrunning events, RTA in Japan Summer 2025, is set to go live without a single Nintendo game in its lineup this year. In a statement from the organisers, it was revealed that Nintendo itself was responsible for its games being absent from the event.
Nintendo had sent RTA organisers a warning back in June, to keep them from using its games in the event without permission.
Nintendo sent RTA in Japan Summer 2025 a warning to avoid using its games
The organisers of RTA in Japan Summer 2025, a major speedrunning event held in Tokyo, Japan, have confirmed the reason behind its complete absence of Nintendo games. In a recent statement, the organisers confirmed that they had been warned against including games like Super Mario 64 by Nintendo itself.
According to the statement, Nintendo had contacted the organisers on 13 June, 2025, to warn them that (via machine translation) “pre-authorised use of Nintendo games by corporations requires prior permission.” Additionally, RTA in Japan was said to be “unlicensed” for the usage of Nintendo games in general.
The organisers have been told to submit an application for permission for each Nintendo game it plans to use, as well as each event it plans to hold with said Nintendo games in the future. RTA in Japan Summer 2025, which runs from 9 to 15 August, will not feature any Nintendo games specifically because organisers “could not specify a clear handling at the timing of the announcement of the recruitment game.”
In other words, the organisers could not get permission to use Nintendo games in time for the event. However, the possibility of Nintendo games being present in future RTA events remains, so long as their organisers manage to secure permission from the company.
RTA in Japan Summer 2025’s organisers noted that “game application guidelines in RTA in Japan” might change due to Nintendo’s warning, as well. The company plans to share more information on how this might affect speedrunners in the future.
Nintendo games are often prominent at speedrunning events, and RTA is no exception. In 2024’s iteration of RTA in Japan Summer 2025, four out of five of its most-viewed speedrunning streams were of Nintendo games: Pokémon Red and Blue, Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Splatoon. Super Mario 64 held the highest peak viewership of the event overall, with 85,967 viewers overall.
The exclusion of Nintendo games in this year’s iteration of RTA in Japan Summer 2025 is bound to impact the event, but time will tell if future RTA events continue to feature Nintendo titles or not.
