Nintendo Forbids Charity Speedrunning Event ‘RTA In Japan’ From Playing Their Games Without “Prior Permission”
RTA in Japan has announced their upcoming charity speedrunning Summer 2025 event will not feature Nintendo titles, after the company contacted them about using their games without permission; despite having done so with no quibble for nine years.
The organizers announced the news on Monday (machine translation via DeepL), just a few days before the Summer 2025 event begins.
“RTA in Japan has previously used Nintendo games, but on June 13, 2025, Nintendo Co., Ltd. pointed out that ‘prior permission is required for the use of Nintendo games by corporations’ and that the previous use by our organization constituted ‘unauthorized use without prior permission,'” organizers explained.
It should be noted Japanese fair use laws are different than those in the US, and its not uncommon for streamers to ask publishers for permission to avoid any such issues. Nintendo has even handed out guidelines to streamers in the past.
“RTA in Japan wishes to continue using Nintendo games and has begun negotiations with Nintendo Co., Ltd. regarding permission,” organizers assured. “As of now, RTA in Japan will submit permission requests to Nintendo Co., Ltd. on a case-by-case basis for each event and game.”
“However, for RTA in Japan Summer 2025, we were unable to determine a clear policy at the time of announcing the selected games, so we have decided not to use Nintendo games for this event. For events held by RTA in Japan after RTA in Japan Summer 2025, we plan to submit permission requests to Nintendo Co., Ltd. in advance for each event and obtain permission to use Nintendo games.”
Organizers concluded that submission guidelines and application requirements are expected to change, and that they “sincerely apologize to those who submitted games relevant to this matter for RTA in Japan Summer 2025.”
Starting in 2016, RTA in Japan has grown to the scale where there will be English commentary re-streams of the Summer 2025 event, which is likely one of the reasons Nintendo has shifted its attention towards them.
Nintendo Japan’s Game Content Guidelines for Online Video & Image Sharing Platforms, however, might be the more likely reason why the company has forbidden the speedrunning charity event to showcase their titles.
As translated by Grok, Nintendo Japan’s guidelines prohibits creators from “Posting game content without modification or with minimal editing, such as uploading raw gameplay footage, audio, or official trailers” and “Posting content created using unauthorized methods, such as emulators, cheat tools, or data mining.”
Similarly, Nintendo Japan stipulates, “Corporations or other legal entities must obtain Nintendo’s prior permission to use our game content,” which aligns with RTA in Japan’s announcement notifying viewers and attendees that they have begun negotiations with the company. Again, this shows differences in ‘fair use’ attitudes than those in the west.
RTA in Japan Summer 2025 runs August 9th to August 15th live on Twitch, raising money for Médecins Sans Frontières (better known as Doctors Without Borders). Those playing will be aiming to beat games or specific sections in blistering times, pushing the games to their limits to shave off all important seconds.
The games on show run the gamut from old and new, indie and AAA, casual and hardcore, and of course- the downright weird. This includes Cuphead, Dead Cells, Final Fantasy IX, Nova Drift, NieR:Automata, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and more.
While Mario and Kirby won’t be back this year, games on Nintendo consoles are still permitted. Like KAYAC’s Ketsu Battler — a game controlled by shoving a Joy-Con down the back of your pants, and moving you butt around.
