Kenshin Kazama, a 27-year-old Japanese resident in Hitachi, recently admitted that he made death threats to Nintendo via inquiry forms on its website between August 22 and November 29 last year. The reason? He was upset while playing Nintendo’s games.
As reported by Kansai Television News (via Video Games Chronicle), Kazama sent 39 threats and was accused of saying that he would make sure people at Nintendo would regret making a bad game. Kazama went on to threaten to kill those who were involved in making the game. Then he went as far as to threaten spectators at an upcoming event.
The event Kazama mentioned was believed to be the Splatoon Koshien 2023 National Finals. As the name suggests, it’s an event based on Nintendo’s popular shooter, Splatoon. The Splatoon Koshien 2023 was originally set to take place in December 2023 and January 2024, but due to the threats, the event was canceled.
Kazama went on to explain that he made these threats because he was getting angry while playing Nintendo games, and every time he lost, he would get more frustrated. The prosecutors in the case revealed that Kazama’s threats cost ¥700 million, which equates to roughly $4.36 million.
Kazama’s sentencing is scheduled to take place next month on July 24 and the prosecution is asking for him to be sentenced to one year in prison.