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Project M: Difference between revisions
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Throughout the rest of 2015, ''Project M'' continued to decline in presence. Many major tournaments dropped ''Project M'' from their rosters; VGBootCamp, which became well-known for popularizing the mod, later announced that they would no longer stream ''Project M'', and subsequently removed all such content on their channel; and monetized streams on [[Twitch]] faced difficulties regarding streaming the mod and its questionable legal status. On December 1st, 2015, the ''Project M'' Development Team ultimately chose to conclude the development of the mod, shutting down their official page, removing the download links from the site, and leaving a farewell message on the main page; the site itself was later taken down{{fact}}. Officially, the developers felt their work on the last version of ''Project M'' was complete, and the numerous group members chose to follow their original endeavors. However, this message was contradicted by the fact that various art assets, such as additional alternate costumes, had been posted to the team's Facebook page following the release of v3.6 with a planned inclusion in a future version, as well as by the fact that a PAL version was explicitly planned though never released. Although a [https://twitter.com/MrRyanMorrison/status/671943222848069632 tweet] claimed the end of development was not the result of legal issues, a [https://www.facebook.com/Mewtwo2000/posts/724185831014518?_rdr=p later statement] from a former member of the development team argued that ''Project M's'' development was in fact shut down as a preemptive measure for fears of potential legal action from Nintendo. | Throughout the rest of 2015, ''Project M'' continued to decline in presence. Many major tournaments dropped ''Project M'' from their rosters; VGBootCamp, which became well-known for popularizing the mod, later announced that they would no longer stream ''Project M'', and subsequently removed all such content on their channel; and monetized streams on [[Twitch]] faced difficulties regarding streaming the mod and its questionable legal status. On December 1st, 2015, the ''Project M'' Development Team ultimately chose to conclude the development of the mod, shutting down their official page, removing the download links from the site, and leaving a farewell message on the main page; the site itself was later taken down{{fact}}. Officially, the developers felt their work on the last version of ''Project M'' was complete, and the numerous group members chose to follow their original endeavors. However, this message was contradicted by the fact that various art assets, such as additional alternate costumes, had been posted to the team's Facebook page following the release of v3.6 with a planned inclusion in a future version, as well as by the fact that a PAL version was explicitly planned though never released. Although a [https://twitter.com/MrRyanMorrison/status/671943222848069632 tweet] claimed the end of development was not the result of legal issues, a [https://www.facebook.com/Mewtwo2000/posts/724185831014518?_rdr=p later statement] from a former member of the development team argued that ''Project M's'' development was in fact shut down as a preemptive measure for fears of potential legal action from Nintendo. | ||
Though the decline of ''Project M'' was commonly | Though the decline of ''Project M'' was commonly attributed to either avoiding litigation from Nintendo or the company directly forbidding it, this speculation remained unconfirmed until November 2020. In the 24th of that month, an anonymous "informed ''Smash'' insider" posted a [https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srfu4r Twitlonger] explaining Nintendo's history of inhibiting the ''Smash'' community, which several members of the community would go on to corroborate<ref>[https://twitter.com/OXY_Crimson/status/1331064248416440323 Crimson Blur's tweet]</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yIcyyCe2Jw Armada's YouTube channel - "NINTENDO TRYING TO KILL SMASH: Part Two"]</ref>. According to the Twitlonger, many companies and esports organizations began attempting to work with the ''Smash'' community, only for intervention by Nintendo to halt many of those efforts. Nintendo reportedly told them that they refused to work with the community for featuring ''Project M'', but even after support for the mod waned, there was no major progress in establishing them. Later that day, former Smashboards writer Linnea Capps [https://twitter.com/LiteralGrill/status/1331117838690623488 made her own Twitter thread] revealing that [[Twitch]]'s efforts to form a circuit required that they remove and ban all ''Project M'' content on the platform, including Apex's tournament for it. Twitch offered to help director {{Sm|Alex Strife}} make an official statement on the matter to avoid any extended criticism he would get, but following [[Smasher:Alex Strife#Controversy and disappearance|allegations of him harassing other players]], the offer was rescinded. In an unreleased interview Capps conducted with Strife months after Apex 2015, he revealed that players tried and ultimately failed to receive payment from Twitch in exchange for no longer streaming the mod. She further detailed that [[hitbox.tv]], a platform that rose in popularity for streaming PM content after Twitch gradually phased it out, even hired someone specifically to coordinate with the ''Smash'' community, only to suddenly fire said coordinator after a failed attempt to create a circuit with Nintendo's help and gradually remove PM content from its site as well. | ||
{{Team|CLASH Tournaments}} founder {{Sm|Chia}} also published a [https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srfurr TwitLonger] explaining how Twitch had given her and many other streamers one last major ''Project M'' stream before being disallowed from ever streaming the mod again: CLASH Tournament's final ''Project M'' stream was March 2015's {{Trn|Shots Fired}}. Twitch had also forced her to not mention anything about the situation or she'd risk losing CLASH Tournament's partnership with Twitch. In an attempt to make it easier on the streamers, Twitch asked them to provide financial analytics of how much they earned with streaming ''Project M'' and promised that they'd pay similar amounts of funds for a short time, but this also never came into fruition; Chia wrote that she believed Twitch did not want to follow through with this and only did so after pressure came from Nintendo. | {{Team|CLASH Tournaments}} founder {{Sm|Chia}} also published a [https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srfurr TwitLonger] explaining how Twitch had given her and many other streamers one last major ''Project M'' stream before being disallowed from ever streaming the mod again: CLASH Tournament's final ''Project M'' stream was March 2015's {{Trn|Shots Fired}}. Twitch had also forced her to not mention anything about the situation or she'd risk losing CLASH Tournament's partnership with Twitch. In an attempt to make it easier on the streamers, Twitch asked them to provide financial analytics of how much they earned with streaming ''Project M'' and promised that they'd pay similar amounts of funds for a short time, but this also never came into fruition; Chia wrote that she believed Twitch did not want to follow through with this and only did so after pressure came from Nintendo. | ||
The reveals of the tumultuous history of ''Project M'''s decline, alongside the cancellation of The Big House Online in the same month, served as a catalyst for the "#SaveSmash" movement on Twitter. Later on, someone from the PMDT put the site back up with the hashtag, while urging its community to stand in solidarity.<ref>https://twitter.com/SOJ__Online/status/1329554757044875270?s=19</ref> | The reveals of the tumultuous history of ''Project M'''s decline, alongside the [[cancellation of The Big House Online]] in the same month, served as a catalyst for the "#SaveSmash" movement on Twitter. Later on, someone from the PMDT put the site back up with the hashtag, while urging its community to stand in solidarity.<ref>https://twitter.com/SOJ__Online/status/1329554757044875270?s=19</ref> | ||
==Legacy== | ==Legacy== | ||