A Nintendo shareholder meeting was reportedly derailed by a Splatoon 3 player who used the Q&A session to complain about the perceived lack of boy character support.
As reported by Video Games SI, a series of posts from Twitter user NStyles outlined the events of the shareholder meeting. When presented with the opportunity to ask a question about Nintendo’s business performance, the Splatoon 3 player said he believes female characters got preferential treatment in the game.
“The company has blatantly given the boys in Splatoon the cold shoulder and I would like to see some improvement,” he said. “In Splatoon 3, there is a lot more customisation [than the first two games] and there is clear favouritism towards girl characters over boys.
“It makes me extremely sad when people say: if you enjoy playing as a boy then you won’t enjoy playing Splatoon.”
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa allegedly attempted to stop the Splatoon 3 player’s complaint, saying the question was too long, but was unsuccessful as the individual continued. Once finished, Furukawa thanked them for playing Splatoon 3 and for sharing his opinion.
An individual on Twitter claiming to be the Splatoon 3 player said they sent several emails to Nintendo expressing their concerns and, upon not being listened to, bought shares in the company in order to gain an audience with company executives.
The individual also claimed to buy Nintendo Switch consoles on credit before selling them for cash in order to buy the stocks necessary to participate in the meeting.
IGN has reached out to Nintendo for comment regarding the shareholder meeting disruption.
In our 8/10 review of the game, we said: “Splatoon 3’s campaign features a fresh take on an open hub world design, mixing in short but satisfying missions to let you experiment with different weapons and abilities.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.