Students and staff at California State University Fullerton will be seeing a heavy police presence on campus today after one overzealous gamer emailed a “vague threat” to their professor in an attempt to get classes canceled ahead of the latestNintendo Directevent. A highlight of the year on many gamers’ calendars, the consumer-focused Nintendo Direct events are traditionally where the company reveals upcominggames for the Nintendo Switchas well as making other major announcements related to the brand.
Nintendo will have a lot to celebrate at this new Nintendo Direct after experiencing a banner year in 2022. After starting off 2022 with the release ofPokemon Legends: Arceus, which managed to hold its own even against sales juggernauts like FromSoftware’sElden Ring, the iconic company went on to experience further success with the launch of the long-awaitedBayonetta 3and the wildly successfulKirby and the Forgotten Land. Bookending the year with morePokemon, November’sPokemon Scarlet and Violetbecame the fastest-selling games in Nintendo history. Software sales weren’t the only area where Nintendo excelled, either, with the company recently announcing that lifetimesales of the Switch have now surpassed the PS4.
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In a statement shared on Twitter by the California State University Fullerton police department on Tuesday evening, Acting Chief of Police Scot Willey informed the community about a “vague threat to campus” that a professor at the school received from a student. The email mentioned a “one-in-a-lifetime event” occurring the following day and urged the professor to cancel classes “for the good of humanity.” The statement goes on to explain how detectives eventually learned that thelatest Nintendo Direct eventwould be occurring at the time stated in the email before the student eventually contacted their professor again admitting that the threat had been a “bad joke” gone wrong.
This ridiculously ill-advised attempt at skipping class to check out the latest Switch games ended up having a larger effect than theNintendo-obsessed student likely expected, with Willey noting in the statement that additional officers, specialists, and K9 teams would be present throughout the campus today “out of an abundance of caution.” Responses to the debacle on Twitter were mixed, with many comments admonishing the student while others made light of the situation. One tongue-in-cheek comment stated that the police were right to be cautious before jokingly adding that “If they don’t showSilksongpeople will riot.”
While it’s understandable that any hardcore Nintendo fan would be excited to hear about the latest games in the pipeline from the legendary company, this particular gamer probably should have just called in sick rather than disrupting their entire campus. WithNintendo reportedly skipping E3 this year, at least the school probably won’t have to worry about another gaming-induced false threat in June.
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