Vtubers play porn through Splatoon 3, Nintendo says please don't do that

Splatoon 3
(Image credit: Nintendo)

A group of vtubers recently used Splatoon 3 as a vehicle for playing porn videos, prompting a wave of criticism and a vague response from Nintendo.

In a set of Splatoon 3 streams broadcast through YouTube on October 8, members of vtuber group Sinsogumi competed to get each others' streams banned from the platform. Using their streaming software, each team keyed out the other's ink color greenscreen-style, replacing enemy ink with a porn movie for the broadcast. The group whose stream was banned first would be declared the loser.

Of course, everyone ended up being a loser here. As Automaton Media reports, the stunt got 'AVスプラ' - which translates to 'adult video Splatoon' - trending on Twitter. Most clips of the original incident have been taken down, and the hashtag is now mostly filled with less salacious types of videos being played through Splatoon ink.

Members of Sinsogumi have spent the last several days posting apologies to social media. Of particular note is Tomeru Ikinone's video, in which they made their apology wearing a dinosaur costume.

In the wake of the incident, Nintendo of Japan published a vague notice on Twitter about the use of its copyrighted works on platforms like YouTube. A machine-translated version of the message warns that "use that violates public order and morals, acts that intentionally mislead the rules of the game, acts that significantly damage the value of the game or characters and the world, and acts that encourage or take advantage of them will be deleted or legally enforced."

So yes, if you needed the reminder, Nintendo would prefer it if you did not use its games as a way of broadcasting pornographic films to the public.

Less salaciously, Splatoon 3 fans have been recreating Mario Kart, and Nintendo has confirmed the next Splatfest will feature a Pokemon type matchup.

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.