Today a statement was released by Square Enix about a number of tournaments for the arcade game Starwing Paradox. The tournaments were initially supposed to be held from August 17th through August August 24th, however, after several death threats against the management team, the tournaments have been cancelled. Square Enix’s statement when translated, roughly states that because the management team had been given several death threats, that after careful consideration and discussion with the police, the tournaments would be cancelled. They then state that they have chosen to prioritize customer safety and apologize for the inconvenience.
Starwing Paradox is an arcade game developed and published by Square Enix, and animated by Sunrise Studios, the studio that animated Gundam. In Starwing Paradox two teams of eight players pilot a mech and fight for control of the playing field. The objective of the game is to destroy the other teams core, which is protected by a barrier that can only be removed by taking three of the five ports on the map. Players can customize their mechs with swords, guns, and other assorted equipment. The game utilizes gacha mechanics, in which players pay money to buy a specific item that allows them to roll in order to acquire a virtual reward with the possibility of acquiring a rare character, or piece of equipment, similar to loot box mechanics.
The death threat allegedly came from an unnamed man who threatened to repeat the attack that occurred on Kyoto Animation which was allegedly burned down by a man named Shinji Aoba. A man was arrested earlier in August for threatening to reenact that horrible tragedy with Square Enix. According to IGN, one of the reasons that the suspect gave for the death threats was because they had an issue with the Gacha mechanic of the game. Little more is known about the situation at this moment, however, more will be known when new information is released.