For Nintendo fans, a new Nintendo Direct announcement is cause for great excitement and anticipation as Nintendo prepares to reveal updates on announced and unannounced upcoming titles. However, it appears one student went a little overboard with their energy. According to California State University Fullerton Police Chief Scot Willey, the department was forced to respond to a vaguely-threatening email reported by a professor Tuesday night, February 8.
The email was sent by an unnamed individual believed to be a CSUF student. The message implored the professor to cancel class the following day “for the good of humanity,” and referenced a “once in a lifetime event” that would occur. The email was treated as a potential threat, and “after hours of investigation” campus detectives discovered that the date and time given in the email perfectly matched the date of today’s Nintendo Direct.
Later on, the student sent a follow-up email admitting to their professor that they had made a bad joke regarding the Nintendo Direct. With this confirmation, the campus police loosened their evaluation of the potential danger, although Willey still noted the campus would have increased security for the sake of caution:
Out of an abundance of caution, additional officers will be on campus tomorrow, student Community Service Officers and Community Service Specialists will be highly visible, and our K9 team will walk the campus and buildings.
It appears that based on the evidence and statement, the email was just a poorly-worded joke made by a student upset that they would have to go to class instead of reacting to the latest Nintendo news. Today’s Nintendo Direct will be approximately 40 minutes long, and will air at 2 pm PST/5 pm EST on Nintendo’s official YouTube and Twitch channels. The Direct will likely share new information on numerous upcoming Nintendo titles, including the highly-anticipated Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.