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Pokemon fan game 8 years in the making shut down by Nintendo

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saxgeek
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09 Jan 2017, 5:35 pm

Pokemon Prism, which was scheduled for a release this past Christmas, received a Cease & Desist letter from Nintendo four days before the game's release. This was a hack based on Pokemon Crystal, which takes place in the Naljo region, uses Pokemon from Gen 1 through 6, and has new mechanics such as character customization and areas only accessible by Pokemon. This is the latest of many fan projects to be shut down by Nintendo. Others include Pokemon Uranium, Project-M, Ocarina of Time 2D, and Super Mario Bros. X.



EclecticWarrior
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09 Jan 2017, 9:08 pm

All the fangames were legal because they weren't distributed for profit AND they were years in the making. This is a horrible slap in the face to the creators. I hope Nintendo get the pants sued off of them over this.


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Meistersinger
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09 Jan 2017, 9:17 pm

EclecticWarrior wrote:
All the fangames were legal because they weren't distributed for profit AND they were years in the making. This is a horrible slap in the face to the creators. I hope Nintendo get the pants sued off of them over this.


Don't count on it. Even if they were fansites, Nintendo still owns the intellectual property rights to Pokémon and are in their legal right to close down any and all properties that infringe on their intellectual property, where they are making a lot of profit.



saxgeek
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09 Jan 2017, 10:00 pm

Meistersinger wrote:
EclecticWarrior wrote:
All the fangames were legal because they weren't distributed for profit AND they were years in the making. This is a horrible slap in the face to the creators. I hope Nintendo get the pants sued off of them over this.


Don't count on it. Even if they were fansites, Nintendo still owns the intellectual property rights to Pokémon and are in their legal right to close down any and all properties that infringe on their intellectual property, where they are making a lot of profit.


Exactly. Any fan-made game that uses the Pokemon intellectual property without permission is actually infringing on Nintendo's rights, and Nintendo can shut those projects down at any time. If someone refuses to comply with the cease and desist notice, Nintendo can sue them for a lot of money. There are plenty of fan-made games out there that have not been shut down, so I guess Nintendo doesn't really bother doing it unless it gets in their way. I think Nintendo took action here because Prism had a lot of hype behind it, including an official trailer, so its popularity had the potential to take away from Sun and Moon sales. It is still a bit of a dick move though, because the creators of Prism put lots of time and effort into it only to have their project shut down days before the release. However, there is a leaked copy from December 19th circulating around along with the source code, so people will still play it despite the takedown.



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09 Jan 2017, 10:18 pm

I'll be honest, I have absolutely zero sympathy for these developers.

What in the bloody hell did they THINK was going to happen? I mean, really?

A copyright is a copyright. It's okay to make a game that's INSPIRED by a certain IP. It's NOT okay to make a game that is directly pulled from that IP. That these people spent multiple years on something that they should have KNOWN broke this rule is beyond dumb.

Normally I have alot of sympathy for developers in general. But not in this case. If they want to make a game that's LIKE Pokemon, but entirely filled with their own unique characters and creatures and under a different name? Nintendo would take no action at all. But no, instead they just directly copy Pokemon and use characters from an IP that they do not own. That's not okay. Not one bit. That's not tolerated in this or any other industry... period.

And they had ALOT of time to figure this out. And they didnt. Smart. Real freaking smart. They absolutely should have known better.


I guarantee you, nobody is going to sue Nintendo over this. That'd be... more than a bit dumb. You cant sue a company for genuine defense of their copyright.



whatamievendoing
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10 Jan 2017, 4:53 am

saxgeek wrote:
I think Nintendo took action here because Prism had a lot of hype behind it, including an official trailer, so its popularity had the potential to take away from Sun and Moon sales.


Surprisingly enough, that makes sense. That doesn't fit into the scenario with AM2R, though. I mean it's been pretty long since we've seen a proper Metroid game, and Federation Force was a bit of a flop to begin with. Then again, Metroid is Nintendo's IP, but still, what reason did they have to shut that one down if they never even intend to bring Metroid back to its former glory?


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10 Jan 2017, 6:17 am

You don't necessarily have to not try and make something like this, but if you are going to do something like this, you need a backup plan. So if the developer drops the copyright hammer, you can change the game enough to get it out from under that hammer while keeping the base game more or less intact, rather than just seeing all your work get flushed down the toilet in an instant.



saxgeek
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10 Jan 2017, 12:46 pm

Drake wrote:
You don't necessarily have to not try and make something like this, but if you are going to do something like this, you need a backup plan. So if the developer drops the copyright hammer, you can change the game enough to get it out from under that hammer while keeping the base game more or less intact, rather than just seeing all your work get flushed down the toilet in an instant.

I think most of them are aware that they are violating copyright, and that their project may be shut down at any time. Despite Nintendo's best efforts, they can never really kill any project like this. The most they can do is halt its development. There is a version of Pokemon Prism circulating on the internet which is from December 19, and is basically just what the official release would've been, and many people will still download it and play it, and enjoy the work of the developers. As most of us know, it's basically impossible to completely remove something from the internet. People will keep sharing it and re-uploading it..



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10 Jan 2017, 11:24 pm

Misery wrote:
I'll be honest, I have absolutely zero sympathy for these developers.

What in the bloody hell did they THINK was going to happen? I mean, really?

A copyright is a copyright. It's okay to make a game that's INSPIRED by a certain IP. It's NOT okay to make a game that is directly pulled from that IP. That these people spent multiple years on something that they should have KNOWN broke this rule is beyond dumb.

Normally I have alot of sympathy for developers in general. But not in this case. If they want to make a game that's LIKE Pokemon, but entirely filled with their own unique characters and creatures and under a different name? Nintendo would take no action at all. But no, instead they just directly copy Pokemon and use characters from an IP that they do not own. That's not okay. Not one bit. That's not tolerated in this or any other industry... period.

And they had ALOT of time to figure this out. And they didnt. Smart. Real freaking smart. They absolutely should have known better.


I guarantee you, nobody is going to sue Nintendo over this. That'd be... more than a bit dumb. You cant sue a company for genuine defense of their copyright.


Ever hear of fanfiction?


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11 Jan 2017, 12:58 am

Boxman108 wrote:
Misery wrote:
I'll be honest, I have absolutely zero sympathy for these developers.

What in the bloody hell did they THINK was going to happen? I mean, really?

A copyright is a copyright. It's okay to make a game that's INSPIRED by a certain IP. It's NOT okay to make a game that is directly pulled from that IP. That these people spent multiple years on something that they should have KNOWN broke this rule is beyond dumb.

Normally I have alot of sympathy for developers in general. But not in this case. If they want to make a game that's LIKE Pokemon, but entirely filled with their own unique characters and creatures and under a different name? Nintendo would take no action at all. But no, instead they just directly copy Pokemon and use characters from an IP that they do not own. That's not okay. Not one bit. That's not tolerated in this or any other industry... period.

And they had ALOT of time to figure this out. And they didnt. Smart. Real freaking smart. They absolutely should have known better.


I guarantee you, nobody is going to sue Nintendo over this. That'd be... more than a bit dumb. You cant sue a company for genuine defense of their copyright.


Ever hear of fanfiction?


Fanfiction A: isnt a product of the same type (a game), and therefore B: doesnt potentially interfere with sales, and also C: isnt a direct copy of ANYTHING. At all. They dont defend their copyright against fanfiction.... because there's nothing to defend against. Fanfiction is just random writing. What would a game developer have to fear from that?

You might as well put a boxer in a ring, and instead of expecting him to block punches, he is expected to block a small unassuming squirrel 30 feet away. It's not a threat, it has nothing to do with the context at hand, it's not even going to move towards him, and it doesnt make sense.

But a GAME that's a copy of what Nintendo made? Yep. THAT is copyright infringement. I'm sorry, but this is just how it works.

And they should have known better.